Canso & Hazel Hill

Detailed below are questions and answers to some of the more common questions you may have about this project. If you have a question we don't answer, please get in touch with us. We have detailed a number of ways to do this in the credits and project team sections of this site.

1. Where in Nova Scotia is Canso and Hazel Hill?

With the exception of a small piece of Labrador, Canso is the farthest point East on the mainland of North America. Hazel Hill is a small community about 2 miles from Canso. To get to Canso from Halifax, Nova Scotia you have two choices. You can take Highway 102 to Truro then Highway 104 towards Cape Breton turning off at Exit 37 and taking Route 16 on to Canso, a three and a half hour drive. Your other option is to take the Marine Drive along the Eastern Shore, a scenic five hour drive.

2. Why did the cable companies stop laying cable in Newfoundland and start laying them in Nova Scotia?

The charter granted to The New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company in 1856, by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, gave this company exclusive cable landing rights for a period of 50 years.

3. Why were Canso and Hazel Hill chosen as landing sites for the Transatlantic Cables?

The Canso area was chosen as the landing site for the Transatlantic Cables because of its unique geographic location in relation to Ireland and New York.

4. How long were the cables?....How heavy were they?

In 1866, the first successful cable between Heart's Content, Newfoundland to Valentia, Ireland weighed 3,175 lbs. per mile and the shore end of the cable weighed 40,000 lbs. per mile with the tensile strength of 16,500 pounds. In 1957, Commercial Cable was operating with about nine thousand miles of cable.

5. How many Transatlantic Cables were operating by the year 1900?

By the year 1900 there were 19 Transatlantic Cables in operation, scattered quite widely along the Atlantic seaboard. More of these cables landed in the immediate vicinity of Canso than at any other single point on this seaboard.

6. What was the remarkable international aspect in the development of the Transatlantic Cable? Who was involved ?

The cables were made by the Germans. The Americans first conceived the idea of linking the hemispheres and American money was used to finance the companies. The English did all the work of laying the cables, provided the ships which were necessary for this great undertaking, and almost without exception operated every cable that was laid. Almost all the cable operators were persons who had been rigidly trained in England. Because of the easterly location of NS, many Maritimers and other Canadians were involved in the everyday workings of the industry of the time.

7. Were there any other important communication sites in the area?

The Direct United States Cable Company explored the east coast of Nova Scotia for a desirable place to land a cable. Because of its scarcity of reefs and the vicinity being free from anchorage, Torbay, approximately 30 miles from Canso, was selected. In 1874, the first cable was laid and the little cable station of Faraday in Torbay placed Guysborough County on the cable maps of the world. Also of interest were the advancements being made in wireless communication. There are various links in this project that will give you more information on Marconi.

8. Who were the following people and what role did they play in the cable story?

• Samuel Finley Morse - (1791-1872) developed the first successful electric telegraph in the United States, and invented the Morse Code, still used occasionally to send telegrams.

• Cyrus West Field - (1819-1892) masterminded the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. The first successful cable was laid in 1858 and unfortunately only worked for four weeks. In 1865, Field made another attempt and in 1866 he succeeded in establishing a permanent Transatlantic Cable link between Ireland and Newfoundland.

  Bold Cyrus Field, he says, says he, I have a pretty notion, That I can run a telegraph Across the Atlantic Ocean.

• John W. MacKay and James Gordon Bennett - John W. MacKay was an entrepreneur who invested one million dollars into the Postal Telegraph stock. Soon after his investment he was made president of the company and he became interested in cables. He convinced a New York newspaper baron by the name of J. Gordon Bennett into forming a partnership with him. In two months this partnership became the Commercial Cable Company.

• Charles Bellamy - was a superintendent of Commercial Cable Company, Hazel Hill, from 1926 to 1932. A superintendent's report by Mr. Bellamy is included in this web site.

• S.S. Dickenson - was the first superintendent of the Commercial Cable Company, Hazel Hill, from 1884 to 1904. Mr. Dickenson is referred to as the mastermind who planned and layed out the station from its beginning.

• C.B. Dunham - of St. John, New Brunswick, was the first superintendent of the Western Union Cable Company, Canso, from 1881 to 1910.

• Charles Holness - was the last superintendent of the Commercial Cable Company, Hazel Hill, from 1956 to 1962. Mr. Holness had the unpleasant task of sending out the last message across the wires and then shutting down one of the most important International Communications Centres in North America, the Commercial Cable Station at Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia.

• William Windler - worked for Commercial Cable Company from 1911 to 1961. Mr. Windler was one of the technicians on duty when one of the most important messages came across the wires (The Titanic had struck an iceberg and was in danger of sinking).

• Frederick G. Creed - (1871-1957) was born in Mill Village, Queens County, Nova Scotia. When he was seven years old he moved to Canso, Nova Scotia, with his family, where his father worked for A.N. Whitman & Son Ltd. At the early age of fourteen years he began working for Western Union Cable Company in Canso. F.G. Creed invented the "High Speed Automatic Printing Telegraph System" (more commonly known as the Teletype) which was used in every cable office in the world. A more indepth description of Creed and his invention is included in this web site.

9. What were some of the important messages received at the Cable Stations in Canso and Hazel Hill?

All the important news events around the world passed through these cable stations. Major events such as World Wars, the Titanic sinking and Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic are but just a few examples.

10. What clearly indicated the global importance of the Cable Stations at Canso and Hazel Hill?

The Cable Stations at Canso and Hazel Hill were the communications links between two continents. At the outset of both World Wars soldiers were immediately dispatched to Canso to protect the cable links. The soldiers maintained a twenty-four hour surveillance of the cable stations. Censors worked around the clock in the cable offices to ensure that National Security was not sabotaged through International Communication Lines. Pictures of soldiers' tents and a army tank at the cable station in Hazel Hill are included in this web site.

11. Who was the first person in Canso to hear news of the Titanic over the cable?

On April 15, 1912, Mr. William Windeler, an apprentice operator, was on duty at the Commercial Cable Station in Hazel Hill. At about 2:30 AM he heard one of the wires calling. There was an urgent message that the Titanic had struck an iceberg. Included in this web site there is an excerpt from an interview Mr. Windeler gave regarding his experience the night the Titanic sank.

12. How did employees at the Western Union Station in Canso communicate with employees at the Commercial Cable Station in Hazel Hill?

With the two stations at Canso merely two miles apart, some interesting situations arose. Since deadhead communication, not involving the payments of the commercial rates, was permitted, operators in Canso habitually chatted with their friends in London and New York. The London offices of the two cables were in buildings almost adjoining. A Commercial Cable Co. operator in Hazel Hill could give a message to his London friend, which, handed to a messenger, could almost instantly be in the Western Union office and on its way back to Canso. Thus, dinner and fishing and tennis engagements could be and habitually were made between Hazel Hill and Canso, though the messages travelled over three thousand miles each way to arrive at their destinations.

13. What do pigeons have to do with this web site?

One of the early strategies for overcoming distance in communications was the use of Carrier Pigeons. It was thought that pigeons could be taught to carry a message reliably from one place to another. A fairly large scale project was taken on at the Commercial Cable Station in Hazel Hill to train a large group of pigeons to fly messages to and from Sable Island. Sable Island is approximately 100 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia and the pigeons failed miserably. This web site contains a series of letters written by Superintendent Dickenson of the Commercial Cable Company. Be sure to read "...It Would Be A Pity To Kill The Birds".

14. What caused the demise or shutdown of the Transatlantic Cable Stations?

After the completion of the Transatlantic Telephone System, and due to the advances in technology, the Canso Cable Stations became outdated and obsolete. Cable Communications in Canso effectively came to a halt with the telephone call made by Queen Elizabeth II of England to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker of Canada on December 20, 1961, inaugurating the new service.

15. What was the last message sent over the wires at the Commercial Cable Station in Hazel Hill? Who sent it? Where was it sent?

The last Superintendent, Mr. Charles Holness, sent the last message from the station to the Executive Vice-President in New York.

"From the superintendent in Canso to the Executive Vice-President in New York: It is with feelings of sadness that we watch the lights of the Canso Cable Station go out, and realize that a mere effort that blossomed for the greater part of the century is come to an end. Those members of the Canso Staff will be leaving our service today, some of whom have completed nearly fifty years of service, are grateful to you for your kindness and bid farewell, and have asked me to express their earnest hope that the new era now beginning will bring prosperity to the country and happiness to all its employees. My sincere personal regards."

Then Charles Holness pulled the plug and the station darkened.