(CANADA) Charles B Ellis Broadside to recruit laborers along

Sale 2580 - Lot 69

Price Realized: $ 1,125

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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(CANADA.) Charles B. Ellis. Broadside to recruit laborers along the rugged Newfoundland coast for the first transatlantic cable. Letterpress broadside titled "Important to Labourers," 8 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, signed in type by Ellis as chief engineer; folds, slight loss and mount remnants at corners, inked manuscript correction with slight ink burn. [St. John's, Newfoundland]: J.W. McCoubrey, [1855]

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The massive project to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable was launched in 1854 by the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. With a line already in place from New York to Nova Scotia, the long stretch across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to London was the longest and most technically challenging, and the 65-mile stretch from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland also drew attention. Then there was the matter of laying more than two hundred miles of cable across the southern coast of Newfoundland--rugged and sparsely populated terrain carved by inlets, and even today largely untouched by roads.

This broadside aimed to find a large temporary labor force among the scattered subsistence fishermen of this isolated coast. Agents for the company were eager to sign contracts "with any parties who may be desirous to complete the Bridle Roads and Bridges, get out and distribute Poles and Braces, and distribute Wire." Laborers from the more populated parts of Newfoundland were advised to "establish themselves in Bay de North, and Bay Despear, to Conn River, in Hermitage Bay . . . Cing Cert Bay, La Poile Bay, Guria Bay, Grandy's Passage, and Port-aux-Basques." Roads and bridges were to be completed by 1 January 1856, with poles and braces in place by 10 March. The engineer promised that "there is work enough for four hundred able-bodied men for 6 weeks." No other examples of this ephemeral broadside have been traced.