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

1972 Florida-Bahamas Cable

The 1972 Florida - Bahamas cable, 73 + 149 nm in length, was manufactured by Standard Telephones & Cables Ltd. for AT&T. The cable is designated STC 1.47 Lightweight Cable on the sample shown below. 1.47" is the diameter of the basic cable, to which steel armouring wires were added for the shore ends. The lightweight design uses a stranded steel core for mechanical strength, this being surrounded by the copper conductor.

Lucite paperweight with
embedded cable sample

As contractors for the project, STC supplied the cable and its 34 repeaters, and chartered CS Alert (4) for the laying expedition. The cable ran 73nm from West Palm Beach, Florida to Brandie Point on Grand Bahama Island, and a further 149nm to Goodman Bay, New Providence, Bahamas.

Owned jointly by AT&T and the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation, the cable provided 1,380 4kHz circuits.

See the 1963 Western Electric cable page for more information on lightweight cables.

STC lightweight cable profile

Detail showing the four-part steel core
surrounded by the copper conductor

Thanks to Cyril Malyon for supplying the cable sample above, and to Jim Jones for sending it.

Copyright © 2011 FTL Design

Last revised: 7 June, 2011

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