History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

CS Electra (1)
by Bill Glover

CS ELECTRA (1)

Built in 1884 by Napier & Sons, Glasgow. Sister ship to CS Recorder (1).

Length 237.4 ft. Breadth 32.1 ft Depth 16.6 ft. Gross tonnage 1236

Built as a repair ship for the Eastern Telegraph Company and based at Gibraltar for the whole of her career.

Fitted with four tanks, capable of holding 250 nm of deep sea cable. No 1; 14 ft x 8 ft., No 2; 25 ft. x 12 ft., these were forward of the engine room. No 3; 8 ft. 6 in x 7 ft., No 4; 8 ft. x 7 ft., these were aft of the engine room. A hold forward of the No 1 tank was used for storing grapnels, ropes etc. Three bow sheaves and one stern sheave all 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter were fitted. Johnson and Phillips supplied a double combined paying out-picking up machine.

Sold on 28th November 1923 to Mr. Attilio Ardito of Genoa for scrap.

Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com