BY CABLE TO THE ARCTIC.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10671, 21 January 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

BY CABLE TO THE ARCTIC.

-V new storv of man's struggle with the wild forces of the frozen >iorth comes out in the account of «the construction of the Alaskan Government telegraph line by the United States Simfal Corps, as told by Mr George E. Wahdi. "Almost insurmountable dimculties" were conquered on land and sea and for years the men battled with the climate and other penis until their resources and nerves taxed to the utmost." So while the completion of this line is a triumph in many wavs, it shows particularly what . a small body of plucky individuals can do in a short time." . •- It must bo remembered, Mr \\ alsh reminds us, that prior to the SpanishAmerican War the United States had no cable whatever, and the Signal Corps men had no experience with cable-ships or grapnlmg machines. The world s cables were handled by English, Gerpian or i'ryiK-h ships and workmen. Whin the war with Spam broke out, th" isavv and Army immediately telt the need of cable-cutting and cable-lay-ing ships. The need was met in astrange way: "The converted cruiser \ale one day captured the Spanish merchant ship Rita off the coast of Cuba. This minor incident of the war may have lclt no impression upon the minds of readers or the papers; but the Juita was .destined to figure as a most important 1 actor in the future triumphs of peace. "She was remodelled as a-caole-snip and re-christened the Burnside. It.is this-ship which has achieved such lasting glorv tor the Signal Corps Service. Serving as a cable-ship off the coast of Cuba untd the war ended, she sailed for the Philippine Islands. It was imperative that cables should be laid along the different islands of our. new possessions in'the Far East, and, the Burnside" proceeded to reel out hundreds ot miles of cable. •■-■.. "Over 200 miles of submarine cable were laid around Manila and the adjacent towns of the coast. . The Burnside was then brought home and finally commissioned to lay the Alaskan cable. Altogether she has laid over. 1000 miles | of cable. It is estimated that at the end of 1914 the United States Government will have ill operation over. 3500 miles of submarine cable's, nearly onehalf of which were laid- by old Spanish merchantship sßita, or as.she is now called, Burnside. This makes our Government the.second in the_niimber of miles of submarine , wire laid and owned, exceeding the possessions ot Great Britain, arid Ireland by over 800 miles, and about 1500 ; miles less than the number owned by France. And this has all been accomplished within the few vears elapsing since the SpanishAmerican War,' ancl the Burnside. has the glory of doing most of the work. Surely the triumphs of peace sometimes ! select strange agencies for the accomplishment of ends! : - "The new all-American Alaskan cable was laid bv the Bnrnsido -tip the eoapt from Seattle to Skagway near the head of Lynn Canal. Branches, wc.ro run to Sitka, the nominal'capital,-.of Alaska, and to Juneau, Haines Mission, and two other places along, the coast. . "The Alaskan coast in winter is wild and rough, with the sea filled with great cakes of ice, and even in summer dangerous icebergs float clown from th?. north. The Burnside encountered great difficulties :n rceliiuc "«it the cable. .. When her work was finished, the cable was found to work perfectly, and A\ ashinston began to talk with the cities ot Nome. Juneau, Sitka, and Dawson. . . "Meanwhile, strenuous work on land was being performed - by the Signal Corps men who we're : eom missioned to bring wires'across-country to connect, with the* cable"-at different-points. ; The difficulties of. this w ; ork were i it many, respects greater thaii these encountered; cm'the seas. .Here was a wild, uninhabited country, thousands of miles m exteiit, swept by blizzards in winter, and i>oft and marshy, in summer, across which wires had to be stretched strong enough to resist the storms of winter and withstand thp,floods and frej.hcts of the .short summers. The workmen bad to carry thcirsupplies of provisions with them, working weeks and months hundreds of miles away from any l>;ise ot supplies.-From Eagle to Valdea they iolknved the old Government trad 400 miles in length: but down the Tanana. they broke entirely new. unexplored regions, and had to siring the wires over snow a dozen feet dee)), and then return in summer to crert . the poles. From Yukon to St. Michael they passed through 800 miles of the most inhospitable country, struggling against blizzards and storms that threatened to destroy them. Up from St. Michael

through the Tanaiia\ they worked in the heat or a summer th.it seemed greater than any. that ever visited the tropics, and thou to make matters worse a forest fire broke out in their rear and swept hundreds of miles of newlyerected poles away." When they reached Norton Sound, within sight of Nome, a cable across the sound was suggested. But for six months in the year the water would be frozen solid, and when the cold winter came the cable would be snapped like straw. The only possible solution was In- wireless telegraphy: •'So, far up there under the Arctic Circle, a wireless-telegraph station was established. Long timbers were transported up the coast and across the country for masts to support the wires at the stations. Great quantities of electrical apparatus were carried to the station, and then the experiment proved ;i failure. The impulses across the sound were so slight that it seemed as if wireless, telegraphy in that- great, cold, northern country had lost its power. Other apparatus was shipped, and in time the long line to Nome was completed by the successful working of this last stretch. ""With the all-American Alaskan hue completed, the question of maintaining it now comes up for solution. In the winter season the awful blizzards and snow-storms destroy the telegraph-poles and snap the wires so that interruptions arc common. Relay stations have to he established at frequent intervals, and repair crews are ready to hunt up troubles'with the wire at any moment. These repair crews. arc provided with dog-trains or reindeer, sledges,..and .on •these' they cross miles of frozen counft-y----in the worst sort of Arctic weather." "In the spring and summer the snow melts rapidly on the sides of the mountains, :and the swollen rivers and streams inundate the. country, away poles and .-tangling fallen wires. The repair crews must'then in : ;their summer: outfits struggle water, marsh, mosquitoes, and millions of other annoying insects. Often the ground in the valleys is so soft that the crew cannot cross to reach the poles. !'Then again, upon the hleak mountain, sides, and in the passes, the wind attains a velocity .frequently- of sixty, miles an hour, and trees /and;- telegraph poles l are swept down; like: chaff. Hotv £ to 'protect the line; fr&.m such storms is; another problem.".; f i