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

HMS Lasso
by Bill Glover

HMS LASSO

Built in 1938 by Thornycroft Ltd., Southampton

Length 202.5 ft Breadth 35.2 ft Depth 11.75 ft Gross tonnage 1152

Built for the Royal Navy and Admiralty Cable Service. Two cable tanks were installed and the cable machinery was supplied by Johnson and Phillips. Only bow sheaves were fitted. Her prefix changed from HMS to ACS when all Royal Navy cable ships were transferred to the Admiralty Cable Service. Broken up in 1959.

On the 18th April 1947 the German fortifications on Heligoland were destroyed, using 4,061 tons of explosive. This was detonated by Commissioned Gunner E.C. Jellis RN from HMS Lasso, lying 10 miles offshore. The demolition team was led by Lt. T.F. Woosnam.

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