CS COLONIA
Official Number 115810
Built in 1902 by Swan, Hunter Wigham Richardson Ltd.
Length 487 ft. Breadth 56 ft Depth 27.6 ft Gross tonnage 7891
When the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company won the contract to manufacture and lay the Pacific cable it was decided to lay the Bamfield - Fanning Island section cable in one operation. As none of the existing cable ships had sufficient storage capacity to carry the 3458 nm of cable, Colonia was specially built for the task.
Fitted with four tanks:- No 1 tank 45 ft dia by 26 ft 9 in. deep, capacity 40,810 cubic feet; No 2 tank 47 ft dia by 27 ft 6 in. deep, capacity 42,538 cubic feet; No 3 tank 49 ft dia by 17 ft 9 in. deep, capacity 32,121 cubic feet; No 4 tank 45 ft dia by 18 ft 9 in. deep, capacity 28.493 cubic feet, the total capacity being 143,962 cubic feet.
A double paying out-picking up machine was fitted on the main deck forward of the No 1 tank hatch. A single paying out machine was fitted aft. Two bow sheaves and one stern sheave, all 3 ft 6 in. in dia were fitted. In all the ship laid nearly 81,000 miles of cable.

CS Colonia aground in Fox Bay, Fox Island, near Canso (Nova Scotia) while laying the 1905 Canso - Waterville - Western super Mare cable for the Commercial Cable Co. To enable Colonia to be floated off the cable was off-loaded into the Mackay Bennett, seen in the background.
Postcard is endorsed “Colonia cable ship which was on the rocks at Fox Bay. I was on board. Florence.” |
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Watercolour of CS Colonia dated 1922
Image courtesy of Bryan & Linda Davis
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In 1928 the vessel was sold to the Norwegian Whaling Company A/S Thar Dahl of Sandefjord who converted her into a factory ship and renamed her Torodd. Used in the Antarctic during the 1928-9 and 1930-31 whaling seasons. Then laid up until 1934 when sold to another whaling company, Norseke Hvalproduktor A/S Oslo who renamed her Sydis and was again used from 1934 to 1937 in the Antarctic.
Sold in 1937 to a German company Oelmuhlen Walgang Konsortium, Berlin and renamed Sudmeer, the vessel spent a further two seasons in the Antarctic. The vessel was sunk during the early part of World War II.
CABLE WORK
Capt. H. Woodcock: |
1901 |
St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands - Fayal, Azores |
1902 |
Bamfield, Vancouver Island, Canada - Fanning Island |
1903 |
Manila, Philippines - Guam - Midway - Honolulu, Hawaii |
1905 |
MAIN-5: Canso, Nova Scotia - Waterville, Ireland - Weston super Mare, England |
1906 |
Porthcurno, England - Fayal, Azores |
1906 |
St Vincent Cape Verde Islands - Fayal, Azores |
1907 |
Durban - Mozambique |
1907 |
Coney Island, New York - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba |
1907 |
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Colon, Panama |
1907 |
Delagoa Bay - Moçambique diversions into Beira |
1907 |
Quelimane T piece to Mozambique - Beira cable of 1879 and 1907 |
1908 |
Cadiz - Tenerife - Palma - Hierro - Gomera - Tenerife - Gran Canaria - Feurteventura - Lanzarote |
1909 |
NY-1: St. John's, Newfoundland - New York |
1910 |
Conception Bay, Newfoundland - Coney Island, New York (direct link for the second 1884 cable, which was diverted to Cuckold's Cove in 1905). It's likely this work was also done by Colonia, but at present there is no documented confirmation of this. |
1910 |
WESTON-3: Waterville, Ireland - Weston super Mare, England |
1910 |
St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands - Ascension |
1910 |
Ascension - Buenos Aires |
1910 |
Bay Roberts, Newfoundland - Sennen Cove, Cornwall, England |
1910 |
St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands - Ascension |
1912 |
Gibraltar - Malta |
1912 |
Malta - Alexandria |
1912 |
NY - 2: New York - St Johns, Newfoundland |
1912 |
Gibraltar - Malta - Alexandria |
1913 |
Aden - Colombo |
1914 |
Freetown - Accra
Suez - Aden |
1915 |
Peterhead, Scotland - Alexandrovsk, Russia
New York - Cuba - Panama |
1919 |
Ascension - Rio de Janeiro |
1920 |
Miami - Maranham - Barbados
Miami - Barbados
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1920 |
Atalya - Rio de Janeiro
Montevideo - Santos |
1921 |
Gibraltar - Malta
Madras - Penang
Key West - Havana (3 cables) |
1922 |
Suez - Port Sudan - Aden
Aden - Seychelles - Colombo
Maceio - Rio de Janeiro
Pernambuco - Maranham
Santos - Rio de Janeiro |
1923 |
Penang - Colombo
Horta - Le Havre |
1924 |
New York - Horta, Azores
New York - Cuba - Panama
Malaga - Horta, Azores
Rio de Janeiro - Montevideo
Montevideo - Buenos Aires (2 cables) |
1925 |
Porthcurno - Bilbao |
1926 |
Cocos (Keeling) Island - Cottesloe, Perth, Australia |

CS Colonia at the Telcon Works, Greenwich, 1909
Image courtesy of Bill Holly |
CABLE REPAIRS
Capt. H. Woodcock: |
1907 |
Ste Tome - Ste Paul de Loanda repair to 1886 cable |
1907 |
Durban - Delagoa Bay part renewal 1879 cable |
1908 |
Aden - Zanzibar renewal of 1879 cable |
1908 |
Aden - Bombay repairs to 1870, 1877, 1891 cables |
1908 |
Valentia - Hearts Content renewal of 1880 cable |
1909 |
Waterville - Canso diversion of 1884 cable to St. Johns, Newfoundland |
1910 |
Waterville - St. Johns renewal of 1884 cables |
1910 |
Sennen Cove - Canso |
1910 |
Sennen Cove - Canso renewal of shore ends 1881 & 1882 cables |
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