In Their Own Words

Fighting the Elements To Connect Europe to America with Trans-Atlantic Fiber

It was a job that I will never forget. A storm cell seemed to place itself for nearly 15 days directly over the sea buoy position of the Dublin end. On board Vercours, we attempted several grasps at the cable but could not pick it up in the heavy swells. Once we did pick it up, we were forced to cut and drop as high cable tension was developing due to the nearly 10m waves and winds close to 100 Kph. The pick, cut and drop process was repeated 3 times. The management team was certainly frustrated to say the least about how to progress during the weather, which seemed to loom over us.

Aboard the Vercours, the Captain, the sub-contract engineers and I had three complete different ways of handling the situation and the delays, which was adding to a "healthy" sum of money each day. Morning meetings were, needless to say, less than enjoyable. Going on the 4th splice, we decided to "hang on" to the cable and monitor the transmissions and PFE back to Dublin on a 24 hour basis. We also had a continuous watch on the cable tension; I do not think the poor watch even got to sleep for the next 5 days.

After looking very closely at the vessel design of the Vercours with the Vercours Captain, I concurred the design of the ship was not adequate to handle the lay in such heavy stern seas which continued to persist over the area. Continuing to lay would have put the cable in harms way and may have damaged cable integrity; this was not a unanimous decision. Our decision not to lay was not well liked by some. However, I fully believe that by not cutting the cable further ultimately added strength and integrity to the system. I still do to this day.

If a system will go bad over time, it will be at the splice...a reputable Cable EIC and friend at Tycom Marine once told me. I remembered this and held this to be true.

The remainder of the cable was laid quickly and successfully to mid-water Atlantic where another CS picked up and continued it to Halifax. I can only say that I had the utmost respect for both crews of the cable ships that worked so hard in the face of adversity to get this cable installed. Thinking about it makes me want to be back on the cable ships, as it was highly enjoyable to work with such professionals.

Thanks for letting me share this story. It brings back a lot of great memories of the cable days.

- Ron Raymond, Crewmember