SENTINEL
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:47 pm
Built under yard No 1768 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd., Low Walker, Newcastle, for H.M. Postmaster-General, London.
Late 1944 keel laid down.
08 August 1945 launched as MONARCH and christened by Lady Gardiner at that time the wife of the Director General of the Postoffice.
Tonnage 8.056 gross, 3307 net, dim. 479.8 x 55.7 x 27.8ft. (draught).
Two 6-cyl triple expansion steam engines direct acting, manufactured by builder,4.500 bhp, twin screws, speed 13 knots.
Four cable tanks with a storage capacity of 125.000 cubic feet, and could carry about 2.600 miles of deep-sea cable.
Crew around 140.
February 1946 delivered to owners.
Cable work:
1947 Aldeburgh, U.K. to Domburg, Netherlands No 6.
1950 Weyborne, U.K. to Fano, Denmark.
1952 – 1954 Laid cable between different West Indies Island and the USA, for the USA Administration – including in the work were laying of cables from the missile launching pads at Cape Canaveral and various tracking stations in the West Indies.
1953 Recife, Brazil to St Vincent, Cabo Verde Islands.
1954 Laid four cables across the St Lawrence River from Manicouagan – Petis Metis, Canada, and also from Aberdeen to Bergen, Norway
1956 TAT 1 from Oban, Scotland to Clarenville, Newfoundland-Sydney Mines.
1957 On charter for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and together with the OCEAN LAYER laid the HAW-1 San Francisco to Hawaii telephone cable.
1958 TAT 2 Penmarch, France to Clarenville, Newfoundland – Sydney Mines a lightweight submarine telephone cable.
Also that year the 138 kV power cables Vancouver Island to British Columbia., and the Bournemouth, England to Jersey, Channel Islands cable.
1960 Used for laying of the cable between Marske by the Sea, England and Gothenburg, Sweden.
1960 USA to Porto Rico.
1961 CANTAT 1 Oban, Scotland to Hampden, Newfoundland; Corner Brook, Newfoundland – Grosses Roches, Quebec.
1961 Cape Dyer, Baffin Island – White Bay, Newfoundland.
1962 COMPAC Sydney, Australia to Auckland, Suva, Fiji, Hawaii to Port Alberni to Vancouver, British Columbia.
1963 Laid two cables between Winterton, England to Borkum, Germany.
1963 Between Winterton, England to Esbjerg, Denmark.
1964 Between Covehithe, England to Katwijk, Netherlands.
1964 SEACOM 1 between Jessleton, Sabah to Singapore, then from Jessleton to Hong Kong.
1965 SEACOM 2 between Hong Kong – Guam – Madang- Papua New Guinea to Cairns, Australia.
1967 Kristiansand, Norway to Thisted, Denmark.
1968 Scarborough, England to Kristiansand Norway, and also laid SAT 1.
When several new cableships were built during the 1960s it was not more possible for the Postoffice to find full employment for the ship.
1969 When the Post Office became a public company the letters G.S. were added to her name (G.S. MONARCH.)
13October 1970 sold to Cable and Wireless Ltd., London, and after a refit at Immingham renamed CS SENTINEL.
Based at Bermuda, and used for cable maintenance in the Atlantic and also for trials of the Scarab submersible.
25 October 1977 arrived at Blyth,, U.K. and was broken up by Hughes Bolckow Ltd.
Bermuda 1988 50c sg 567
British Virgin Islands 1986 35c sg 615 and 40c sg MS 623
Turks and Caicos Islands 1983 $2 sg 781 and 1988 $2 sg 924
Source: http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/Monarch(4)/ Marine News 1992/604.