Robert Halpin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner, (born February 16, 1836 in Wicklow, Ireland), was the son of James and Anne Halpin (nee Halbert) and captained the Brunel-designed leviathan SS Great Eastern which laid transoceanic telegraph cables in the late 1800s. He was Ireland's greatest mariner and arguably the most important in 19th century world maritime history.
Halpin left home at age 11 to become a seafarer. As such, he led an adventurous life. In 1851 Halpin survived the wreck of the brig Briton while many of his shipmates were lost - indeed he had lost both parents, was shipwrecked and travelled over 26,000 nautical miles back and forth across the Atlantic (equivalent to a circumnavigation) all before his 15th birthday. At age 22, he was appointed master of the Propellor and later of Circassian, both steamships. Two years later, while commanding S.S. Argo, it hit an iceberg and sank. In 1860, Halpin ferried two troop ships to South America for Spain. During the American Civil War, he was a blockade-runner, re-supplying the Confederacy, and in 1864 Union forces captured and released him, after the Battle of Mobile.
The Great Eastern, by far the largest ship in the world, was converted from passenger liner to cable-layer. Halpin was first officer on her when one of the first transAtlantic telegraph cables was laid in 1865. Later, as captain, Halpin laid an estimated 26,000 miles of cable (more than enough to circle the globe). The cable routes included the French Transatlantic Cable from Brest to St. Pierre-Miquelon in 1866 (under the patronage of Julius Reuters), the 1869 Bombay-Aden-Suez cable, and the Australia-New Zealand-East Indies, Madras-Singapore-Penang, and Madeira-Brazil. For Halpin's services, Brazilian Emperor Pedro II made him Knight of the Order of the Rose. He was also awarded the Legion d'Honeur. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His circle included Admiral Sherard Osborn, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ferdnand de Lesseps, and Edmund Dickens.
Returning to Wicklow c.1875 after a brief residence near London, Halpin became chairman of the Wicklow Gas Company, Wicklow Harbour Master and Secretary of Wicklow Harbour Commissioners. He also ran for political office in July 1892 but was unsuccessful. On 20 January 1894, Robert Halpin died at age 58 of gangrene resulting from a minor cut. A granite obelisk erected in 1897 in the centre of Wicklow town commemorates his life and career. He was married to Jessica Munn of Heart's Content, Newfoundland. They had three daughters. The family is buried at the Wicklow Parish Church where a single Celtic Cross headstone marks the grave.
