Termination fixture for a marine seismic streamer cable

Claim 1

A termination fixture for a seismic marine streamer cable section that is to be towed underwater, said cable section being in the form of an elongated tubular plastic jacket for containing a plurality of hydrophones and electrical conductors, the jacket being reinforced along its length by a plurality of tapes braided from plastic fibers of high tensile strength that are embedded in the wall of said jacket, short lengths of said tapes being exposed by stripping away a part of the wall of the plastic jacket at an end thereof, the termination fixture comprising: a cylindrical bulkhead having inner and outer walls, a first portion of said outer wall having a smooth inwardly tapered surface and a second portion of said outer wall being untapered, the untapered portion having a diameter to fit snugly inside an end portion of said jacket; a cylindrical wedge for gripping the exposed lengths of said tapes between the tapered portion of said bulkhead and the interior of said cylindrical wedge; said cylindrical wedge being a collar having an outer wall and a smoothly tapered inner wall that is mateable with the tapered outer wall portion of said bulkhead; and means for doubling back said exposed lengths of said tapes over the outer wall of said collar and means for externally binding said doubled-back tapes and the end portion of said jacket to the untapered outer wall portion of said bulkhead.