CS Faraday (1923)

History
United Kingdom
Name	Faraday
Namesake	Michael Faraday
Owner	Siemens Brothers & Co Ltd, London
Operator	Atlantic Telegraph Company
Port of registry	London
Builder	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne
Way number	939
Launched	16 February 1923
Identification	U.K.Official number:147458 Signal: GBPF (Lloyd's 1935-36)
Fate	Sunk by aircraft, 25 March 1941
General characteristics [1]
Type	Cable layer
Tonnage	5533 gross register
Length	415 ft (126 m) o/a 380 ft (120 m) p/p
Beam	48 ft 3 in (14.71 m)
Draught	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Depth	29 ft 3 in (8.9 m) (molded)
Decks	2
Propulsion	3 boilers, 2 6-cyl triple expansion engine
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range	10,000 nmi (19,000 km)

The second CS Faraday was a cable ship built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne, in 1922–23, as a replacement for the ageing CS Faraday built in 1874. Design of the new ship was influenced by long experience with the original ship.

The ship was launched in February 1923 and by the next year was actively engaged in Atlantic cable work. Between then and 1939 when war interrupted civilian cable operations the ship laid cable from Australia to the Mediterranean. In 1939, after a scheme to recover German cable for use was abandoned due to the loss of the intended Continental terminus, the ship was taken over by the Royal Navy, became HMS Faraday for training and then returned to cable work. The ship was lost 26 March 1941 in an air attack causing fires and wreck ashore near St. Ann's Head near Milford Haven. In the attack and wreck sixteen crew were lost. Some remains of the ship remain visible to divers.