WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE PESKY CABLESHIPS?

BY REBECCA SPENCE

Wow, can we really be three quarter of the way through 2022? This year has really flown by with the world seemingly returning to normalcy after the chaos of covid. The global submarine cableship fleet is no different, with landings and cable announcements being released at a consistent pace.

With the number of projects currently accomplishing their wet plants around Africa and the Middle East, it is no surprise that EMEA saw almost half of all reported vessel activity in the past two months at 48 percent. 2Africa, the Saudi Vision Cable, Equiano and PEACE cable are all actively going into the water. Google is expected to announce the completion of the Equiano cable system in the coming weeks, freeing up several vessels that have been working for many months to complete the lengthy project. This project includes the Ile de Sein which was seen landing Equiano cable in Melkbosstrand, South Africa at the beginning of August. West Africa, the North Sea, and North East Atlantic have all seen a regular amount of activity sharing 26 percent of the overall activity between the three regions in this data set as well as the two months prior that we analysed in the last issue.

Ile de Sein

The number of vessels reporting East Asia as their location did increase from 15 percent to 17 percent and remains the busiest section of the Austral Asia region. These past two months 43 percent of vessel activity came from the Austral Asia region, up from 38 percent in the July Issue of Where in the World are Those Pesky Cableships.

Lodbrog

Reliance

At the beginning of September, the Reliance and Lodbrog, two of the less common vessels shared on social media, were both spotted off the coast of Singapore. Both images courtesy of Andrew Blears.

The C/S Intrepid has been hard at work on the wet plant for the AU-Aleutian system in Alaska. This project and the movements of the Intrepid account for much of the 6 percent of vessel activity seen in the Americas over the past 60 days.

It Intrepid

Cable Vigilance

The biggest news in the world of Cableships these past two months was the inauguration of OMS’ newest vessel, the Cable Vigilance in Dunkirk! She was originally built in 2006 and underwent a comprehensive conversion at the Remontowa Shipyard in Poland earlier this year. The Cable Vigilance and her team are already fulfilling their duties as a repair vessel, having recently repaired the Greenland Connect cable after a fault was discovered in late June. Welcome back to the fleet!

Until next time, my dear vessel enthusiasts, travel safe. You know where to tag me, so keep those vessel shots coming! STF

REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum. Rebecca possessed more than 10 years’ experience as an analyst and database manager, including for the small business division of prominent government contractor, General Dynamics IT. She is a regular contributor to SubTel Forum Magazine and is based out of Hillsborough, North Carolina USA.