History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - 1858 Maltese Cross Medal or Brooch

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Memorabilia & Ephemera

1858 Cable Medal or Brooch in the form of a Maltese Cross

Atlantic Telegraph
Agamemnon
Valorous

Fairfield
August 1858

This 1858 cable medal or brooch is inscribed on the front:

Atlantic
Telegraph
Agamemnon
Valorous

and on the back:

Fairfield
August 1858

The medal was found in a collection of jewellery inherited from a 90-year-old lady from Bournemouth. The family had some Naval connections in the 1860s, but no known association with the 1858 cable expedition.

Agamemnon and Valorous were two ships of the British cable fleet in 1858, but the meaning of "Fairfield" on the back of the piece is unknown. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated - please email me below.

—Bill Burns

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Last revised: 18 December, 2009

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: [email protected]

—Bill Burns, publisher and webmaster: Atlantic-Cable.com