IRIS REPAIRS CABLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 244, 15 October 1931, Page 9

IRIS REPAIRS CABLE

LIFT FROM GREAT DEPTH. NEW SECTION SPLICED. WORK HAMPERED BY GALE. The cable steamer Iris, which returned to Auckland on Sunday evening, had repaired a defective section of cable 800 miles from Wellington. The cable was picked up from a depth of 9728 feet, which constitutes a record for any repair work accomplished by this ship. Leaving Auckland on September 26, the Iris took on board 100 miles of spare cable suitable for this particular work at Wellington and resumed the voyage on October 1. The steamer having arrived at the scene of the fault (determined by latitudinal and longitudinal bearings on a chart), particular care had to be taken to grapple the cable more than five miles from the actual fault. The last visit there, in 1917, resulted in a long section of abandoned cable being left alongside the good one, and to have picked up the useless section by mistake would have resulted in a loss of a valuable day. Work was hampered by a gale which caused the ship to lie hovc-to for 24 hours, and the following day the cable was grappled, cut, and the New Zealand end bouyed. Some idea of the depth at which the cable was first caught may be gained from the fact that it took more than five hours to bring it to the surface.

Tests were carried out on the Australian halfof the cable every few miles until, just 14 miles from the bouyed end, it was found that the defect had been passed. The new section was spliced on and dropped over board, and tho Iris then returned to join it up to the New Zealand end. It is exceptional to have to carry out repair work at this extreme depth, decay of insulation or corrosion bcbig the only factors responsible for defects. The Sydney-Wellington line was laid 40 years ago, and consists of nine strands of copper wire, well sheathed and insulated, to a diameter of threequarters of an inch. Two samples of the bottom of the Tasman Sea where tho cable was repaired were secured by the captain of the Tris, who remarked on tho particularly harmless nature of the white, flaky clay. The return trip to Auckland was ma lo under good conditions in a little over two days.