Widgeon, 1837 Type: Packet ; Launched : 12 Sep 1837 ;
Disposal date or year : 1883 BM: 164 tons ; Displacement: 200 tons Propulsion: Paddle Machinery notes: 90 Notes:
24 Aug 1840, Woolwich, takes the King and Queen of the Belgians to Ostend.
4 Feb 1841 departed Dover for Ostend to bring back the King of the Belgians to Ramsgate.
9 Jul 1841 arrived Woolwich from Dover to take the King and Queen of the Belgians to Ostend in a day or so.
15 Jul 1841 arrived at Ostend with the King of the Belgiums.
21 Jul 1841 passed up the River, from Ostend, to Woolwich.
2 Oct 1841 is fitting out at Woolwich.
28 Oct 1841 left Woolwich for Dover.
20 Dec 1848, at Dover.
1850, employed on survey duties.
August 1850 Marked the route for the Goliath to lay the first Dover to Calais Submarine Cable. Cable laid.
Sep. 1850 Cable was found to be damaged on rocks near Cap Grinez.
19 Sep 1850 In order to watch what was described at the time as the "Great Explosion," in addition to train loads of spectators, numerous pleasure boats and vessels were in (Seaford) bay, HM war-steamer Widgeon, Captain Bullock commander, was crowded with spectators." (ILN 28 Sep 1850 - with thanks to Kevin)
21 Dec 1850 Laying of he Submarine Telegraph between Dover and Calais - see below
1860 Woolwich
1870 Tender to Nankin at Pembroke Dock
21 Dec 1850 The Submarine Telegraph between Dover and Calais.-
The long-promised experimental operations for establishing a continuous telegraphic communication between Great Britain and the Continent, by means of wires sunk between Dover and Calais, were commenced on Tuesday at Dover. At one o'clock the steamer Goliath was ready to start across with all the necessary apparatus on board, and a crew of about thirty men, consisting of pilots and sailors superintended by Dr. Reid, of the House of Commons ; Mr. C. Wollaston, C.E. ; Mr. J. Crampton, C.E. ; Mr. F. Edwards and others. Between the paddle wheels, in the centre of the vessel, was a gigantic drum or wheel, nearly fifteen feet long and 7 .feet diameter, weighing. seven tons, and fixed on a strong framework. Upon it was coiled up in careful close convolutions about thirty miles of telegraphic wire, one-tenth of an inch in diameter, encased in a covering of gutta percha the thickness of a little finger. The point proposed; to be reached, Cape Grinez, the nearest landmark to the English coast and between Calais and Boulogne, is a distance of 21 miles, so that a surplus of nine miles of wire was held in reserve for the purpose of slackening. Captain Bullock, of Her Majesty's steamship Widgeon, caused the track of the navigation to be marked in as direct a route as possible by placing a series of pilot buoys with flags on the route, beside being prepared to accompany, the experimental cruise with his own vessel as a tender. The connecting wires were placed in readiness at the Government pier in the harbour, and likewise at the Cape, where they ran up the face of the acclivity, which is 194 feet above the sea-mark. The necessary batteries and manipulators were all onboard, but as a gale and rolling sea unexpectedly sprung up, the operation was adjourned until Wednesday morning. Some interesting experiments, however, were made upon a small scale to show the practicability of the plan. A mile of wire was paid out off the deck from the pier to Shakespear's Cliff, and the sinking process was proved to be a practicable performance. A communication to the following effect was also sent through twenty-four miles of wire: "Printed by electric telegraph on board the Goliath steamboat." On Wednesday morning, at half-past ten, the experiment of sinking submarinely was practically commenced.
The Goliath rode out to the Government Pier, with her telegraphic tackle and apparatus on board under a calm sea and sky and a favouring wind. The connection between the thirty miles of telegraphic wire was then made good to 300 yards of the same wire enclosed in a leaden tube on shore, to prevent it being bruised by the shingle on the beach, and to enable the experimenters, as they proceeded out to sea, to send communications on shore. The vessel being fairly under weigh, steamed out at the rate of three or four miles an hour into the open sea in a direct track for Cape Grinez. The wire weighed five tons and the cylinder two.
The operation of paying out the thirty miles of wire commenced on a signal to the sailors to " Go ahead with the wheel, and pay out the wire," which was continuously streamed out over a roller at the stern of the vessel, the men at every sixteenth of a mile being busily engaged in rivetting on to the wire square leaden clamps or weights of iron 14 lbs. to 24 lbs. and which had the effect of sinking the wire in the bottom of the sea, which, on the English coast, commences at a depth of 30 feet, and goes on varying from that to 100 and 180 feet, which latter, or thirty fathoms, is anywhere the greatest depth. The whole of the casting out and sinking was accomplished with great precision and success, owing to the favourable state of the day. Various interesting salutations were kept up hourly during the process of submerging the wire between the gentlemen on board and Messrs. J. and J. W. Brett, the original promoters of the enterprise.
The only conjectured difficulty on the route was at a point in mid-channel called the Ridge, between which and another inequality called the Varne, both well known and dreaded by navigators, there is a deep submarine valley, surrounded by shifting sands, the one being seventeen miles in length and the other twelve, and in their vortex, not unlike the voracious one of the Goodwin Sands, ships encounter danger, lose their anchors, and drift and trolling nets of fishermen are frequently lost. Over this, however, the wire was successfully submerged below the reach, it is believed, of either ships' anchors, sea-animals, or fishing nets. The remainder of the route, though rougher on approaching the coast of France, was accomplished cleverly but slowly. A communication, dated Cape Grinez, coast of France, half-past eight p.m. and received at Dover by submarine telegraph, was as follows:- " The Goliath has just arrived in safety, and the complete connection of the underwater wire with that left at Dover this morning is being run up the face of the cliff:" Complimentary interchanges were passed between France and England. under the strait and through it for the first time.