Navy Awards SST $13.5M Contract
By Eric Fetters, Herald Writer

EDMONDS — When residents here send e-mail to relatives in Asia or make business calls to Europe, the bits of information and voice pulses often shoot through fiber-optic cables crisscrossing the oceans. To keep the globe connected, however, someone has to lay the cables thousands of feet down on the ocean floors. It's obviously more complicated than burying cables along the street across a few blocks of town. That's where Edmonds-based Sound & Sea Technology Inc. comes in.

Owners Dallas and Judith Meggitt have built a business by providing undersea engineering assistance for the installation of telecommunications cables and a variety of military-related projects.

"One of the advantages we have is we know who to go to for the expertise," Dallas Meggitt said, "while the customer may not."
That knowledge is valuable. This summer, the small firm landed a five-year, $13.5-million contract, beating out several competitors, including a Fortune 500 company.

While the Meggitts work from an office in their Edmonds home, their work takes them far afield. A few months ago, for example, Dallas spent time on Ascension Island, a remote 34-square-mile volcanic patch in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean.

There, he and other contractors performed seafloor surveys and installed cables for sensors that will detect secret nuclear weapons tests. The monitoring station is being set up as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The Meggitts, both 59, also have worked on projects much closer to home. They assisted in the installation of Global Crossing's undersea cables that run from Mukilteo to California and Japan.

Dallas spent more than 20 years as a civilian employee for the U.S. Navy, designing and installing underwater sensors and other equipment.
He then worked in the private sector until a buyout of his employer gave him a choice: quit his job or move to Rhode Island.

So he and Judith, who once worked in administration for Northrop Grumman Corp., started their own company in 1999. With Dallas' engineering experience and Judith's administrative skills, the husband and wife found they also make a good business team.

"We understand the requirements very well and we have substantial commercial experience," Dallas said. "And we operate virtually, so we can work anywhere in the world."

Since then, the Meggitts have contributed to two dozen different projects, gaining clients through word of mouth. Since Sound & Sea's start, the couple have established an office in Ventura, Calif., and have 10 other employees around the nation who work with them via computers.

Sound & Sea's start coincided with a boom in the undersea cable sector.
Less than 15 years ago, satellites carried the vast majority of international voice and data traffic. Then AT&T Corp. finished laying the first undersea fiber-optic cable between New Jersey and Britain.

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