History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
HMS Bullhead / CS Electra (2) / CS Cable Guardian by Bill Glover

HMS BULLHEAD / CS ELECTRA (2) / CS CABLE GUARDIAN

Built in 1945 by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd.

Length 252.0 ft Breadth 36.4 ft Depth 22.3 ft

HMS Bullhead

The last of the four cable ships built for the Admiralty during World War II.

Fitted with 3 tanks with a total coiling capacity of 11,775 cubic feet. A cargo hold was fitted forward of the No 1 tank for stowing cable buoys, grapnels etc. Three bow sheaves 3 ft 6 in. in diameter.

Johnson and Phillips supplied a double combined paying out-picking up machine mounted on the main deck, with the controls situated on the weather deck.

In 1946 sold to Cable & Wireless and renamed Electra (2). Based in the West Indies until sold to the Commercial Cable Company in 1959 and renamed Cable Guardian. Sold for scrap in 1964, arriving at Inverkeithing on 21 June 1964 for breaking up.

CS Cable Guardian
Image courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks

Last revised: 19 September, 2016

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