Old cable station was a digital trailblazer
Most people do not realise the digital age started more than 150 years ago, a local history expert says.
About 20 people attended a talk at the former cable station at Whites Bay, about 30 kilometres from Blenheim, to mark its 150th anniversary.
The cable station was in use from 1866 until the end of World War II, with seven telegraph cables operating at different times. Initially one copper cable spanned Cook Strait, connecting Whites Bay to Lyall Bay, in Wellington.
Marlborough Historical Society past-president Dale Webb said on Sunday it would have been difficult laying the first cable across Cook Strait because of the strong currents. Beaches had to be chosen at both ends of the line which were sandy and calm, as rocky beaches and rough surf could lead to the cable being damaged.
Once messages reached the station in Wellington they could be relayed to other parts of the North Island. ’’The actual speed the signal travelled under the ocean is the speed of light.’’
A 30-word message could usually be decrypted by operators in about a minute. Webb said many people thought the digital age came in with computers, but the meaning of digital communication was something that could be switched on and off, covering the telegraph system.
For a long time the telegraph was the fastest means of communication within New Zealand, but it was expensive.
‘‘I think the good old-fashioned snail mail would have been [more] popular.’’
The cable station, where up to 11 people were employed, fell into disuse after 1945 when the telegraph was ‘‘superseded by other technology’’, Webb said.
Society researcher Jenny Pierson said she thought the cable station had survived because it fell off the ship and into the water as it was being unloaded, and the saltwater preserved it. Whites Bay had never been an official settlement, but a number of workers lived there while the station was in operation.