Telegraph Island
Telegraph Island
Telegraph Island (also known as Jazirat al Maqlab) is situated off the northern coast of Oman. It is at the land end of Fjord Khor ash Sham, on the Musandam Peninsula in the Strait of Hormuz. It was used by the British to relay the first telegraphic messages from Karachi to London in 1865. It was not the best posting you could have in 1865, the British soldiers who worked on the island used to lose their sanity at a much higher rate than normal -. most people driven mad by the loneliness of the posting. This is where it is believed the saying "to go around the bend" came from, as there is a bend in the fjord where this island is located
Jazirat al Maqlab is situated in the Elphinstone Inlet, about a mile offshore. The British telegraphic cable crew of the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company - now part of Cable & Wireless Worldwide - lived on the island rather than the mainland. This made it easier to defend the installation against hostiles.
References
External links
History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications [1]