The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-21 00:00:00

TT IC TELEGRAPH TO INDIA.

The IP ,st ships of the squadron appointed to con-
vey this . cable, which in a few months will connect
Engler Al with the remotest provinces of our Indian
empire a have either sailed this week or will leave
now in a few days more. Unforeseen causes, stress
of W gather, difficulty in obtaining all the varied
appliances and apparatus necessary for so remote
an d important an expedition, have delayed the start-
ing of some of the ships beyond the time at first
contemplated. The Assaye left Plymouth on Satur-
day, the Tweed dropped down the river on Monday
last, the Marian Moore and Kirkham are well on
their voyage out. Only one more cable ship, the
Cospatrick, remains to follow. As they are all ra-
ther behind time, they will touch at no intermediate
ports, but at once make all sail for Bombay. The
pliblic is, therefore, not likely to hear much of them
till the great labour is completed, and the first inti-
mation of success will most probably appear in
our
own columns in the telegram that will announce the
state of the Bombay and Calcutta markets of the
previous evening. It is only a few weeks since we
gave a very long account of the mode of manufac-
ture of this cable at Mr. Henley's factory—of the
careful way in which it was almost hourly tested
for insulation and resisCance till it finally passed
out from all the machines sheathed 'with galvanised
iron wire to protect it from rust, swathed in hemp
and 'tar over this, and, finally, coated over all with
a mixture of esphalt, tar, and silica, laid on in a
melted state and allowed to cool into a coating hav-
ing almost the hardness of flint, and the flexibility
of rope. In this completed state, nearly la- in. in
diameter, weighing nearly 4 to the mile, and 2g
tons in water, it has been shipped in huge black-
looking coils on board the vessels we have mention-
ed. The Marian Moore has taken about 700 tons,
or 174 miles of the cable ; the Kirkham, 183 miles;
the Tweed, 350 miles ; the Asaaye, 370 miles ;
and the Cospatrick will have 173 miles ; or, in all,
1,250 nautical miles of submarine wire. In addition,
each ship takes out complete telegraph stores for
one station in the Persian Gulf. The little steamer
Charente, to be hereafter called the Amber Witch,
and
to be permanently employed between the sta-
tions in the Persian Gulf, will carry out some 30 or
40 miles of shore ends of great strength, and this
completes the tale of the scientific expedition, than.
which a more perfectly equipped one never left this
country. The whole responsibility of superinten-
dence, from the moment the cable was begun, down
to the proper fitment of every ship chosen to carry
it, has devolved upon Colonel Patrick Stewart, R.E
as well known for his high militaryservices in India.'
as for his superintendence of the admirably worked
land lines through that country. Sir Chas, Bright
and Mr. Latimer Clark have been electrical engi-
neers under Colonel Stewart, and have undertaken
the whole responsibility of laying it successfully,
but the principal labour has fallen to Colonel
Stewart's lot, and to him will be due the great merit
of the success of this national achievement.
Each ship, as we have said, has been most per-
fectly fitted out, and each, as far as equipment goes
forms a perfect expedition in itself—a complete link
in the chain of stations which is to connect Bombay
with the head of the Gulf. The Assaye and the
Tweed, the vessels which have just started with the
greatest lengths of cable, may be taken as fair
samples of the whole squadron. These vessels are
sister ships built of Malabar teak, and intended as
frigates for the old India Company. Both are of
great speed, and both are of such prodigious
strength that there are probably no wooden vessels
in her Majesty's navy so strongly bound together.
In each of these, as in all the other snips of the
expedition, three massive wrought-iron tanks have
been built from the bottom up to the main deck
—one forward, one amidships, and one aft. In
these the cable is carefully stowed away in three
coils, the beginning and end of each coil being car-
ried along the ships to the testing room, and the
tanks are then filled with water by a small steam
pump. A member of Sir Charles Bright's electri-
cal staff goes with each ship, and has sole charge of
the cable, which he can thus test through while
under water in the tanks daily, and in case of any
leakage being discovered have time to watch and
localise the fault in the insulation, if any should '
occur, long before the time for submerging arrives.
Being thus able to watch the condition of the wire
from day to day was of the utmost possible import-
ance, though from various causes it has not been
practicable till now to adopt the precaution. With
each section of the cable is also sent the appliances
necessary for paying out and buoying, with a staff
of skilled workmen for making joints and cutting
out faulty places, if any should be discovered in the
voyage out, iron posts for land lines, grappling
irons for raising the wire, and most perfect and
costly sets of instruments, some of the most delicate
kind, which will b© kept either at the stations or
at the headquarters at Knrrachee, in case of any un-
foreseen difficulties in working.:As far, however, as
the most anxious care and forethought can guard
against accidents none are likely to arise. In fact,
the same delicate system of testing adopted during
the manufacture, which could detect and record the
loss of one thousandth millionth part of the current
.by leakage, shows that, if possible, the cable now
in the tanks on board the Assaye is in even better
electrical condition than when it left Mr. Henley's
works. The Assays was driven into Plymouth by
desperately heavy weather ; yet se strong was the
';111P, and so well was the cable stowed that the
last tests taken before the vessel sailed on Satute dee
eitsie.,ilhowed each section to be in a higher con-
' of insulation than any submarine cable
eve
ahiL exhibited
.._ before. On board each of the
her'eattgeor
ta certain portion of the staff which is
al,lng the o°l\ivirk the line from station to station
tendent and e. At each station will be a superin-
-the latter upt3aseperintendent, with six clerks
be procured;
the pest instrument hands that could
12 years' experie°rmer all gentlemen of from 10 to
land. At so me ,a;ethat the large stations in Eng-
but a dull time; atiklei stations the staff will have
off the Arabien coast _aosab, the lonely point of rock
mayytavrizimanisbtelayn caeb,a e where the hosti-
lity of the Arabs
board a hulk. moored g all to live on
A wen little distance from the
rocky dtesolate shore.
well-chosen r,
2,000 volumes goes out osen ierary of about
with the
avexpedition, and
these will be divided between the
beettl:ns ttahtti3es
The Amber Witch, which will ply
papers, and
threen one of stations.
tions, will bring letters and
ate; will be kept more than two or
months at
a time at one station, so that there will at least be
constant change, if there is not much variety,
The
Bye stations will b e from, Knrrachee to G wadel a
diste.nee of 250 miles, from Gwadel acres
the Gulf
to the peninsula of Khasab, from Khasab
to Buehire
ua
sired from Bu shire to a place called Paw, a small
'eastern township on the estuary at the mouth of the
Euphrates, where
the submarine wire meets the land
lines which carry it to Bagdad, thence to Mossul
(the ancient Ninevel.l), thence to Diabeker, and
B
thence to Scutari, on the Bosphorus, where it joins
land routes. Dr. Esselbach, so
a dozen European
well known among scientific men in this country
to be chief
for his high attainments, is
and
at his disposal
superinten-
dent in charge of the whole line,
•
will be a regular staff of mechanicians, Vic., at the
The headquarters at Kurrachee. reason for going
to the great expense and trouble of making five
-breaks or stations in the Gulf, on a length of 1,200
miles of wire, is, of course, the great difficulty
'which would otherwise be experienced
in tele-
graphing through an unbroken circuit of 1,200
miles, It and
was for the same reason that the Malta
Alexand • line Elec-
tricians was laid in three sections.
triiaes are sanguine in their hopes that, in the
coarse of time, and with increased knowledge and
experience in h
at marine cables, this great difficulty,
or rather obstacle, may be mitigated. As far, how-
ever, as present knowledge goes, nothing appears
more ce ttsia than that
messages cannot be sent
Through long, unbroken circuits of submarine wires
with sufficient rapidity and (Is • tinetness to make
such undertakings profitable, even if there were
no risk of loss while being laid across deep seas.
Even with the short circuits in which the Persian
Gulf line is being laid, Dr. Esselbach is • taking out
with him some beautiful instruments speciallY made
by Professor Wheatstone, Professor Thompson, Mr.
others, in order to mitigate
joken, and with
them
at the electric wave in the the influence conductor,
'Thick, to a certain extent, will interfere with rapi-