Pipe & Cable Laying Vessels
*Page under construction - Further vessels to follow*
This is just a small gallery and includes all of the civilian and military Pipe and Cable-laying vessels which I`ve managed to photograph, either on the Clyde or further afield, including overseas with the most recent shots first.
Giulio Verne
Having last paid a visit to the King George V Dock in October 2016, the Cable-layer Giulio Verne returned to the Clyde on Thursday 5 January 2017, making her by far the largest vessel to visit Glasgow since New Year`s day. She was due to resume work on the Western Link later in the month. The £1 billion project is a joint venture between National Grid and ScottishPower which will help to bring renewable energy from Scotland to homes and businesses in England and Wales. Giulio Verne will initially head for the Firth of Clyde off Ardneil Bay near Portencross to lay further sections of sub-sea cables while the LM Constructor will assist with the shallow work. Engineers on the Flat-top Barge have been preparing the twin shore pipes for the big ship`s arrival.
Two cables from the `Verne will be pulled ashore by land-based winches and inserted into the underground pipes that were laid last year. Once the connection has been made, Giulio Verne will move out to sea, laying as she goes to eventually complete the link. Other project vessels on station in and around Ardneil Bay on this occasion are Holyhead Towing`s workboat Salt Island and Carmet Tug Company`s Vital.
Giulio Verne passed Erskine Harbour in the afternoon but due to the fine conditions earlier, I`d already been out for a walk looking for wildlife between Newshot Island and Park Quay when the ground was still covered in frost.
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I saw a couple of hundred Geese, Snipe, Fieldfares, Cormorant, Curlew, Redshank, Mallard, Teal. Wigeon, Lapwing, Teal, a lone Greenfinch and around a dozen Long-tailed Tits during the walk. Apart from the various bird species, the only mammal encountered was this rather chilly-looking bush baby lying in the grass beside the riverbank!
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CS Giulio Verne
The Cable Laying vessel Giulio Verne is pictured here making her way to the KGV Dock on Wednesday 26 October 2016 escorted by Greenock-based Svitzer tugs Ayton Cross and Anglegarth. She currently sails under an Italian flag although she was built in South Korea in 1984, by the Hyundai Mipo Dockyad Company at Ulsan. She was originally built for and operated by Middlesborough-based ITM Offshore Ltd. as a cable layer/flexible pipelayer and named ITM Venturer. In 1986 she was sold to Stena Offshore A/B, Sweden and renamed Stena Venturer. Another change of ownership occurred the following year resulting in the new name of Northern Venturer. The vessel was sold again in October 1988 to Italcable s. p. A., Sorrento and again renamed, this time to Giulio Verne. She is now owned and operated by the Prysmian Group, an Italian multinational corporation headquartered in Milan that manufactures electric power transmission and telecommunications cables and systems. It is the largest manufacturer of cables in the world measured by revenues.
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In 1997, after Giulio Verne underwent an extensive refit at the Viktor Lenac shipyard, Croatia, she carried out both the laying and repairing of cable in the Mediterranean from its base near Naples. Another of the ship`s tasks, in December 2011, was the laying of a 3 mile-long power cable across the Hudson River from Manhattan, New York, to Edgewater, New Jersey. Following her refit, Giulio Verne is just over 133 metres in length and just over 30 metres wide with a gross tonnage of 9,487gt.
Giulio Verne had just completed her initial part in a major project in the North Channel of the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Two 600kV DC submarine cables from Ardneil (Scotland) to Wirral (England) were laid on the seabed after which burial works were completed with a plough by Deep Ocean 1 UK using the Go Pegasus support vessel which followed the cable-laying vessel at a short distance. Known as the Western Link Project, the operation is a £1 billion joint venture between the National Grid and ScottishPower Transmission, which will help to bring renewable energy from Scotland to homes and businesses in England and Wales.
Although it was a gloomy morning, the Erskine Bridge walkway enabled an unusual bird`s-eye view of the vessel`s deck fixtures and equipment as she passed underneath, including her massive cable drum. Her progress upriver was unsurprisingly very sedate which allowed me to catch up and take a couple of shots further upriver as she passed Newshot Island at Erskine.
USNS Zeus
USNS Zeus (T-ARC 7), the US Navy`s only Cable Repair Ship, was one of two visiting foreign naval vessels present at HMNB Portsmouth on an overcast 30 October 2015, the other being HNLMS Vlaardingen (M863), an Alkmaar-class Minehunter of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
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The main roles performed by Zeus are oceanographic survey and the installation and maintenance of submarine cable systems. She is fitted with a wide array of cable-handling equipment including 5 cable tanks, cable transporters and cable tension machines. She is crewed by a combination of US Navy and civilian personnel.
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Rene Descartes
I spent a week on the Isle of Mull in October 2014. The only vessel of note seen from the ferry on the way over from Oban was the French cable-layer Rene Descartes which had been at work in Scottish waters since May and was in the process of laying a new fibre-optic cable between Mull and the mainland. She had arrived on the Clyde in June and after working in the Firth, initially between Largs and the Cumbraes, headed north laying more stretches of cable at Loch Fyne, across the Corran Narrows, and between the Kintyre peninsula and Arran.
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BT awarded the £26.9m subsea cabling contract, which is the telecoms company's biggest ever subsea project in UK territorial waters, to three firms, the aim being to provide the Highlands and Islands with superfast, fibre-based broadband. Chelmsford-based Global Marine Systems conducted detailed marine route surveys and supplied the cables. Hampshire-based A-2-Sea Solutions was chosen to work onshore connecting the cables to BT’s terrestrial network.
Rene Descartes is one of six vessels owned by the Orange Marine company which is based in France. She was built in 2002 by Hanjin Heavy Industries, South Korea, and uses her submersible plough and remotely operated vehicles to bury the double armoured cable in the seabed. Dive support vessels, tugs and a shallow water laying vessel, normally provide backup. |
Edit* won the contract to lay 20 sections of subsea cables totalling approximately 400 kilometres. The longest will run for nearly 79km under the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway, with the Western Isles also benefiting from a second link stretching more than 57km between South Uist, and Dunvegan on Skye. The project is scheduled to finish by the end of October, before the winter weather really starts to bite.
Lismore Lighthouse which stands on Eilean Musdile in the Firth of Lorne at the entrance to Loch Linnhe. James Smith of Inverness was the contractor responsible for building the lighthouse which became operational in October 1833. Robert Selkirk, a descendant of Alexander Selkirk, the famous castaway who was thought to be Daniel Defoe's real-life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, was the first Principal Light-keeper and he stayed in this now derelict cottage.
Lismore was a Rock Station relieved fortnightly so that the compliment of four men had six weeks on the rock followed by two weeks ashore with their families. In 1910 most of the Board's lights were changed to dioptric (refractive) but Lismore and Fidra were left as the only remaining purely catoptric (reflective) lights in the service. In June 1965, Lismore's light keepers were withdrawn following the lighthouse`s conversion to automatic operation.
Lismore was a Rock Station relieved fortnightly so that the compliment of four men had six weeks on the rock followed by two weeks ashore with their families. In 1910 most of the Board's lights were changed to dioptric (refractive) but Lismore and Fidra were left as the only remaining purely catoptric (reflective) lights in the service. In June 1965, Lismore's light keepers were withdrawn following the lighthouse`s conversion to automatic operation.
Rene Descartes and a northbound CalMac ferry, photographed from the pier at Grasspoint, Mull, later in the week.
MPSV Atlantis Dweller
MPSV Atlantis Dweller was, seen here at Montrose in April 2014, was built in 2009 by West Contractors of Vindafjord, Norway. She is currently operated by Aberdeen-based Fugro Subsea Services Ltd which specialises in providing ROV support vessels, ROVs, trenching and remote engineering services. The Fugro Group has access to a worldwide fleet of over 50 vessels and 160 ROVs, ROTVs and AUVs. The `Dweller is a multi-purpose support vessel, fitted with a 60t crane, designed to support ROV and topside operations as well as cable handling and hose loading. At 70 metres in length, she has a gross tonnage of 3,346t (1750dwt).
Solitaire
This is Solitaire, at 300 metres (984ft) long (plus pipe laying gantries) and a weight of 96,000 tonnes, she is the world`s largest pipe-laying ship. The huge vessel arrive on the Firth of Clyde in March 2012 and is seen here well offshore, having dropped anchor closer to Bute than the mainland. She was built at Hiroshima, Japan in 1972 and operated as the bulk carrier Trentwood for almost 25 years before being converted at Swan Hunter on Tyneside for her current role. Now registered in Panama, Solitaire carries a crew of 420 when fully operational. She would head north soon after these shots were taken to begin laying a new pipeline for Total, linking into the St Fergus pipeline from the east side of Shetland.
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