 Ferries have been operating across the strait since 1898 and a submarine telegraph cable was laid in 1856 as part of the transatlantic telegraph cable project.An infamous location in the strait for shipwrecks during the age of sail, St. Paul's Island, came to be referred to as the ""Graveyard of the Gulf" (of St. Lawrence)".In October 1942, German U-boat "U-69" torpedoed and sank the unlit Newfoundland ferry , killing 137 people.