insulated electrical and or optical conductors surrounded by an extruded waterproof jacket the stress member 202 is preferably external to the first conductor cable 204 and the second conductor cable 206 such that the first conductor cable 204 and the second conductor cable 206 are constructed independently of the stress member ocean bottom cables are traditionally attached end to end by connectors that transmit electrical signals from electrical conductors in one ocean bottom cable to electrical conductors in another ocean bottom cable connectors generally also transmit mechanical forces held by internal stress members between two connected ocean bottom cables ocean bottom cables with internal stress members are traditionally expensive and complex in part because the connectors must terminate stress members and conductors a benefit of an external stress member is that it may terminate at a point independent from an electrical conductor termination in other words a stress member 202 may terminate at a connector that does not terminate a conductor the external stress member may be of any length independent of the electrical conductor length in a preferred embodiment the stress member 202 terminates only at each end of the obc array 100 and is therefore substantially continuous along the obc array 100 a continuous length of the stress member 202 may be up to 10 15 kilometers and would significantly reduce the number of connectors and simplify their design the stress member 202 may be constructed of synthetic fiber or steel and is preferably continuous along the length of the.