Cable Repair Ship

A cable repair ship is a vessel kept on standby to locate, recover, splice, and reinstall faulted submarine telecom or power cables, usually within a contracted maritime maintenance zone such as the Atlantic Cable Maintenance Agreement (ACMA) or North American Zone. It carries grapnels, a cable engine, jointing tents, a holding tank or carousel of spare cable, and often a remotely operated vehicle for fault inspection and burial. Repair practice follows International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) recommendations; cable faults are commonly caused by fishing gear and anchors per ICPC fault statistics.