The Commercial Cable Company was founded in New York in 1884 by

John William Mackay John William Mackay (November 28, 1831 – July 20, 1902) was an Irish-American industrialist. Mackay was one of the four Bonanza Kings, a partnership which capitalised on the wealth generated by the silver mines at the Comstock Lode. He al ...

and James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Their motivation was to break the then virtual

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices (particularly for Bennett's newspaper empire). Their most famous ship was the

CS Mackay-Bennett Cable Ship (CS) ''Mackay-Bennett'' was a transatlantic cable-laying and cable-repair ship registered at Lloyds of London, as a Glasgow vessel, but owned by the American Commercial Cable Company. It is notable for being the ship that recovered t ...

, named after the founders. The technology was well established by this time, and they were able to lay cables from Waterville in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Canso, Nova Scotia Canso is a community in Guysborough County, on the north-eastern tip of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada, next to Chedabucto Bay. In January 2012, it ceased to be a separate town and as of July 2012 was amalgamated into the Municipality of the Di ...

, without the major technical problems of the first Transatlantic telegraph cable. Onward connections to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and beyond were initially overland and later submarine. Connections from Waterville to

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

in England and

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

in France were soon established by the submarine route after initial use of landlines from Waterville onward to mainland Britain. Commercial Cable also had a relationship with the German Atlantic submarine cable system.

Domestically the cable distributed its cable traffic through its partner firm the

Postal Telegraph Company Postal Telegraph Company (Postal Telegraph & Cable Corporation) was a major operator of telegraph networks in the United States prior to its consolidation with Western Union in 1943.Nonnenmacher, TomasHistory of the U.S. Telegraph Industry/ref> Po ...

. It had a twenty-five percent share ownership in the

Commercial Pacific Cable Company Commercial Pacific Cable Company was founded in 1901, and ceased operations in October 1951. It provided the first direct telegraph route from America to the Philippines, China, and Japan. The company was established as a joint venture of three c ...

that operated a cable from San Francisco to Manila and Shanghai after 1906. Together these companies were all part of the Mackay Companies, also known as the Associated Companies. John Mackay's son,

Clarence Mackay Clarence Hungerford Mackay (; April 17, 1874 – November 12, 1938) was an American financier. He was chairman of the board of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Corporation and president of the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company. Early life He ...

, took over the firm by the early 20th century and led it during World War I. Clarence Mackay and

Frank Polk Frank Lyon Polk (September 13, 1871 – February 7, 1943) was an American lawyer and diplomat, who was also a name partner of the law firm today known as Davis Polk & Wardwell. Early life Polk was born in New York City. He was the son of W ...

, a senior State Department official, were friends and this enabled the State Department to have access to selected diplomatic traffic carried over Commercial's cables. The company flourished for a time but in 1928, together with other elements of the Mackay System, came under the control of

International Telephone and Telegraph ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesse ...

(ITT) under a wholly owned subsidiary, the Postal Telegraph & Cable Corporation. This would be reorganized in 1935, with Commercial Cable becoming part of the

American Cable and Radio Corporation American Cable and Radio Corporation was a communications holding company in the middle 20th century. Created in February 1940, it was a part of ITT World Communications, and operated what was known as the American Cable and Radio System, comprisi ...

. The undersea cables remained in use carrying telegraph traffic until 1962. In 1998, cables were briefly visible going out to sea at Waterville and are probably still there.

Buildings

The Commercial Cable Company Building was one of

early skyscrapers The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significan ...

. Constructed in 1897, it was demolished in 1954. A two and a half story Neo-Classical brick and granite building in

Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia Hazel Hill is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County. Engineers and skilled workers were brought from England and a planned white-collar community was ...

built in 1888 was the last trans-Atlantic station remaining. Despite the historic significance — the station helped send cables on the sinking of the

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

and at the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

) — it was torn down in 2017 due to safety concerns around its state of disrepair. There are plans to build a space port in the area.

References

External links

The Commercial Cable Company

Mackay History

Atlantic Cable
Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia * Winkler, Jonathan Ree

Account of Commercial Cable and other cable companies coping with war-related problems. {{Authority control Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States History of the Atlantic Ocean American companies established in 1884 ITT Inc. Telecommunications companies established in 1884 Technology companies disestablished in 1928 1884 establishments in New York (state) 1928 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies disestablished in 1928