CABLE REPAIRS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 184, 2 May 1931, Page 8

CABLE REPAIRS

Work Nearly Finished IRIS’S DUSY TIME Lifting Grapnel Broken The Cook Strait cable repair work, in which the Iris has been engaged for sbme'- V! weeks past, has been nearly completed, '5 and only .about two full days will be re- /■ quired to finish it off. This last job is f ~, to lay a land end at Oteronga Bay, and 1 '" run out 17 miles of cable to connect withi' I '' a lint from White’s Bay. the sea end of v which has been buoyed. The Iris will then return to Auckland.

The Iris returned to port on Wednes- 1 -' : day nighL and berthed at the Pipitea.'’ Wharf on Thursday morning to coal and to discharge about seven miles of old cable -»■ in good condition, which she had lifted infrom the sea bed. This old cable, which ”1 is not good enough for the heavy work-re-. 1 -®.; quired of the Cook Strait cables, will, be used by the Post and Telegraph Depart- 'A; ment, for short-length, lightly-ueed Com--<:! munioations round the coast. An officer informed a “Dominion” re- ■?-; porter that one of those rare 06- m. casions on which the grapnel which is «»« used for picking up cable had. broken had occurred since the vessel was last in port .-> “We were grappling for No. 1 cable,!* ■ ■he said, “using a Rennie grapnel, the ’ weakest link of which is guaranteed to- ■-$ bear a strain of 20 tons, and will prob- ■ ably bear 30 tons without breaking. We ■- caught the cable all right, and. heaved it / slowly up. 1 The strain-was well beyond the capacity of our dynamometer, which registers up to 7 tons, but we couldn’t let go, so with the ship quivering under the strain, we gradually got the cable ;, out of the water, and. right up to the --s sheaves in the bow. Then the grapnel : » gave out, the heavy link connecting the grapnel itself with the chain snapping, and cable and grapnel disappeared,, while ■■: the ship, her bows, relieved of the tremenhous strain, bucked wildly.,.l don’t know... what was on the cable/’ he -concluded, but ..it miust. have been something pretty substantial.” ■ ■ ? i-. Life on a cable ship while she' is engaged on repair work is by no means an easy. one. From daylight to dusk, any- ■ thing up. to 18 hours, the work is carried on, and all on board have, to keep ail ... jtheir wits’about them, for the',Whole of;; that long spelL ;On-two men,'however, the . .strain is exceptionally, heavy—the master '.. and the navigating officer.'. While approaching the cable to be picked tip, bear- ' tags must” be .taken continuously, aM "absolute - exactitude in. position is ' a neefes- ■ s-ity. On this officer, depends the 1 length. Of tithe taken ..to locate the cable—and • time is money/; -!,