Pacific Cable Station Fiji, Fanning Island, and Vancouver. A branch connected to New Zealand. Since cartographers of the day traditionally coloured member countries of the British Empire in red, the route became known as the All Red Route. Cable laying started in 1902 with two ships, Anglica and Colonia. They began laying cable from Bamfield, Vancouver Island, Canada, to Fanning Island, Suva, Norfolk Island and Southport, Queensland, Australia. Colonia, built specifically for the project, laid cable from Vancouver Island to Fanning Island in the mid-Pacific. Anglia laid cable from Southport to Norfolk Island, Fiji, New Zealand and Fanning Island. The Cable Station landfall
Commonwealth Pacific Cable System Commonwealth Pacific Cable System COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, was an undersea telephone cable system connecting Canada with New Zealand and Australia. It was completed by closing the last gap in Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, at 6:25 a.m. B.S.T. on October 10, 1963. Public service of the cable commenced early in December 1963. The system cost a total of $100 million and spanned 14,000 miles, from Oban in Scotland via CANTAT to Newfoundland, by microwave link across Canada, then cable on to Hawaii, Suva (Fiji), Auckland (New Zealand), and Sydney (Australia). Three cable ships-CS "Mercury", CS "Retriever", and HMTS "Monarch"-did