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
CS Sherard Osborn by Bill Glover

CS SHERARD OSBORN

Built in 1878 by Scotts and Co., Greenock.

Length 274.7 ft. Breadth 32.2 ft. Depth 21.0 ft. Gross tonnage 1429.

Twin screw. Compound engines 900 hp. Schooner rig.

Aden: Steamer Point. The Inner Harbour and Landing Pier.

The white ship is the Sherard Osborn.

The red roofed building is a sub office of the main cable station, used to relay last minute messages to and from ships in the harbour

Designed and built as a cable ship for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company. Launched 4 April 1878 and named after Rear Admiral Sherard Osborn, Managing Director of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company from 1867 to 1874.

Fitted with standard paying out-picking up machinery, three cable tanks and bow and stern sheaves. Based at Singapore until transferred to the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1903. Following the loss of Great Northern, Sherard Osborn moved to Zanzibar in July 1903, remaining there until 1919 when replaced by Cambria. At Zanzibar Sherard Osborn was responsible for the maintenance of cables running down the east coast of Africa from Aden to Durban.

Sold in 1921 to C. G. Smith and Company of Durban and converted into a factory ship producing fish oils. Shortly before being scrapped the ship was renamed Citta di Torino.

CABLE WORK

1884	Singapore - Hong Kong; Renewed large part of 1871 cable
1884	Hong Kong - Tonkin
1884	Hong Kong - Macau
1885	Flinders, Victoria - Low Head, Tasmania
1889	Hong Kong - Saigon; Renewed large part of 1871 cable
1895	Australia - New Zealand; Renewed large part of 1876 cable
1897	Madras - Penang
1897	Manila - Capiz (Philippines)
1897	Taburam - Escalante (Philippines)
1897	Bacolod - Iloilo (Philippines)
1900	Foochow - Shanghai; Renewed large part of 1883 cable
1900	Tsingtau - Tschifu; 2 cables laid over this route
1900	Woosung - Tschifu

Last revised: 6 September, 2008

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com