WHEN THE CABLE BREAKS.

Western Star, 14 February 1922, Page 4

WHEN THE CABLE BREAKS.

When a cable is laid its exact position is. charted by hydrographersWhen a break occurs they can put their finger almost on the spot, though storms will , often sweep the broken ends miles apart. Fnding the cable after a storm is the intricate business.

The cable-ship, often a very fine vessel modelled: on the lines of a steam yacht, steams for the area of of the breakage. There she drops anchor and gets her soundings by means of a machine—the Kelvin deep-sea sounder. Providing the depth tallies with the bvtirographers 'chart, the engineer,;, know' that they are neat the right spot. Anchor is weighed and the ship steams ahead. IShe does not wander aimlessly about, seeking to drag the* cable by chance. There ''must be a working are,a. This is marked by buoys—great red globes with mushroom anchors—that are thrown over to mark the limits of her steaming. Ricrht up in the ship's bowls is a drum. Over this goes a steel rope with a grapnel. As the rope is .paid out a special instrument registers the depth till the cablemen know that they have struck the bottom. All eyes are turned towards the dynamometer, a small clock-like machine that telle the strain en the -n-apnel. The imen know just what strain the rope can stand. They know too whether the strain is natural or artificial. When the former., h increases every so steadily; when artificial it is recorded by violent jerk,, on the face of the dynamometer. Tim ship steams forward at almost rMit angles to her grapnel. The dynamometer is anxiously watched. It mounts steadily—one ton, two tons, three tons. When it records a certain weight the engineers know that the cable has been located at the first drag. The winches begin to grunt and groan, and then in come the hundreds of fathoms of rope hung with strange seaweeds and fantastic sen flowers till the grapnel appears with the cable in its steel teeth. It is brought to the electric teistin«r room near the captain's bridge and thoroughly examined-. The other, end is dragged for and spliced'on to the first end, and in an incredibly short time the skilled electricians on board have cnabrea the vessel to pay out the cable on its original bed.— 'Daily Mail.'