Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-06-21


A correspondent Of the New York Journal of
Commerce, writing from on board the steam frig'
ate Niagara, at Plymouth Eng, June 8, gives an
interesting account of the experimental trip of
the Geographic feet to test the practicabiity of
laying the cable. He says;
1.-THE feet proceeded to the Bay of Biscay, lat.
AZ II N, lon. 90.32 w. when signal was made by
this ship to the Gorgon to sound. Immediately
her boat was seen in the water engaged in com
plying with her request, and in about two hours
the depth was reported at 2590 fathoms, say
about two miles and three quarters. This being
deeper than any water on the route between Va
lentia, Ireland, and Newfoundland, the spot was
at once selected for the experiments. According
ly, the sterns of the two paying-out ships were
connected by hawsers, at the distance of about
six hundred feet from each other, and the end of
the wire cable sent by hauling line from
Niagara to Agamemnon where it was spliced to
the end of hers. and both ships commenced pay
ing out. Although the wire used was a piece of
condemned cable put on board to be expended,
and was very defective in many parts, yetitreach
ed the bottom in perfect safety, and was wound
up afterwards nearly to the surface of the water
but the hawser connecting the vessels having
meanwhile parted, of course the wire broken
when stretched taut' between the ships, both
machines winding up at the same time This
was regarded as highly encouraging, The exper-
iment was made at night under disadvantages,
and with the old cable, too. The machinery per-
formed its part, both in paying out and winding
up, admirably. Tele2raphing constant be.
tween the ships during the process.
Thd second experiment was with a portion of
the good wire, the Atlantic Telegraph cable
proper This was spliced in the same way, paved
out equally well to the bottom, and messages
sent through 1900 miles.
This wire hung at the stern of the ships, sus.
tanning its own weight in nearly three miles of
tOr bOuT eleptria =; ho;r
Kept up IN the meantime through the fifteen hun
dred miles, when the AgamemnOn made signal
wire parted 1t broke her STERN from the
long continued tension and chafe from the mo-
tlon OF the ship. On board the Niagara the ca
Bile was wound mp to within short distance of
the splice where it had been broken second
time, it is supposed by dragging on the bottom
Wnlle beng wound up. This wire was bearing a
strain at times of tifty-one hundred pounds, as
shown by the dynamometer-and when it came
In, over the wheels, was so kinked and cured
twisted and unlaid, as to be entirely unfit for
furtherus In one place it was twisted into half
dozen hard knots all together
The third and last experiment which deserves
mention, was the trial of the buoy.
The splice was made before described, the
cable being the condemned, like that in the first
experiment the hawser between the vessel was
cast off, and both steamed away in opposite di :.
rectlons. Agamemnon soon made signal, 'ca
Die parted Niagara kept on and paid out three
and quarter miles then attaching the large buoy
and small watch buoy, dropping them overheard,
steaming away from the buoys and paving ont
She had not gone more than three hundred Yards
wher the wire parted on the wheels, from its own
defects. Niagara then returned to pick up the
buoy, but before she reached it lit toppled over
showing the cable to be detached. On examina.
ton 1t was found the wire had cut through ia
inch rope by which it was attached to the buoy,
In forty minutes time, merely by the undulation
of the sea. My deductions from these expert
ments are follows:
LIST. That the machinery is perfect
"a. That by constant Watching and BY putting
on the least possible retardation, the ships going
SIX or seven knots the cable can be laid
81 That any attempt to buoy the cable in deep
water VIII be time cable. and buoy lost This
has been much insisted on-this buoying but it
Is now the general opinion that under no crcum-
stances would the cable fail to twist off in a few
hours.
Attn. That any long stoppage of the ship by ac.
cldent to ships. engines, or by repairs Of defec
tive parts of cable, will be fatal"