Cableship John Pender, 1900.

THE FIRST EVER cableship was the Goliath, chartered to lay a telegraph cable across the channel in 1850. This was not built as a cableship but converted to carry a ‘tank’ and primitive cable handling gear. The conversion of ships to lay cables continued into the 1860’s, the most notable being that of Brunel’s Great Eastern for the laying of the Atlantic cable. The first cableship with direct connections with the Cable & Wireless family was the Hawk, purchased and converted by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company in 1866. The first purpose-designed cableship was not built until 1872.

Officers and crew of the cableship ‘John Pender’ of the Eastern Telegraph Company’s fleet.	Launch of the cableship Recorder in 1953 from Swan Hunter’s shipyard.	The bridge of the cableship Electra in 1951.

C.S. Pacific Guardian on the Thames.

CABLE & WIRELESS Marine Ltd, which was sold to Global Crossing Inc and became Global Marine Systems Ltd in 1999, owned and operated the world’s largest and most technologically advanced fleet of cable ships and subsea equipment of its day. Ships operated by Cable & Wireless Marine in 1997: Cable Innovator – major cable laying ship Cable Venture – major cable laying ship Nexus – cable laying ship Cable Installer – cable laying ship Monarch – cable maintenance ship Seaspread – cable maintenance ship Cable Enterprise – cable maintenance ship Iris – cable maintenance ship Sir Eric Sharp – cable maintenance ship Pacific Guardian – cable maintenance ship Ships managed by Cable & Wireless Marine in 1997: Sovereign – cable maintenance ship Flexservice 3 – cable laying ship

C.S. Cable Venture duty board.	The ship’s hospital of C.S.Retriever in 1961.

See Also
Cable Making Great Eastern Formation of Cable & Wireless Cable & Wireless Marine Cables of the 1960’s Global Network