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

CS John Pender (2)
by Bill Glover

CS JOHN PENDER (2)

Built in 1900 by Napier and Sons, Glasgow.

Length 317.8 ft. Breadth 41.2 ft. Depth 17.7 ft. Gross tonnage 2,336.

Built for the Eastern Telegraph Company and based at Aden for most of her working life. Fitted with four permanent tanks and one portable tank which could be erected in the forward hold. As the vessel was capable of laying cables up to 500 nm long this tank would be used in such operations. While on repair duties the hold would contain grapnels, ropes, buoys etc.

To lay cable a stern sheave and paying out gear was fitted aft. Two independent paying out-picking up machines were fitted on the forward main deck; all of this machinery was manufactured by Telcon. Sold in 1928 to the Central Marine Engineering Company of Antwerp for scrapping.

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