Scotia (ship, 1861)

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Scotia
The Scotia before the conversion to a cable layer
The Scotia before the conversion to a cable layer
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Paddle steamer / cable rack
Owner Cunard Line;
1879: Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Co.
Shipyard R. Napier & Co., Glasgow
Commissioning 1861; 1879 as a cable layer
Whereabouts Sunk in 1904
Ship dimensions and crew
length
115 m ( Lüa )
width 14.9 m
Draft Max. 6.0 m
measurement 3,780 GRT
Machine system
Machine
performance 		3,065 hp (2,254 kW)
Top
speed 		14 kn (26 km / h)
propeller after conversion 2 propellers
Transport capacities
Load capacity 1400 t dw
Others

The Scotia was a paddle steamer built in 1861 , which was converted into a cable lay in 1879.

history

The Scotia was delivered by the shipyard R. Napier & Co., Glasgow and put into service for the Cunard Line in 1861: It was the last paddle steamer built for the company. In 1863 the ship received the Blue Ribbon for the fastest transatlantic passage between Europe and New York for both the westbound and eastbound passage and held the award for several years.

In 1875 the ship was laid up in Liverpool and in 1879 acquired by Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Co., which had it converted and equipped for its future function as a cable laying company .

In 1879 the Scotia laid the cable from Aden to Zanzibar and in 1884 between Lizard and Bilbao . In 1887 she laid the cable from Porthcurno to Gibraltar , from Gibraltar to Malta and in 1893 the cable from Zanzibar to the Seychelles and from Cape Town to Moçâmedes . Then cables were laid along the South American coast and, together with the Britannia in 1902, the German Atlantic cable from Borkum to the Azores and to New York . The 7993 kilometer long cable was manufactured by the Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke (NSW) in Nordenham .

In 1903 the ship was sold to the Commercial Cable Co., who used it for maintenance and auxiliary work on their cable network. In 1904 the ship ran into a reef near Guam and sank.

Description of Scotia

During the renovation at the Laird Brothers shipyard , the paddle wheels were removed and replaced with two propellers. Instead of the holds, two cable tanks with a diameter of around 12 m and 10 m and a height of 7 m each and a cable tank with a diameter of around 11 m and a height of 5 m were installed. A double bow roller was installed on the bow to take up cables and the cable machine was installed on the foredeck. The stern was given a single roll for laying cables. In terms of laying work, Scotia is one of the busiest cable layers.

Cable in the Atlantic, 1894/96

Cable laying work carried out by the ship

Web links

Commons : RMS Scotia  - collection of images, videos and audio files