History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
CS
Giulio Verne
by Bill Glover
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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CS
Giulio Verne |
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CS ITM VENTURER / STENA VENTURER / NORTHERN VENTURER / GIULIO VERNE Built in 1983 by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Ltd., Ulsan, South Korea Length 128.5 m. Breadth 34.8 m. Depth 29.5 m. Gross tonnage 9487
Built for and operated by ITM Offshore Ltd., Middlesborough as a cable layer/flexible pipelayer and named ITM Venturer. In October 1986 the vessel was sold to Stena Offshore A/B, Sweden and renamed Stena Venturer (This name not registered with Lloyds of London). Sold again in October 1987 to Davy Normanby Ltd., Middlesborough who continued its use in the North Sea oilfields this time with the name Northern Venturer. Sold again in October 1988 to Italcable s. p. A., Sorrento and again renamed, this time to Giulio Verne. Pirelli at this time owned 60% of Italcable. CS GIULIO VERNE Built as above Length 133.18 m Breadth 34.8 m Depth 29.5 m Gross tonnage 10617 These new dimensions were the result of the 1997 refit.
Refitted in 1997 at the Viktor Lenac shipyard, Croatia. This included the installation of two 7 ft dia stern sheaves, a new bulbous bow and a new 750 hp bow thruster. Subsequently used for cable work, both laying and repairing in the Mediterranean from its base near Naples. Suffered serious fire damage in August 1999 while loading cable at the Pirelli factory near Naples. Repaired and still operated by Pirelli for cable laying. Following the takeover of Pirelli’s power and telecommunications cables division, including CS Giulio Verne, by Prysmian in 2005, the vessel has been fitted out for laying power cables. PRYSMIAN GROUP Over the years Pirelli had bought the power cable divisions of a number of Companies, including BICC, Siemens AG and Metal Manufacturers Ltd., as well as others. In 2005 Prysmian purchased the power and telecommunications cable division of Pirelli, including the CS Giulio Verne, and over the next few years acquired further companies in New Zealand, Russia and Germany. In 2011 the company acquired DRAKA, a world leader in the manufacture of fire resistant cables. The combined company is known as the Prysmian Group. In December 2011 Giulio Verne laid a cable across the Hudson River from Manhattan to Edgewater, New Jersey. With a length of three miles, the system includes 3 x 660 MW power cables and 2 fibre optic cables. These photographs of Giulio Verne laying the cable are courtesy of and copyright © 2012 by Mario Burger:
CABLE WORK
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Last revised: 26 January, 2012 |
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