Robert Halpin (1836-1894) was the master mariner from Wicklow who connected the world by submarine telegraphic cables. Brazil and Europe were linked for the first time when Halpin as Captain of CS Seine laid an Atlantic cable from Portugal to Recife, Brazil, via Madeira and St. Vincent. On 22 June 1874, he sent the following telegram from Pernambuco: “To His Majesty The Emperor of Brazil. We have the honor to announce that we have this day completed the last section of a complete system of Submarine Cables connecting this Empire with Portugal and Great Britain”. During his career Halpin was responsible for the laying of over 40,000 kilometers of cable. Tinakilly, Halpin’s home in County Wicklow overlooking the Irish sea is now a Country House Hotel.
Hamilton Lindsay-Bucknell arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1873 as part of a committee of telegraph operators and engineers of the Western and Brazilian Telegraphic Company to inaugurate the installation of Halpin’s submarine cable. He was present when Brazil’s Emperor himself went down to the beach where the cable landed, and was later responsible for delivering telegrams to Dom Pedro II in person at the Palácio Imperial (São Cristóvão) in Rio. His book A Search for Fortune, Autobiography of a Younger Son, a Narrative of Travel and Adventure (1878), which was written in Wicklow, describes many of his other activities. One concerned a project presented on his behalf to Brazil’s Emperor in 1876 by a rich coffee producer, the Earl of Nova Friburgo, for the construction of a submarine cable-railway tunnel linking the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi. It was envisaged that an extension of the railway would transport coffee from the countryside to Rio. The project, however, had to be abandoned due to its high cost and complexity.
Peter O’Neill
Curator
Independent Researcher
_____________________________________________________________
Image captions:
Image 1/5: Hamilton Lindsay-Bucknall, author of A Search for Fortune, Autobiography of a Younger Son, a Narrative of Travel and Adventure (1878). Credit: Collection of the National Library Foundation, Brazil.
Image 2/5: Specifications for an underwater railway tunnel connecting Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, drawn up by Hamilton Lindsay-Bucknall for Emperor Dom Pedro II. Credit: Collection of the National Library Foundation, Brazil.
Image 3/5: Specifications for an underwater railway tunnel connecting Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, drawn up by Hamilton Lindsay-Bucknall for Emperor Dom Pedro II. Credit: Collection of the National Library Foundation, Brazil.
Image 4/5: Commemorative stamp issued in memory of Captain Robert Halpin in 2003 by Ireland’s postal service – An Post.
Image 5/5: Telegram addressed to Emperor Dom Pedro II, about the inauguration of submarine telegraphic communication between Brazil and Europe, in 1874. Credit: Collection of the National Library Foundation, Brazil.