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A small, signed, oil painting on board of a cable repair ship. On the reverse, an inscription reads: "The cable repair ship 'Norseman' owned by Western Telegraph Co. at sea, off the head of S. America about 1905. G. R. GIBBS at one time c/c of the work". The 'G. R. Gibbs' refers to George Gibbs who was Superintendent of The Western Telegraph Company Ltd. in Brazil.

The first undersea transatlantic telegraph cable had been laid in 1858, running under the Atlantic Ocean from Western Ireland to Eastern Newfoundland. Even though the first transmitted message along it took 17 hours to be totally received, this was still a revolutionary breakthrough in communications between Europe and North America. Before this time, a message would have been delivered by ship and taken 10 days.

The Western Telegraph Company and the Eastern Telegraph Company were amalgamated in 1929 to form Cable & Wireless Ltd.