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

CS Hibernia
by Bill Glover

CS HIBERNIA

Built in 1861 by Palmers S. B. and Ironworks, Jarrow

Length 360.5 ft  Breadth 40.4 ft  Depth 29.3 ft  Gross tonnage 3,183

Purchased from the Anchor Line in 1869 by Telcon. Fitted with three tanks with a coiling capacity of 54,553 cu ft of cable. Telcon’s standard paying out-picking up machine was installed along with one bow and one stern sheave.

Hibernia left Gravesend on 30 October 1877 to lay a cable for the Western & Brazilian Telegraph Company. Coaling at the Cape Verde Islands Hibernia arrived at Maranham Bay on the evening of 21 November and anchored there for the night. The following morning the vessel sailed upriver and moored up. During the night the ship touched bottom and could not be freed and as the tide rose she flooded, breaking her back. Various local vessels salvaged 90 nm of cable, and CS Calabria recovered a further 60 nm. CS Norseman (1) belonging to W&B arrived next morning but the two Captains could not agree salvage terms.

CABLE WORK

Captain H.P. Welch:

1870

Back Bay, Bombay, India - Aden

1870

Aden - Suez, Egypt

1870

Singapore - Batavia

1870

Carcavelos, Portugal - Porthcurno, Cornwall, England

1871

Banjoewangie, Java - Port Darwin, Australia

 

 

Captain W.R. Cato:

1873

Valentia, Ireland - Hearts Content, Newfoundland

1873

Placentia, Newfoundland - Sydney, Cape Breton Island

1873

Sydney, Cape Breton Island - Placentia, Newfoundland

1874

Madeira - St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands

1874

St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands - Pernambuco (Recife), Brazil

 

 

Captain H. Manning:

1874

Valentia, Ireland - Hearts Content, Newfoundland

 

 

Captain W.R. Cato:

1876

La Perouse, Botany Bay, Sydney, Australia - Wakapauka,  Nelson, New Zealand

1876

Suez - Suakin - Perim - Aden

1877

Aden - Bombay, India

1877

Rangoon, Burma - Penang, Malaya

CABLE REPAIRS

Captain W.R. Cato:

1873

French Atlantic

1876

Brest - St Pierre

1877

1865, 1866 Atlantic cable


Cableships Index Page

Last revised: 12 August, 2015

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