Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner, born 16 February 1836 at the Bridge Tavern Wicklow, Ireland – 20 January 1894 and died at Tinakilly, Wicklow. He captained the Brunel-designed leviathan SS Great Eastern which laid transoceanic telegraph cables in the late 19th century. He was, arguably, one of the most important mariners in the 19th century. He helped make the world a global village by connecting empires and continents via submarine telegraph cables - in effect constructing the Victorian age communication network.
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He was the son of James and Anne Halpin (née Halbert), the youngest of 13 children. His father, James, was the proprietor of a small tavern (built 1702) and the family were reasonably well off. From an early age Robert showed a fondness for the sea. He received his early education at a private school nearby at Leitrim Place, possibly that of Ellen White, The Murrough, recorded by Slaters Directory, 1846. Halpin appears to have shown little interest in formal education and with his imagination fuelled by tales of faraway lands recounted by mariners in his fathers tavern, he left home at age 10 to become a seafarer.
He joined the brig Briton that was engaged in the Cumberland coal trade and was shipwrecked off Bude, Cornwall in 1851 with many lives lost but Halpin managed to reach the shore.
He joined the crew of the 388 ton barque Henry Tanner, later that same year. The Henry Tanner plied the Britain - Australia run and Halpin's first voyage to Australia coincided with the Australian Gold Rush of 1852. Over half the crew jumped ship to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. Unable to muster a crew the Henry Tanner was forced to remain in port until the enthusiasm of these same prospectors wore thin and they returned to their posts.
Halpin then joined the ship Boomerang as a third mate. The Boomerang worked on the Liverpool to Melbourne to Kio (Ecuador) route, returning with cargo of "guano", bird-droppings used as fertiliser.
Halpin was promoted to second mate of the Salem, a wool clipper on the Australia run before he transferred over from sail to steam ships. Halpin believed steam was the future of shipping and became first officer in the Khersonese.
At 22 years of age, he was given command of the S.S.Propellor, later joining the Circassian both steamships belonging to the Atlantic Royal Company. In 1858 Robert became involved in new sea route that had started from Galway, Ireland to St. Johns Newfoundland, giving a quicker, shorter Atlantic crossing. Emigration from Europe to North America was the new large shipping trade and operated from major ports such as Liverpool, Hamburg and Galway. By 1859 the Galway line was prospering and the popular S.S.Argo was commanded by Robert Halpin, then aged 24. Disaster struck in August 1859 while in thick fog at the Newfoundland fishing banks when the Argo struck an iceberg and sank. At subsequent enquiry, Halpin lost his masters ticket. Despite this setback in 1860 the Spanish Government commissioned him to deliver two troop ships, the Isla de Cuba and the Isla de Puerto Rica, to South America.
At the break out of the American Civil War, Halpin ran the Yankee blockades bringing supplies to the Confederate States and returning with cotton to Europe. In 1864 he was forced to run his ship aground to evade capture but was then detained by the Northern Union forces. The case against him was unproven and he was released after the Battle of Mobile Bay. . .
It was then Halpin began his association with the steam ship the Great Eastern. In his book "The Great Iron Ship", author James Dugan states, "the first and in some ways the most interesing of the ocean liners was the Great Eastern, brainchild of the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel."
The following extract is taken from biographical notes on William Thomson, Lord Kelvin:
"Thomson was actually aboard the Great Eastern, the ship which laid the cable. The first officer and key navigator was another Irishman, Robert Halpin from Wicklow Town. Halpin was soon appointed captain of the ship, and went on to earn further distinction for cable laying, earning the nickname "Mr Cable"."[1]
Launched at the Isle of Dogs, Kent, 31 January 1858, she was 693 feet in length (over 200 metres) 22,500 tons dead weight and had passenger accommodation for over 3000 passengers. Five times larger than any other ship then built, she had six masts named Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc..., five funnels, 6500 yards of sail, two 58 ft paddle wheels, a 24 ft screw (which remains the biggest ever built) and a coal carrying capacity of 15000 tons.
The Great Eastern had a career dogged by misfortune. The Great Eastern was made ready for her maiden voyage to the United States. She was designed for the longer Britain to Australia run and proved uneconomical on the shorter Atlantic routes. She left Southampton, 16 June 1860, with 418 crew but only 35 paying passengers including one carrying an English fighting cock and three hens in wicker cages for a chicken fighter in California. On 28 June the ship docked successfully completing her maiden voyage. Never filled to capacity and losing money, the vessel was sold from company to company and in 1867 was chartered by a French syndicate to bring American visitors to the Paris World Exhibition. She attracted only 191 passengers including Jules Verne who later wrote a book about her called "A Floating City".
Before the 1860s there was great interest in Telegraphy and the linking of Europe to America by telegraphic cable. The first successful cable was laid in August 1858. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom exchanged congratulations briefly with the American President James Buchanan. This first success proved the telegraph could be done underwater but this also didn't last but a week only because a workman applied too much voltage through the cable and "fried" it.
Pioneered by Cyrus Field, mainland Europe had been connected by telegraphy as had Europe to Britain and Britain to Ireland. A company was formed that converted the Great Eastern into a cable layer and Halpin was given the post of First Engineer. Their task was to lay a submarine transatlantic telegraph cable from Valentia Island, County Kerry to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia. The cable, 2600 miles long was stored in the ship's tanks and weighed 6000 tons.
1,862 miles from Valentia, the cable broke and the "Great Eastern" returned to Europe. In 1866 with Robert at the helm the ship returned to the exact spot, recovered and repaired the broken cable. In July that year, the "Great Eastern" arrived at Hearts Content, Newfoundland and completed the connection between the continents which has never been interrupted since.
Later, as captain, Halpin laid an estimated 26,000 miles (41,800 km) 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, elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His circle included Lord Kelvin, who had been aboard the Great Eastern as chief engineer overseeing the cable laying, Admiral Sherard Osborn, who proposed him for Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society, the American hydrographer Matthew Fontaine Maury, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and Edmund Dickens, nephew of Charles Dickens amongst other notables of the day.
On 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 built a family home at Tinakilly, now a hotel, two miles north of Wicklow. He was Secretary of the Wicklow Harbour Commissioners in 1880 when the East Breakwater was built - arguably the most important built structure in the small maritime port's history. He ran for political office unsuccessfully as a Unionist in July 1892.
On 20 January 1894, Robert Halpin died at age 58 of gangrene resulting from a minor cut after trimming his toe nails and accidentally cutting into the skin. 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, Ethel, Belle and Edith. The last daughter, Belle, died in 1952. The family is buried at the Wicklow Parish Church with a Celtic Cross headstone marking the grave. Many artifacts from his life were donated by his daughters to the Maritime Institute of Ireland. There is a display in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dún Laoghaire.
Jimmy Cleary and Andrew O'Brien, Wicklow Harbour - A History (Wicklow, 2001).