CS Mackay-Bennett

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CS Mackay-Bennett around 1900
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 in Dry Dock at Halifax, Nova Scotia

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.

In addition to carrying out numerous difficult cable repairs, many during times of wartime danger, Mackay-Bennett performed many rescues. Typical was the rescue of the crew of the sinking schooner Caledonia on February 12, 1912.[2] However, Mackay-Bennett 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 the majority of the recovered bodies of Titanic victims, retrieving 306 of the 328 bodies that were found from the 1,517 who perished aboard Titanic. These bodies included that of John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man aboard, Isidor Straus, owner of Macy's Department Store and architect Edward Austin Kent. As the first of four ships to search for Titanic victims, Mackay-Bennett found so many bodies that embalming supplies ran out and her captain, Frederick H. Larnder was forced to bury 116 bodies at sea.[3]

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
  1. ↑ "History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Commercial Cable Company 1886". atlantic-cable.com. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
  2. ↑ "An Echo of a Past Tragedy, The Diary of Frederick Hamilton (Cable Engineer: MacKay Bennett)", Encyclopeida Titanica
  3. ↑ "Titanic Victims", Maritime Museum of the Alantic
Bibliography


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