THE STORY BEHIND TELEGRAPH ISLAND
Telegraph Island: The 1860s Outpost Behind 'Round the Bend'
The 19th-century British telegraph relay on Jazirat al Maqlab gave English 'round the bend' — the history behind the island every cruise stops beside.
See Musandam cruises on GetYourGuide ↗A cable island in the Elphinstone Inlet
Telegraph Island's history starts with 19th-century global communication, not tourism. From 1864, Britain was extending a telegraph cable route linking London to its empire in India, and because a telegraph signal weakens over long distances underwater, the line needed a series of repeater stations to boost it along the way. British engineers chose a small rocky island — known locally as Jazirat al Maqlab — inside the sheltered Khor Ash Sham, which the British charted and recorded as the Elphinstone Inlet, to house one of these stations. It was a practical choice rather than a scenic one: a protected, defensible spot on a strategic stretch of coast near the Strait of Hormuz, at the point where the cable route needed a relay before continuing on toward India.
Five years of extreme isolation
Life on the station was, by most accounts, brutal. A handful of British and Indian telegraph staff were stationed on a small rock with no fresh water of its own, entirely dependent on supply boats, through summer heat that on this coast regularly climbs well past 40°C with little relief and almost no shade. There was no meaningful society beyond the small posting, no quick way off the island, and little to do beyond the technical work of keeping the relay running. It's often described as one of the more punishing postings in the empire's communications network, and it's easy to see why — a tiny outcrop of bare rock, encircled by cliffs, hours from anywhere resembling a town by the standards of the 1860s.
Where 'round the bend' comes from
The English phrase 'round the bend', meaning to have lost one's mind, is popularly traced back to this posting — though, as with much colonial-era lore, the exact origin is debated rather than definitively proven. One version ties it literally to geography: reaching the station meant sailing round a sharp bend deep into the fjord, out of sight of open water and any passing ship. Another leans on the reputed psychological toll of the isolation itself, the idea that anyone stationed 'round the bend' of Musandam risked being driven a little mad by the heat, monotony and confinement. Whichever version is closer to the truth, the story has stuck, and it's one of the first things most guides mention as the dhow approaches the island today.
Abandoned within a decade
Telegraph Island's working life was short. By 1868–69, engineers had laid a replacement cable running along the Persian coast instead, making the Musandam relay station redundant almost as soon as it had settled in. The telegraph equipment was decommissioned, but a small British military garrison reportedly continued to occupy the island for several more years, into the mid-1870s, before it was abandoned entirely. Since then the island has sat empty, its only visitors arriving by boat rather than staying — a reversal of its original purpose as a fixed link in a global network, now simply a landmark that cruises pass and anchor beside rather than a place anyone lives or works.
What's left to see today
Little of the original station survives beyond low stone foundations and wall stumps, visible on the rock as the dhow approaches — there's no restored building or visitor centre, just the outline of what stood there over 150 years ago. Most cruises don't land passengers on the island itself; instead, the dhow anchors in the calm water nearby for the day's main swim and snorkel stop, which is really the point of the visit for most travellers today. Worth knowing if you're expecting a walkable historic site: Telegraph Island is better understood as a striking backdrop and a story told from the boat than as a ruin you'll explore on foot.