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

CS Pacific

CS PACIFIC

CS Pacific
from a drawing by Ken Smith, May 2011

Length 264.6 ft. Breadth 35.88 ft. Depth 21.5 ft. Gross tonnage 1,570. Built 1903 by Burmeister and Wain, Copenhagen. Twin screw. Triple expansion engines of 1,700 i.h.p. giving 12 knots.

The Pacific was a spar deck vessel with the cable machinery mounted on the main deck and the cable drums protruding through to the spar deck. Johnson and Phillips designed and built the cable gear, providing a double combined picking-up and paying-out machine with drums 5 ft 81 in. diameter and 21 in. wide. The cable engines were mounted one forward and one aft of the machine and could pick-up a load of 25 tons at 1 knot or 10 tons at 21 knots. No paying-out gear aft was provided although space was left on the quarter deck.

Three cable tanks were installed on 26 ft, 312 ft and 28 ft diameters respectively. Each tank had a cone which was used as a fresh water tank. The usual crinolines were provided. Three bow sheaves, each 4 ft 3 in. diameter and one stern sheave 3 ft 21 in. diameter were installed.

The Pacific was engaged throughout her career in the maintenance of the Great Northern Telegraph Company's Far East network and also on work for the Eastern Telegraph group by whom she was partly owned. In 1950 she was sold in Bombay for breaking up.

CS Pacific

Last revised: 29 May, 2011

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