Cable-laying ship ready to connect
New Portland-based vessel will lay fiber-optic cable on the ocean floor
A new ship was christened under the Morrison Bridge this week with the goal of bringing Portland closer to Asia.
The Tyco Durable will tie up at Swan Island’s Portland Shipyard, but its work will be done far offshore Ñ installing and repairing fiber-optic cable along the ocean floor. The projects should improve Internet and phone connections throughout the Pacific Rim.
The 460-foot steel vessel has a nautical range of 25,000 miles, meaning it can circle the globe without refueling, and can carry up to 4,600 kilometers of cable on board at a time. The ship is equipped with five diesel engines, a remote-controlled underwater bulldozer and a robotic vehicle that retrieves damaged cable thousands of miles beneath the surface of the ocean.
The Durable, built in Singapore, is the second cable ship owned by Tyco International to dock at the shipyard. Company officials are banking that both Tyco Durable and Global Sentinel will have plenty of work throughout the Pacific as the telecom industry rebounds.
David Coughlan, president of Tyco Telecommunications, predicted at Tuesday’s downtown christening that “the Tyco Durable will lead our company out of this telecom downturn.”
The industry boomed in the 1990s but crashed under the weight of its excesses. The huge conglomerate Tyco, based in Bermuda, suffered financial losses and scandals.
Its former chief executive, L. Dennis Kozlowski, built Tyco into the world’s largest maker of submarine fiber-optic cable before resigning last year amid charges that he evaded taxes and took hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized compensation and stock.
Tyco didn’t fare as badly as other firms when the telecom boom went bust. Companies that invested millions in laying fiber-optic cable on land and at sea went bankrupt as the cable sat unused.
Tyco spokesman Andrew Kowalik acknowledged that the boom years led to a serious oversupply of cable, both underground and in the Atlantic Ocean. But the Pacific still has potential, he said, and “we’re firm believers that Portland is a hub to Asia.”
Kowalik said employees from 28 telecom firms attended a series of events hosted by Tyco in Portland on Tuesday that culminated in a tour of the new ship and a party at the waterfront restaurant McCall’s.
The Durable will work with a crew of about 65 people. Unlicensed crew members from the Philippines will serve for four to six months at a time, while members of the American Maritime Officers union will work 75 days on and 75 days off.
The Durable is scheduled to steam to Japan this winter, where the crew will load cable for a project that will link Singapore to Asia.
Engineers first laid cable for telegraph operations on the ocean floor in 1866. Tyco got into the business 50 years ago, and its maritime projects span the globe.
Contact Ben Jacklet at-bjacklet@portlandtribune.com.