CS Mackay-Bennett
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | CS Mackay-Bennett |
| Namesake: | John Mackay & Gordon Bennett |
| Operator: | Commercial Cable Company |
| Port of registry: | London, England |
| Builder: | John Elder & Co., Glasgow |
| Launched: | September 1884 |
| In service: | 1884 |
| Out of service: | May 1922 |
| Homeport: | Halifax, Nova Scotia / Plymouth, England |
| Fate: |
Storage hulk, May 1922 Scrapped, 1963 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type: | Cable ship |
| Tonnage: | 2,000 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: |
270 ft (82 m) o/a 250 ft (76 m) p/p |
| Beam: | 40 ft (12 m) |
| Depth: | 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m) moulded |
| Propulsion: |
2 × Compound inverted 2-cylinder engines 2 × Cylindrical single-ended multi-tubular boilers |
CS Mackay-Bennett was a cable repair ship registered in London, England, owned by the Commercial Cable Company. The men who served aboard her pronounced the name "Macky-Bennett." She had a long career fixing undersea cables in the North Atlantic. Although mainly based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, she was also often used for operations on the European side of the Atlantic. Her European home port was Plymouth, England.
She became famous when, in April 1912, she was contracted by the White Star Line to carry out the difficult task of recovering the bodies left floating in the North Atlantic after the Titanic disaster. Mackay-Bennett found 306 of the 1517 Titanic victims, with 328 recovered in total. These bodies included that of John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man aboard.
The Canadian author Thomas Raddall worked as wireless operator aboard Mackay-Bennett and based some short stories on his experiences aboard.
The Mackay-Bennett was retired in May 1922 to the waters of Plymouth Harbour to be used as a storage hulk. During The Blitz on England, she was sunk during a German attack, but later refloated. She was finally scrapped in 1963.
References
- Notes
- ↑ "History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Commercial Cable Company 1886". atlantic-cable.com. http://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/CCC-Teleg/index.htm#mackay. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- Bibliography
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