History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
CS Vercors
by Bill Glover
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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CS Vercors
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CS VERCORS / CS CHAMAREL Built 1975 by Societé Nouvelle des Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre. Length 433.0' Breadth 59.4' Depth 24.0' Gross tonnage 5886.
At launch the vessel became the main cable laying ship based at La Seyne sur Mer. Fitted with three cable tanks with a capacity of 1330 nm or 3200 tonnes of lightweight cable, storage for 136 repeaters is also provided. Both forward and aft paying out gear was fitted, built by the shipbuilders.
Renamed Chamarel and transferred to the France Telecom Marine subsidiary Chamarel Marine Services. Based at Cape Town for maintenance work on SAT 3, WASC and SAFE cables. After carrying out repairs to the SAT3/SAFE submarine cables off Namibia, CS Chamarel was sailing back to Cape Town, when fire broke out on the bridge, in the afternoon of Wednesday 8 August 2012, when the ship was about 100 km (54 knots) north west of Walvis Bay. As the fire could not be contained. the decision to abandon ship was taken on Thursday at 8.00 pm local time (7.00 pm GMT). The crew of 56 were uninjured and were rescued by the Namibian Ministries of Fisheries and Marine Resources vessel Nathanial Maxuilili and taken to Walvis Bay. The following day, the ship, severely damaged, went aground on Skeleton Coast, Namibia. This was the second fire in successive years aboard the ship. During September - October 2011 repairs were carried out in the engine room following a fire. On 20 August work began to salvage the vessel and the company Smit Salvage was contracted to carry out the work. Fuel oil and other pollutants remaining aboard the ship were pumped into tankers and transported away via a temporary road constructed for the purpose. Booms were placed around the ship to prevent any spillage from spreading and contaminating marine life. CS Chamarel has now been declared a total loss. CS Leon Thevinon left France on 21 August to take over maintenance duties and will also be based at Cape Town.
CABLE WORK
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Last revised: 3 January, 2016 |
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