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

CS Mirror (1) & Norseman (3)
by Bill Glover

CS MIRROR (1) & CS NORSEMAN (3)

Built in1886 by Napier & Sons, Glasgow

Length 255.7 ft Breadth 34.1 ft Depth 17.6 ft Gross tonnage 1545

Built for the Eastern Telegraph Company and named Mirror (1). Fitted with four cable tanks with a capacity of 16677 cubic feet of cable. Cable machinery supplied by Johnson & Phillips.

Based in the UK until sold to the Western Telegraph Company in 1904 and renamed Norseman (3). Used by Western on cable repair work until 1924 when she became a cable hulk moored in Pernambuco Harbour and renamed Norna (2). Finally scrapped in 1933.

The ship's clock shown below is marked on the dial:

EASTERN TELEGRAPH CO. LTD.

"MIRROR".

There is a repair label attached to the back, dated 1925:

“Blumenthal Michel, expert chronometer, watch and clockmaker late of Messrs Marks & Co., Bombay & Poonah, port and lights administration Suez.”

It seems likely that the clock was removed from CS Mirror after she left the cable service in 1924.

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