Stamp - Cable Ship

Cable ships More than 99% of the world's Internet traffic travels along the seabed, on fiber-optic submarine submarine fiber optic cables, some of which are thousands of kilometers long. kilometers. At the end of 2025, the TeleGeography website counted 570 in service and 81 planned. These cables are the heirs of the old telegraph lines, then telephone lines, laid on the ocean floor after the invention of Morse code in 1837. In 1851, the first cable link between France (Calais) and England (Dover). In 1858, the United States and Europe were linked for the first time. For the colonial and maritime powers of the time, the submarine telecom cable became strategic infrastructure. France creates the first submarine cable department in Toulon in 1863. It was equipped with a ship purchased from England: the Dix- Décembre, a steamer converted into a cable-laying ship, renamed Ampère (the first of its name) in 1870. She remained service until 1925. Twenty-five other French cable-laying ships followed, thirteen of which are still in service. still in service. Six are operated by Orange Marine, the telecom operator's subsidiary, and seven by Louis-Dreyfus Armateurs on behalf of Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a fiber optic cable nationalized by the French government in 2024. Created with a view to expansion and sovereignty - the cable ships have their own their own blue, white and red flag, adorned with three golden lightning bolts, a star and a naval anchor anchor - today, the French fleet is vital to the smooth operation of the global Internet network. It represents around a third of the total number of cable-laying vessels in the world, This means that we can intervene in virtually any part of the world to repair a damaged or severed cable in just a few days. damaged or severed cable. Olivier Pinaud

Timbre-poste (Héliogravure) : Raphaële Goineau, d'après photo © Orange Marine Contours de feuilles : Création Raphaële Goineau