Telescoped specimen of the TAT3 armourless submarine cable, made by Standard Telephones and Cables, Southampton, England, 1963

Telescoped specimen of the TAT3 armourless submarine cable, made by Standard Telephones and Cables, Southampton, England, 1963.

This is a deep-sea portion of the TAT3 cable, which ran from Widemouth in Cornwall to Tuckerton in New Jersey. It has no armouring, and its strength is drawn from a central steel strand. It was designed by Bell Telephone Laboratories in America. Rigid repeaters, also of American design, were inserted at intervals of around 37 km. The cable was designed to provide 128 circuits. It was laid by the Cable Ship 'Long Lines' in 1963 and remained in service until 1986.