Red Sea and India Telegraph Co

of Moorgate St, London

1854 Lionel Gisborne proposed a submarine telegraph to India. As a first step he made arrangements with the Ottoman Government for laying a submarine line between the Dardanelles and Alexandria. The cable was successfully laid, as far as the Island of Candia, in December 1858, but did not reach Alexandria.

1855 Gisborne sent his brother, Francis Gisborne, to complete the arrangements with the Ottoman and the Egyptian Governments for completing a line to India. The necessary powers for constructing the line across Egypt, and for establishing stations on the coasts of the Red Sea, were reserved to the company giving it complete control over the line of communication. The Red Sea and India Telegraph Company was formed and Lionel Gisborne was appointed their Engineer.

1858 Capital was raised for a line from Alexandria to India Messrs. Gisborne and Forde were engineers.

The cable was laid in 1859 and 1860 from Suez to Aden, and thence to Kurrachee, a distance of more than 3000 nautical miles, in six sections. The Suez-Aden line, of 1,360 miles, worked well for nine months without requiring repairs; the other portions of the line failed within a short time of their submersion but the Company was not willing to repair them.

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