Diamond Horse

View from Carn Les Boel.
Diamond Horse
View from Carn Les Boel.

In this small cove off Nanjizel is this large rock called Diamond Horse, for reasons I do not know.
It was in this cove that the first cable was taken to the Isles of Scilly in 1870,
the fact that the cable was not continuous was entirely due
to over-zealous accountants trying not to spend too much (what's new?).
The Telegraph Act 1869 set the date by which connections had to be bought by the government.
Considering the profits to be made, all energies were made to secure connections.
So at Zawn Reeth they set to - dragging the cable up the cliff;
SS Fuslier was loaded, to lay the cable from the cliff to the Isles of Scilly.
Having sailed and reached the end of the cable, and not having reached the Isles of Scilly,
the cable was snapped deliberately, by the ship being ordered to make steam and pull hard,
and the unconnected end was drawn to the shores of the island of St Mary's.
They then dragged the cable end to Peninnis head. Onshore, by a bit of electrical fiddling,
they convinced the locals that they had received signals from the mainland.

Raymond Forward