The CS ''Faraday'' was a

cable ship A cable layer or cable ship is a deep-sea vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables for telecommunications, electric power transmission, military, or other purposes. Cable ships are distinguished by large cable sheaves for guiding cab ...

built for

Siemens Brothers Siemens Brothers and Company Limited was an electrical engineering design and manufacturing business in London, England. It was first established as a branchThe company started with a small factory at 12 Millbank Row, Westminster SW1, London, ne ...

and launched in 1874. ''Faraday'' was specially designed for ocean cable-laying by

William Siemens Sir Carl Wilhelm Siemens (4 April 1823 – 19 November 1883), anglicised to Charles William Siemens, was a German-British electrical engineer and businessman. Biography Siemens was born in the village of Lenthe, today part of Gehrden, near Han ...

in collaboration with his friend

William Froude William Froude (; 28 November 1810 in Devon – 4 May 1879 in Simonstown, South Africa) was an English engineer, hydrodynamicist and naval architect. He was the first to formulate reliable laws for the resistance that water offers to ships (suc ...

, the pioneer of hull design. Built with bows at each end, she had twin screws positioned so that using one screw she could turn in her own length. The two funnels were located to either side to maximise clear deck space. To minimise rolling, there were, at Froude's suggestion, enormous twin

bilge keel A bilge keel is a nautical device used to reduce a ship's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs (one for each side of the ship). A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic ...

s. William's wife Anne launched the ship with the traditional smashing of a bottle of wine. The ship's first cable operation was laying the 1874 cable connecting Rye Beach, New Hampshire with Ballinskelligs, Ireland by way of Tor Bay, Nova Scotia. ''Faraday'' spent the next 50 years laying an estimated total of of cable for Siemens Brothers, including several transatlantic cables under the supervision of

Alexander Siemens Alexander Siemens (22 January 1847 – 16 February 1928) was a German electrical engineer.Obituary ''Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers,'' 66 (1928), 1242–3 Siemens was born in Hanover, then a kingdom within the German Co ...

. She was sold for scrap in 1924 but proved to be too difficult to break up and was resold to the Anglo-Algiers Coaling Company for use as a coal hulk, being renamed ''Analcoal''. She was moved to Gibraltar in 1931 to store coal and then to become a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

storeship in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

in 1941. She was towed to a South Wales breakers yard for scrap in 1950. A successor ship, also called CS Faraday (1923), Faraday, was built by Siemens Brothers in 1923, but sunk in 1941 following German bombing.

References

Cable ships of the United Kingdom Coal hulks 1874 ships Cable laying ships Ships built on the River Tyne {{Merchantship-stub