Submarine Telephone Cable Hauler and Gantry at Enderby's Wharf

Summary

A steel gantry and cable hauler situated on the jetty at Enderby’s Wharf, used for loading submarine telephone cables onto cable-laying ships moored in the River Thames. The gantry dates from between 1897 and 1907 while the cable hauler was installed in 1954 specifically to assist in the loading of TAT-1, the first successful transatlantic telephone cable, which went into operation in 1956.

Reasons for Designation

The Submarine Telephone Cable Gantry (1897-1907) and Cable Hauler (1954) at Enderby’s Wharf are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: the gantry and cable hauler are surviving elements of the submarine cable factory at Enderby's Wharf, a site central to global technological development and manufacture of submarine telecommunications cables from the mid-C19 to the mid-C20. The cable hauler was installed specifically to assist with the loading of the first successful transatlantic telephone cable, which became operational in 1956 and represented a major milestone in the history of global communications during this period. The cable hauler is considered to be highly representative of the period;

* Rarity: the gantry and cable hauler are rare surviving examples of dockside equipment used for the loading of submarine telecommunications cables;

* Survival: both structures survive well, being largely complete, and through their orientation clearly illustrate both the relationship between the former factory and the riverside and the process of hauling cable out of the factory and onto cable-laying ships;

* Documentation: the history of the site is well documented in sources by historians of the cable industry and in historic plans and photographs;

* Group value: with the Grade II listed Enderby House, an early-mid C19 building that is one of the few surviving structures associated with the former submarine cable factory at Enderby’s Wharf.

History

When electrical telegraphy was invented in the 1830s, for the first time messages could be conveyed across large distances almost instantaneously. Once the technology had been developed to manufacture cables that could be laid along sea-beds, allowing telegraph messages to be transmitted between continents, the impact on global communications became truly transformative. Submarine cable technology facilitated first global telegraph connections, followed by global telephone networks from the 1950s, and since the 1980s has formed the basis for optical cable networks that carry the majority of internet traffic around the world today.

The first commercially successful submarine telegraph cable was laid between Dover and Calais in 1851, providing a telegraph service between London and Paris for the first time. A small section of this cable was armoured at the Küper and Company factory at Morden Wharf, Greenwich. In 1854, Küper and Company became Glass, Elliot and Company, who in 1857 purchased the derelict Enderby Hemp & Rope Works including Enderby House (NHLE entry 1079026; Grade II) to manufacture armoured submarine cables. Following unsuccessful attempts in 1857 and 1858 to lay a lasting, functional transatlantic telegraph cable, Glass, Elliot and Company merged with the Gutta Percha Company and registered as the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company in 1864. This company became known as Telcon and manufactured the cables for the first successful and enduring transatlantic connection in 1866 between Valentia Island, Ireland and Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, Canada. That cable was laid by the SS Great Eastern (1858), a passenger steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and subsequently converted into a cable-laying ship. Telcon went on to dominate the global industry; between 1870 and 1891 all submarine telegraph cables were manufactured by British companies with factories on the River Thames, including Telcon’s cable works at Morden Wharf and Enderby’s Wharf. Telcon manufactured and laid the first transpacific telegraph cable in 1902.

The advent of radio telegraphy and telephony in the early C20 depressed the market for submarine cable manufacture; the distances over which submarine cables could successfully transmit telephone conversations were limited by the high capacitance of the gutta percha insulation. But technological breakthroughs and the discovery of polyethylene in 1933 rekindled hopes of a cable that could transmit telephone conversations across distances as large as the Atlantic Ocean, although polyethylene was not available for commercial use until after the Second World War. In 1935 Telcon and its sole UK competitor, Siemens Brothers, merged their submarine cable divisions to form Submarine Cables Limited (SCL), which operated out of Enderby’s Wharf.

The first transatlantic telephone cable, known as TAT-1, was laid from 1955 to 1956 between Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland. The new design of coaxial cable facilitated the transmission of 36 simultaneous phone calls between Britain and North America, far more than the radio-telephone service that had been in use since 1927 and, crucially, more secure against interception. Two separate cables were required at lengths of 1,942 nautical miles and 1,945 nautical miles. The majority of the cable was manufactured by SCL at Enderby’s Wharf, but the company also opened a second factory in Erith to meet the project timescales.

Cable-laying ships were moored against dolphins towards the centre of the river, away from the riverbank, allowing the ships to stay afloat at low tide. Completed cable was led out from the top of storage tanks in the factory and along high-level cableways across the factory roof to a cable shoot that carried it to a tall gantry on Enderby’s Wharf. From here the cable was routed through the middle of the gantry and along an array of rollers suspended from a steel catenary or bearer line, which terminated at a davit on the foredeck of the ship. A cable hauler aboard the ship pulled the cable along this whole assemblage and into the ship’s hold. Another cable hauler on the jetty of Enderby’s Wharf was apparently primarily used for winding unused cable off the ships to make space for new cable, but it could also be used in series with the hauler aboard the ship as auxiliary power for heavier cables.

While the riverside factories and warehouses at Enderby’s Wharf have been demolished, two key components of this industrial process survive on the jetty itself. The larger structure is a steel gantry used for conveying the cable off the factory roof level and down to the catenary, which from mapping evidence dates to between 1897 and 1907. The second, smaller structure is the cable hauler, primarily used for hauling unused cable off the ships prior to loading new cable. The present cable hauler dates from around 1954 when it was apparently installed specifically for the loading of TAT-1 onto the cable-laying ship HTMS Monarch (4). This cable hauler may have upgraded an earlier piece of equipment. The cable hauler comprises a motor-driven cog and wheel supported on a base of girders. These girders are welded together and have embossed labels from at least two different steelworks: Jarrow in Tyneside and Shelton in Stoke-on-Trent. The motor itself bears the name ‘Crofts’. The jetty itself is thought to have been substantially rebuilt 1951-1952.

In 1970, SCL was acquired by Standard Telephones and Cables (STC). The last cable to be loaded from Enderby’s Wharf was Australia-Papua New Guinea (A_PNG) system in 1975. After that production moved first to STC’s factory in Southampton, and then to Calais when Alcatel Alstrom acquired STC in 1994, marking the end of UK submarine cable manufacture. Around 2000, the jetty was resurfaced, and the cable hauler was repositioned a few metres back from the edge of the jetty.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: located on the jetty at Enderby’s Wharf, on the west shore of the Greenwich Peninsula, the Submarine Cable Winding Gear comprises two distinct structures arranged perpendicular to the River Thames. The larger structure, set towards the back of the jetty, is a tall gantry that was used to guide the cables out of the nearby factory at roof level and onto a series of rollers suspended from a catenary leading to the cable-laying ship. The gantry dates from between 1897 and 1907. The smaller structure in front of the gantry is a cable hauler, which was used to pull spare cable off ships prior to loading and could also be used to assist with hauling new cable out of the factory. The cable hauler was installed on the end of the jetty in 1954, before being moved back a few metres around 2000.

DESCRIPTION: both structures are primarily constructed from galvanised steel. The gantry is a tapered structure formed from four legs with arched bulkheads between, with a platform at the top carrying three masts/flagpoles. The platform is surrounded by railings and is accessed by an integrated ladder to one side of the gantry. The cable hauler has a motor-driven axle carrying a large wheel for the cable to be wound over and a smaller cog, both supported on a base of steel girders. At least two of these girders have embossed place names probably referring to the steelworks where they were manufactured: ‘JARROW’ and ‘SHELTON’. One of the upper stanchions bears the name ‘EARL’ and the motor or gearbox bears the name ‘Crofts’.

EXCLUSIONS: the steel fencing around the gantry and cable hauler and the steel railings to the edges of the jetty are excluded from the scheduling.

Sources

Books and journals
What have the British ever done for us? in Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine, ,Vol. 138, (September 2024), 58-67

Websites
Enderby Wharf: the home of the communications revolution, accessed 30 May 2024 from https://enderbywharf.wordpress.com/1970-coaxial-cable-2/
The Telcon Organisation (1951), accessed 30 May 2024 from https://greenwichpeninsulahistory.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/telcon-organisation-1951/
History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications, accessed 30 May 2024 from https://atlantic-cable.com/
Küper and Co, accessed 9 May 2025 from https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Kuper_and_Co
Crofts (Engineers), accessed 15 May 2025 from https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Crofts_(Engineers)

End of official list entry