Telegraph cable laying winch. This shipboard winch was used to unroll a telegraph cable as it was laid on the seabed. Laying such cables required ships powerful enough to maintain position in the ocean while reeling out the cable behind them. Initial attempts at laying telegraph cables across the English Channel were made in 1847 and 1850, before a successful attempt in 1851. The first trans-Atlantic cables were laid in the 1850s and 1860s, with others laid worldwide over the following decades. Photograph published in 'La Telegraphie Sans Fil' (Wireless Telegraphy, 1914), by the French geophysicist Alphonse Berget (1860-1934).