Kathy Buckard
October 2026 - Historic Western Union – Sunset Sail
About the Image(s)
Historic Western Union ??“ Sunset Sail
Schooner Western Union was built in Key West by Herbert Elroy Arch and launched on April 7, 1939. She is about 130 feet overall. Western Union the vessel was built to maintain the very communications network created by Western Union the telegraph company. Her original job was quite unusual: maintaining submarine telegraph cables. Western Union Telegraph Company leased her from Thompson Enterprises, and she worked from 1939 until 1974 laying, inspecting, and repairing underwater communications cables connecting Key West with Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean. Over her working career she reportedly covered more than 30,000 miles in cable service.
That makes her historically significant in a way that is easy to overlook: before telephone calls, satellites, and the modern internet, international communication depended heavily on physical cables on the seabed. In 1974 the vessel was retired from the cabling and became a sailing schooner, taking tourists around Key West.
Nikon D500 18-200 Lens ISO 400 F18 1/125
5 comments posted
My only thought was that I might give the schooner a little more room to breathe - see my VF. I also wondered how the image would feel with a simpler background, so I tried adding canvas and removing the distant shoreline in Photoshop. That's a matter of taste, though; the original is a really nice photograph.
Posted: 10/01/2026 20:56:28
I agree with Butch that it is cropped tight, and I know we get stuck with bad backgrounds in real life. I decided to go for an even more extreme version in PS by smoothing the water, as if a long exposure. I added more canvas and removed some people from the boat, but left the background. I kept the Florida evening glow. Just another version to contemplate. Posted: 10/05/2026 23:37:28
