CS Vercors
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The CS ''Chamarel'', originally CS ''Vercors'', was a
cable layer A cable layer or cable ship is a deep-sea ship, vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables Submarine communications cable, for telecommunications, Submarine power cable, for electric power transmission, military, or other purposes. Cable ...
owned by France Telecom Marine, laying
submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...
s around the world. It was built in 1974 and destroyed by a fire in August 2012. As the ''Vercors'', the ship laid cables on and between all continents except Antarctica, including numerous trans-Atlantic cables and the first ever Israeli-made cable, and set the record for the deepest submarine buried cable lay in 2000. The ship was badly damaged by a fire and driven aground on 8 August 2012.


History


Service

The ''Vercors'' was built in 1974 by the Société Nouvelle des Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre. It started operation out of
La Seyne-sur-Mer La Seyne-sur-Mer (; "La Seyne on Sea"; ), or simply La Seyne, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. La Seyne-sur-Mer, which is part of the agglomeration of Toulon, is situated adja ...
in 1975. In the 1970s it laid cables to and from France, including the now-decommissioned
ANNIBAL Annibal is the French masculine given name equivalent to Hannibal. It may refer to: People *Annibal Camoux (1638?–1759), French soldier noted for his claimed longevity *Annibal de Coconnas (died 1574), a co-conspirator of Joseph Boniface de La ...
, except ANTINEA, which stretched from
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
to the
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...
through
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
. In the 1980s the ''Vercors'' laid the
ATLANTIS Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...
between
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
and Senegal,
TAT-7 TAT-7 was the seventh transatlantic telephone cable, in operation from 1983 to 1994, initially carrying 4,000 3 kHz telephone circuits between New Jersey, United States and Porthcurno in southwest England. It was owned by AT&T, British Telecom ...
and
TAT-8 TAT-8 was the 8th transatlantic communications cable and first transatlantic fiber-optic cable, carrying 280 Mbit/s (40,000 telephone circuits) between the United States, United Kingdom and France. It was constructed in 1988 by a consortium ...
, and others across most continents. In 1991 it deployed EMOS-1, the first Israeli-made submarine communications cable. Other projects in the 1990s included TASMAN 2 (1992; Australia – New Zealand),
TAT-9 TAT-9 was the 9th transatlantic telephone cable system, in operation from 1992 to 2004, operating at 560 Mbit/s (80,000 telephone circuits) between Europe (Goonhilly, United Kingdom; Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, France; Conil de la Frontera, Spain ...
(1992; Trans-Atlantic), PacRimEast (1993; Hawaii – New Zealand), SEA ME WE 2 (1994; Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe), Columbus II (1994; Trans-Atlantic), TAT-12 and TAT-13 (1995), SEA ME WE 3 (1995), ARIANE-2 (1995; France–Greece),
ITUR ITUR (Italy - Turkey - Ukraine - Russia) is a submarine communications cable system linking the aforementioned countries. It has landing points in: #Palermo, Sicily, Italy #Istanbul, Turkey #Odesa, Ukraine #Novorossiysk, Russia References htt ...
(1996; Italy–Turkey–Ukraine),
KAFOS KAFOS (Karadeniz Fiber Optik Sistemi - ''Black Sea Fibre Optic System'') is a submarine telecommunications cable system in the Black Sea linking Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. It has landing points in: *Mangalia, Romania *Varna, Bulgaria *Istanbu ...
(1996; Turkey–Bulgaria), TAGIDE-2 (1996; France–Portugal), ALETAR (1997; Egypt–Syria), BERYTAR (1997; Lebanon–Syria) and others. In 2000, it set the world record for the deepest undersea buried communications cable while laying the
Southern Cross Cable The Southern Cross Cable is a trans-Pacific Ocean, Pacific network of telecommunications cables commissioned in 2000. The network is operated by the Bermuda-registered company ''Southern Cross Cables Limited''. The network has of Submarine co ...
, at a depth of . It was also involved in
TAT-14 TAT-14 was the 14th consortium transatlantic telecommunications cable system. In operation from 2001 to 2020, it used wavelength division multiplexing. The cable system was built from multiple pairs of fibres—one fibre in each pair was used fo ...
and the East Asia Crossing projects in the early 2000s. After it was renamed to the ''Chamarel'' in 2002 and transferred to France Telecom Marine, it was assigned to maintenance on the
SAT-3/WASC SAT-3/WASC or South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable is a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route. It forms part of the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cab ...
cable system and operated from
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
, South Africa.


Fire

The ''Chamarel'' caught fire off the shore of the
Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia. Immediately south of Angola, it stretches from the Kunene River to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The in ...
, close to
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...
, in
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
on August 8, 2012, following a mission to repair the SAT-3/WASC cable system. It had a crew of 51 to 56 on board, which evacuated to the fishing vessel ''Moni''. Six of them were lightly wounded and none died. The research ship ''Nathaniel Maxuilili'' helped put out the fire, which raged until August 9, before a salvage team was sent to retrieve the ''Chamarel''.


Technical specifications

The CS ''Chamarel'' was long and
wide WIDE or Wide may refer to: * Wide (cricket), a type of illegal delivery to a batter *Wide and narrow data Wide and narrow (sometimes un-stacked and stacked, or wide and tall) are terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data ...
. It had a
gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...
of 8,575 and
deadweight tonnage Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water Fresh water or ...
of 5,900 tons. Its maximum speed was and the average speed was .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamarel Cable laying ships 1974 ships