|Most Modern Cable Ship
|by Douglas R.A. Alexander
The ocean cable has not been outmoded by beam wireless. Unlike, the latter, which is affected by atmospheric conditions, cables go on working a full 365 days of the year. And now science has taken a hand in facilitating repairs and locating breaks.
A new ship recently hoisted the Blue Peter in Surrey Commercial Docks London, preparatory to sailing to Mombassa. She was the cable ship, Edward Wilshaw — 2400 tons of all that is new in the cable repairs scheme, and named after Sir Edward Wilshaw, the last chairman of Cable and Wireless before nationalisation overtook the company two years ago.
She joined a fleet of ships whose work is seldom brought before the public eye.
The fleet has to maintain a 155,000 miles network of cables connecting the various parts of the Empire, as well as some points outside it.
Many people think that cables are things of the past — that this is the age of radio. The truth is that a cable laid away back in 1890 can still carry messages 365 days of the year, while a radio beam circuit may be “off the air” for hours, even days, because of unfavourable atmospheric conditions. The traffic of the beam wireless has then to be diverted through the cable circuit.
During the war the Allies would have been hard pressed at times for lines of communication if there had been no cable network, over which the most secret of signals passed because it was impossible to tap them.
When a cable is broken through a volcanic eruption on the sea bed or by the ever present chemical action of corrosion, the ship’s job is to put through a repair on the spot as soon as possible. The job may be hundreds of miles from the nearest land. So very accurate navigation is required to bring the vessel over a certain spot under adverse conditions.
When you consider that cables are laid in any depth of water from a few fathoms down to 3,500 fathoms, (3½ miles), and that the cable itself is only about 2½ inches. in diameter, the difficulties of navigation can be realised.
That was the reason for the Edward Wilshaw being fitted out with the most modern aids to navigation so far invented. These machines include two echo sounding machines, one sounding to a depth of 700 fathoms, and the other to a depth of 2250 fathoms.
These machines work by sending out an electrical impulse from the bottom of the ship which is reflected back to the ship by the ocean bed. The time taken to return gives the depth of water.
For greater depths than this (over 2500 the echo sounder is not too accurate) a wire sounding machine is carried. This machine can drop a lead to a depth of 3,500 fathoms.
The use of radar in this ship will give the officer of the watch a much easier task than his predecessors. In earlier days it caused much eye-strain to keep a mark buoy in sight when, because of bad weather, work had to be abandoned and the ship hove to.
Now the officer will be able to keep in contact with the buoy by radar without discomfort to himself.
The ship’s installations would be hard to surpass in any vessel of her size. Within a hull 311 ft. long and a 41 ft. beam (giving a storage capacity of 18,600 cubic ft.) the builders have managed to stow an electrician’s dream.
She has three steam 40 kwt. generators, plus a diesel one of 35 kwt, an electrician’s workshop, an engineer’s workshop, a blacksmith’s shop and forge, and an all-electric laundry, with a laundry man to work it.
This may seem a waste of space to old hands, but as she carries a crew of 105 (18 officers, 10 petty officers and 77 ratings); and can stay at sea up to seven weeks, something must be done to keep up a supply of clean linen and clothes.
As all cable repairs are done over the bow of the ship, the foredeck becomes the working deck. Thus good lighting is required in order that work can be proceeded with regardless of the time of day.
In the case of the Edward Wilshaw special floodlights are fitted so that every corner of the deck is lit up as though the sun never set. Two 24-inch searchlights are fitted for the picking-up of buoys at night.
The bridge is of the modern type and completely enclosed. The deck officer, conning the ship during cable work, has at hand a twenty-line telephone system linking up every part of the ship with the bridge. The vessel is also wired for music, which is relayed from a little ante-room off the dining saloon. Perhaps it is a case of “music while you work” even on the high seas.
The Edward Wilshaw is commanded by Captain H.W.M. Milne, D.S.C., who was with the company for many years and “stood by” practically throughout the period of building so that everything would be precisely as specified.
The twenty-first cable ship built by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, of Tyneside, the vessel carries a crest which shows Neptune holding a key instead of his usual trident. It is the design of her chief officer (Mr. Muckleston).
Article text courtesy of the National Library of Australia's Trove digital newspaper archive.