Mercury
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:26 am
On September 14th 1967, the Post Office of Bermuda and the Virgin Islands both issued commemorative sets of stamps on the completion of the Bermuda-Tortola telephone link, a recent addition to the expanding services of Cable and Wireless Ltd. The length of the marine telephone cable linking the islands is 900 miles.
Tortola is the hub of the new Virgin Islands internal telephone system and with the recently-completed Caribbean radio system, links 10 islands from the British Virgins to Trinidad and on to Guyana. All of these territories are now connected to Bermuda and thus to the world's international networks by the Bermuda-Tortola link-up -- an important historical event.
The ship which laid this new telephone cable was the cable ship Mercury, and it is not surprising that she is depicted on two of the four Bermuda stamps and two of the three in the Virgin Islands issue. Built in 1962 by Cammell Laird and Co. (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd., Birkenhead, for Cable and Wireless, Ltd., the Mercury is the second ship of the company to appear on stamps, the Retriever having appeared on a stamp of Fiji in 1963, when the trans-Pacific telephone cable was opened.
Her gross tonnage is 8,962 and she has an overall length of 473 ft. with a beam of 58 ft. 8 ins., depth of 39 ft. 3 ins. and draft of 24 ft. 7 ins. She is powered by four 8-cylinder oil engines driving four generators, connected to two electric motors and twin-screw shafts, giving a speed of 16 knots.
Bermuda SG 208, 211. Brit Virgin Is SG 217, 219, 618. Sea Breezes 12/67
Tortola is the hub of the new Virgin Islands internal telephone system and with the recently-completed Caribbean radio system, links 10 islands from the British Virgins to Trinidad and on to Guyana. All of these territories are now connected to Bermuda and thus to the world's international networks by the Bermuda-Tortola link-up -- an important historical event.
The ship which laid this new telephone cable was the cable ship Mercury, and it is not surprising that she is depicted on two of the four Bermuda stamps and two of the three in the Virgin Islands issue. Built in 1962 by Cammell Laird and Co. (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd., Birkenhead, for Cable and Wireless, Ltd., the Mercury is the second ship of the company to appear on stamps, the Retriever having appeared on a stamp of Fiji in 1963, when the trans-Pacific telephone cable was opened.
Her gross tonnage is 8,962 and she has an overall length of 473 ft. with a beam of 58 ft. 8 ins., depth of 39 ft. 3 ins. and draft of 24 ft. 7 ins. She is powered by four 8-cylinder oil engines driving four generators, connected to two electric motors and twin-screw shafts, giving a speed of 16 knots.
Bermuda SG 208, 211. Brit Virgin Is SG 217, 219, 618. Sea Breezes 12/67