cablelaying

I'll have a dry martini please ... or maybe it has not been invented yet? The sun is well over the yard-arm where I am.

It's a long way from the ferry to Holyhead! :-)

Looks like it must be 1860-1865 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern The Sept 1861 voyage looks like a contender - "On the second day out [from Liverpool] the wind increased to gale force, causing the ship to roll heavily"

Although, the captain of the ship from 1866-78, during its cable-laying years, was a Wicklow man en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Halpin It seems odd that the saloon and dining saloon would be so luxuriously appointed for that kind of work though.

ccferrie The absolute earliest this could be is 1865, as Lawrence didn't set up in business until then. But logistically speaking, it was probably at least a few years after that. (Robert French, photographer on three-quarters of our Lawrence Collection didn't even start working for William Lawrence until 1880-ish....)

The first of the islands to be electrified, in 1957 acccording to Wiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranmore This cable must be for telephone, not power Who's the guy with both cine and a twin lens?

Suck Diesel Similar to this Rollie? (in another Tynan Donegal shot)

I wonder if that is Denis Tynan, and his wife took the picture?

Suck Diesel They had a telephone cable from 1938 according to a report in the Dail on the Post & Telegraphs from 1939. A new telephone cable has also been laid between Arranmore Island and the mainland at Burtonport (Co. Donegal) in substitution of the wireless telegraph service previously operative which was in need of renewal. A public call office on the island will be opened shortly. So this is either actually from 1957, or it is a replacement telephone/power cable.

Make that 1956 for the electrification according to the ESB. It looks like there was an interesting article about the laying of that cable in the August 1956 edition of the REO (Rural Electrification Office) Report, but I can't locate a copy.

From Wikipedia: At the end of her cable-laying career [1878] she was refitted once again as a liner but once again efforts to make her a commercial success failed. She was used as a showboat, a floating palace/concert hall and gymnasium. She acted as an advertising hoarding—sailing up and down the Mersey for Lewis's Department Store, who at this point were her owners, before being sold. The idea was to attract people to the store by using her as a floating visitor attraction. By the time she was sold piecemeal at auction in 1888 she had become an embarrassment.

Thank you for the photo. So sad to see her in that state.

From PortCities : Eventually, in 1885, the unwanted hulk was hired by Lewis's department store in Liverpool. The store wanted to use her as a music hall, fun fair and a giant advertising billboard. The tired old screw engines were coaxed into powering the ship to the River Mersey, where it was opened to the public at a shilling (5 pence) a head. After exhibition trips to Dublin and the River Clyde, which did not make much money at all, the Great Eastern returned to the River Mersey in 1888.

great photo and unusual end use!

From History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications : By the time the Great Eastern reached Liverpool the port side facing Birkenhead carried the slogan ‘LADIES SHOULD VISIT LEWIS’S BON MARCHE CHURCH STREET’, while on the starboard side facing Liverpool: Towards the stern: LEWIS’S ARE THE FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE Lewis’s name was painted in 30 feet high letters. Towards the bows: RANELAGH STREET LEWIS’S BON MARCHE LIVERPOOL BASNETT STREET MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, BIRMINGHAM On the paddle box: THE BON MARCHE LIVERPOOL