 The first submarine telegraph cable laid by the United States Signal Corps was in the Philippines in 1899.Soon thereafter, underwater cable was first laid in Alaska in 1900, when the vessel CS "Orizaba" connected Unalakik to St. Michael and St. Michael to Safety Island, Cape Nome.Between 1900 and 1905, Army soldiers of the 59th Signal Battalion (also known as the "Voice of the Arctic") constructed a telegraph line linking the U.S. Army posts across Alaska with each other, including a wireless system crossing Norton Sound on the west coast of Alaska.