Silver & Company had been doing business since the 18th century supplying colonial and army needs for clothing and acting as shipping agents for personnel traveling overseas.

After Charles Macintosh developed waterproofing for fabric the company set up a factory at Greenwich for manufacture of such goods.

In 1867 it manufactured and laid a cable linking Key West with Havana and Punta Rassa for the Florida based International Ocean Telegraph Company.

[2] Dacia was torpedoed 3 December 1916 by U-38 off Funchal, Madeira while diverting the German South American cable into Brest.

[7][8] U-38 sunk two other ships in this action and shelled Funchal with the British cable station as a primary target.

[12] The company by the 1890s was a supplier of electric generating plants to cities and towns both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent.