Any Cable & Wireless employees?

[Evan Lewis]

Out of curiousity.Did anyone out there ,as a civilian ,ever work for Cable and Wireless.?

Reason for asking. Had passed their exam ,held in Bristol. Passed , and was told . :'You're in all that's required now, ' Take this Form to your Doctor to complete."

Elated, tripped up to the Doc's place, that same evening. Only to find the notice on the Door. .He. did alternative nights ,with the next Village.

Dragged myself home. Sat by the fire , picked up the Evening Paper. Came across this large Ad. .COME TO SUNNY AUSTRALIA. Tram Drivers ,Conducturs , needed. Melbourne ,Australia.. Interviews and Medical, tomorrow , at Llandaff, Tech. College, etc.
Ruminated . was I ready for such a dramatic change ,six weeks training in London , towards , a career , I knew not what?
or better still ,go to
Llandaff in the morning, ? Considered the Great times I"d had in Melbourne, .1950 in particular. So instead of visiting the Doctor ,in the Morning. Went in to Cardiff, to the interview. .No probs, ! Seems like ,long you can stand- up . You're in. "Go by air " , or
Sea. ?"Naturally ,plumped for the Sea voyage. Total cost , Ten Pounds. bargain at :Half the price, thinks I.

Had a little longer to wait, Some Five- six weeks.for the Sea voyage,

In the meantime . Joined the Celtic Ferry , Felixstowe to Antwerp., every other night. Kept one occupied, til .nearer sailing time ,on Fairstar,
(the Last troopship built for Britain), often seen at Aden ,on the Hook, ,whilst with the P&O Line

Couple months later , arrived Melb. After a very enjoyable Trip. Including the last few Hrs, Accpompanied ,in an empty first-class Cabin ,

,emerging in the morning ,to the consternationof the duty Stewards on that particular Deck , That couple or not on this Deck Guiseppe?,as it were.

Anyhow . Station Pier , not far ahead.
Who Cares?

[Captain Kong]

My other son works for Cable and Wireless in the Office in Manchester.
They still have a fleet of ships, he told me he is in daily contact with one of them off the Nigerian coast. C&W have been taken over by VODAPHONE but still keep the name.
Cheers
Brian.

[Gulliver]

My other son works for Cable and Wireless in the Office in Manchester.
They still have a fleet of ships, he told me he is in daily contact with one of them off the Nigerian coast. C&W have been taken over by VODAPHONE but still keep the name.
Cheers
Brian.

Talking of which Brian,I noticed this snippet on the Cargolaw.com site,referring to a cable ship casualty off the West African coast. C & W perhaps.?.The vessel is the ex French VERCORS.


"The 8,375-gt Mauritius-flagged cable layer Chamarel (IMO: 7347718), which had caught fire on Aug 8 is still burning. No visible effort was made to extinguish the fire aboard the stricken vessel.The ship had been on its way north to Benin when the captain received a message that one of the crew member's children passed away. The ship apparently turned around to drop the bereaved crew member off in the nearest harbour and it was then that the disaster struck. Black and white fume was emerging from the ship, mostly from the stern region. The midship region was gutted and the ship listing. " [From our Sr. Correspondent Tim Schwabedissen, 13-8-12]

[j.sabourn]

In 1967 I applied for a job with same, as in those days had many advantages I had heard. Whatever station you were, on wives and familys were allowed as you were mostly ashore in family accomodation. I received a reply to the effect that the cut off age was 28. Why this age I dont know however in case it was because the actual sea time was not at the time very great, I replied that I did not require seatime as had all certificates as necessary. Heard no more and as one had to keep employed in those days went out to work for Saguanay shipping of Montreal. Three months later I had a letter forwarded to me in Canada from same saying in my case they would waive the 28 years age barrier and what station would I prefer and in what order. The choice at the time was I believe The West Indies, Gibralter, Fiji, Hong Kong, and a few others cant remember. As I had committed by then to 12 months I was not able to accept. Sometimes we miss jobs that would maybe have changed our future lifes. Believe Cable and Wireless at that time were plum jobs. I was 2 years over the age barrier at the time. Regards John Sabourn.

[j.sabourn]

Cant remember if have put this on here before. Ref. phone cables was on the Ocean Epoch in 1995 bringing her round from the Bass Strait to the NW shelf. She was an American semi submersible and was on her as tow master. The Offshore Installation manager was on board with a skeleton crew. Off fremantle one of the tow lines to one of the tugs parted and as was bad weather the O.I.M. thought the rig was going to be blown ashore. He ran out and dropped one of the rigs anchors, these are 18 ton jobs and the average rig has 8. Unfortuanetly he dropped the wrong one and parted the phone cable going to Singapore. Another story I did not follow up but they must have had a cable ship down from somewhere or other to repair, what or where it would come from I have no idea. Brian if your son works for Cable and Wireless he may know. Cheers John Sabourn.

[John Arton]

John
We did the same thing in Halifax N.S. when we called there fully laden on a cape sized bulker for bunkers.
Pilot anchored us in the correct position (or so he reckoned) after he twatted one of the channel bouys on the way in (we were the biggest ship he had ever piloted so he had no idea of turn radius or turning point). After bunkering I went forward to heave up the anchor only to find that when it came clear of the water there were a load of cables and chain wrapped around the flukes. After trying to remove them ourselves we had to call for help. Pilot re-anchored us in a different spot and a small boat with gas axe gear came out. I asked the pilot if it was o.k. to cut through all these cables and he assured me it was o.k. so off the workers went. The small anchor chains etc. went through with no problems but as they were cutting the cables when they dropped into the water there was a mighty flash and whole sections of the town went dark. We had cut through a supposodly unused power cable that was still supplying power to certain parts of Halifax and to compound matters we had also cut through the telephone cable to 25% of Halifax's homes.
We just skitaddled out of there as quick as a cape sized bulker fully laden could go.
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

What year was that John. Used to be a regular port for us when we were running around the West Indies. Used to Load all the Spirits and beers etc etc. here. Was there every 6 weeks in 1967/1968. Was there also on a cargo boat loading grain shortly after the British Ambassador was lost. Bloody co;d place in the winter. Cheers John Sabourn