BACK REFLECTION
THE CURSED CABLE SHIP ROBERT LOWE BY PHILIP PILGRIM
S
the Great Eastern. Unfortuince this issue begins nately, I have had no luck. I did on November 1st, it find a drawings and photos of lands amongst the Day CS Edinburgh, Hibernia, and of the Dead, All Saints Kangaroo. Day and All Souls Day. The following events ocIn the spirit of this time, this curred during the very early Back Reflections will focus on days of the Atlantic cables. the morbid and macabre. Unlike today, back then, the I recall stumbling across an cable owners, not the cable old newspaper article years manufacturers, purchased and ago. It was about a death Figure 1: Cable Ship Death Dec. 22, 1870 (note mix-up of ship name as the victim) hired ships to look after their aboard a cable ship back in interests. The CS Robert Lowe the early days. Here is that was owned by the cable owners of the item (Fig. 1) Iron Co Ltd 1865 & 1866 transatlantic cables. This Last year, I came across another • Yard: Jarrow was Cyrus Field’s Anglo-American death that occurred less than 300 km • Yard Number: 252 Telegraph Company (AATC). from where I live. This led to doing a Digression: the path to this bit of research and I pieced together I was hoping to find at least one many separate cable ship tragedies that painting or drawing of the vessel; even company was from Frederic Newton were tied to the 1870 cable ship, the one where it was in the background of Gisborne’s Newfoundland Electric TeleRobert Lowe. In its short life, of less than four years, at least twenty one on board this early cable ship were lost. After reading along, you may agree with me that this vessel can truly be considered a cursed cable ship.
CS ROBERT LOWE SPECIFICATIONS:
• Launched: 1870, Feb. 19 • Owner: Anglo-American Telegraph Company, London • Reg Number: 63590 • Construction: Iron • Engines: 2 Cylinder, 100hp (Steam) • Propulsion: 1 x Screw • Tonnage: 883 GRT, 492 NRT • Dimensions: 201.7’ x 29.3’ x 16.8’ • Builder: Palmer’s Ship Building &
114 SUBMARINE TELECOMS FORUM MAGAZINE
Figure 1a: CS Edinburgh in Heart’s Content, 1873 (before hitting Iceberg)