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

CS Charente
by Bill Glover

CS CHARENTE

Built in 1862 in England. (Not to be confused with CS Amberwitch, also built in 1862 and named Charente until converted to cable service in 1864).

Length 213 ft. 5 in.  Breadth 29 ft. 9 in.  Draught 10 ft. 1in.  Gross tonnage 1061

Built originally for commercial trading. Purchased by the French PTT in 1874 and fitted out for cable repair work by La Compagnie des Forges et Chantiers de la Seyne. Fitted with three cable tanks, and cable gear which was replaced in 1893 with a combined paying out-picking up machine which was installed forward.

Used for cable maintenance in the Mediterranean until 1931 when sold for scrap.

CABLE WORK

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