A giant cable laying ship has been launched on Teesside bringing jobs and investment

A Giant cable laying ship has been launched on Teesside.

The Cable Enterprise was blessed by the Port Chaplain, Colin Worswick, and had the traditional bottle smashed off the hull. The launch followed a £25 million refurbishment on the River Tees which turned the ship into a specialist subsea cable layer.

The ship is 115 metres long, 32 metres wide and weighs 7000 tonnes unloaded. It can withstand winds of up to Force 7 and waves two metres high. It’ll be used to lay power cables to carry electricity from off shore windfarms back to the shore.

Cable Enterprise will be based on the Tees, opposite the Riverside Stadium, after parent company Global Marine Systems chose the river as the base for a new operation.

The arrival of the ship has created 40 new jobs and many more in the supply chain. Global Marine Systems Energy Ltd hopes to create a new service port opposite the Stadium which will mean a £10 million investment and create up to 400 new jobs.

The ship will sail to its first assignment next week, it’ll be laying cables to the largest offshore windfarm currently under construction.

Off the North Wales coast the wind farm will supply power to 400,000 homes once completed.