1. Construction

2. Deck layout in 1946

3. Career

4. Ship models

5. See also

6. References

HMTS Monarch was a cable ship built for the General Post Office in 1946 for the laying of undersea cables, which were used in communications and electrical power transmission. The Monarch laid the first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1.

Construction

Built for the General Post Office, it was the largest cable ship in the world at the time of its launch.^[1] It was 479 feet and 8 inches long, 55 feet and 7 inches, and it had a GRT (gross register tonnage) of 8,962 tons.^[2] It had four cable tanks and was capable of a top speed of 14.5 knots delivered by its triple expansion engines (4,500bhp).^[3]

It was built at Swan Hunter (Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd), Newcastle, in the Neptune Yard, Low Walker, and launched on 8 August 1945. It was completed and handed over it the Postmaster General in February, 1946.^[4] It was the fourth cable ship to bear the name Monarch (the first was built in 1830 and was the first to be fitted out permanently as a cable ship; the second Monarch, sunk by a mine in 1915, had been the first cable ship built for the General Post Office; the third Monarch was sunk by a mine in 1944).

Deck layout in 1946

The Monarch's deck layout as outlined in The Shipbuilder & Marine Engine-Builder, April 1946, Plates IV and V,^[5] can be described as follows:

• Wheelhouse Top: radar hut; signal platform.
• Navigating Bridge: the wheelhouse; chart-room; radio-room.
• Captain’s Bridge: captain’s day-cabin; captain’s bedroom; cable engineer’s quarters; cable representative’s quarters; 26-foot cutters; 30-foot general service launches.
• Boat Deck (and Docking Bridge): mostly officers’ quarters, including deck officers, radio officers, and engineers; drawing office; five 30-foot wooden lifeboats (whalers) and one 30-foot wooden motorboat.
• Shelter Deck (weather deck): cable hatches; testing room; chief electrician’s quarters; dining saloon and pantry; purser’s office; cabins of the cable engineers; engineers’ duty mess; cabins for the ship’s electricians, deck engineers, and radio officers; galley; crew’s library and writing room; surgery and ship’s hospital.
• Main Deck: lamp room; cable stores; various workshops such as the carpenter’s shop, the blacksmith’s shop, and the joiner’s shop; cabins for cable staff, quartermasters, domestic staff, petty officers, cable hands, stewards, engine-room ratings, and seamen, as well as mess-spaces; butcher’s shop; crew galley; officers’ laundry; bakery.
• Lower Deck: mostly taken up by the upper portions of the four cable tanks, oil-fuel bunkers, the boiler room, and the engine room, as well as the chain locker and rope stowage spaces; paint store; carpenter’s wood store; cargo space; bosun’s store; electrical spare-gear store; joiner’s store; diesel generators; meat room and vegetable room; refrigerating machinery space; engineer’s paint store.
• Orlop Deck: fore-peak; cargo hold; chain locker; rope stowage; cable tanks No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, each 41 feet in diameter; fresh water tanks; deep ballast tanks; oil-fuel bunkers; boiler room; engine room; feed water tanks; after peak tank.

Career

Over the course of its career, it laid or helped lay telecommunications cables all over the world, including TAT-1 in 1956, HAW-1 (the telephone cable between the continental United States and Hawaii) in 1957, the second transatlantic telephone cable TAT-2 in 1959, the first Canadian transatlantic telephone cable CANTAT-1 in 1961, the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System (COMPAC) in 1963, and the South Atlantic cable SAT-1 in 1968.^[2]

As one of the largest submarine cable laying ships, the Monarch was much in demand. It was chartered by Cable & Wireless for COMPAC, where it worked with the company's ships CS Retriever and the CS Mercury.^[6]

In 1969, as a result of the Post Office Act 1969, all General Post Office cable ships, including the Monarch, lost the use of the prefix ‘HMTS’ and became ‘CS’ (Cable Ship). The Monarch was sold in October of the following year to Cable & Wireless plc, who renamed it CS Sentinel, the second cable ship to bear the name.

After an extensive refit at Immingham that prioritised its cable repair facilities over cable laying, it entered operational service in March 1971.^[7] Its first captain as CS Sentinel was G. H.C. Reynolds. It had a crew of 26 officers and 89 petty officers and ratings.^[7] It was based in Vigo, Spain, and then Bermuda.

CS Sentinel was scrapped in October, 1977, in Blyth, Northumberland.^[4]

Ship models

The National Maritime Museum in London has a model (to 1:192 scale)^[1] of the Monarch, and there is a 10-foot (304 cm) model in Porthcurno Telegraph Museum’s collection. The ship’s bell is on display at the latter.

See also

• List of international submarine communications cables
• Optical fiber
• Submarine communications cable
• Submarine power cable

References

• Tittabawassee Township, MI
• Tittabawassee Township, Michigan
• Titta Ruffo
• Tittenhurst Park
• Titter
• Tittering
• Titterstone Clee Hill
• Tittesworth reservoir
• Tittesworth Reservoir
• Tittie
• Titties
• Tittle
• Tittybong, Victoria
• Tittyfucking
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• Titty fucking
• Titty Twister
• Tituba
• Tituba Motif
• Titu Cusi
• Titular
• Titular Archbishop
• Titular bishop
• Titular Bishop
• Titular church