Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-09-21
How tho Atlantic Cable Broke.

We copy the following extract from the
report of the Cable Expedition. A de-
feet had been discovered in the cable.
supposed to be several miles off, when the
ship was put about and they commenced
hauling it up:
I will endeavor now to explain to you
how the fatal accident occurred. I say
fatal, for although as I write we are drift.
ing down upon the spot in the hope OF
getting hold of the cable with %grapnels. l
scarcely venture to hope the attempt will
be crowned with success.
Let the reader urn his face toward a
window. imagining he is standing on the
bows of the Great Eastern, and then of
course on his right will be the starboard
and on his left the port side Of the ship.
When the cable was hauled around on the
left hand side and passed over the four
wheels, it was carried over a drum which
we must suppose to be behind the specta.
tors, and coiled up as fast as it was dellv-
cred from the picking-up apparatus; but
when the engines failed to work this ap-
paratus Of course the cable remained mo-
t~ionlcss; and as the ship was drifted by
the wind from right to left and slightly
forward, at last the cable came close up
to the bow and under the fore.foot of the
ship. There are at the bows of the Great
Eastern two large hawser-holes, the iron
rims of which project for more than a foot
beyond the line Of the stem. Against one
OF them the cable caught on the left hand
side while the ship kept moving to the
left, and thus chafed and strained the
cable greatly against the bow. The Great
Eastern could not 60 astern, lest the cable
should be snapped, and without motion
some way, there is no power Of Storage.
At this critical moment, too, the wind
shifted so Us to render it more difficult to
keep the head Of the ship to the cable,
which then chafed so much that in two
places damage was done to it. A shackel
chain and a wire rope belonging to one of
the cable buoys, were passed over the
cable and secured in q blight below the
hawser-holes. These were hauled so as
to bring the cable to the right hand side Of
the boat, the ship still drifting to the left.
II was necessary to do this instead of
veering away, as we were near the end Of
the cut of the cable in the boat. There Is
a large iron wheel with a deep groove,
and the circumference technically a "V"
wheel, from the groove, BY the side Of
which is a "remitar," or smaller wheel,
on the same axis" The cable and the
wire rope together were coming in over
the bows and the groove in the larger
wheel, the cable wound upon a drum be-.
hind the machinery, which was once more
in motion, and the wire rope being taken
in around the capstan, by bars, but the
rope and cable were not coming up in the
right line. but were being hauled in with
a great strain on them at an angle from
the right hand side, so that they did not
work directly in the Nv" in the wheel.
Still the strain was shown on the indi-
Gator to be very high, but not near break
ing strain.
At last up came the cable and wire rope
Stacking together on the Nv" VIII ell in
the boat. They were wound round it
slowly, wire passing over these wheels to-
gether, the first damaged part being on
board, when a jar was given to the dyna-
mometer, which flew up from sixty hun
dred weight, the highest point marked.
with a sudden jerk. three and a half inches.
In the chain shackle and wire rope cham.
Der, as it were, up out Of the groove on
the right hand side Of the Y Of the wheel,
got on the stop" Of the rim of the v
wheel and rushed down with a crash on
the small wheel. giving, nc doubt, a Sc
we're shake to the cable. to which it was
attached. The machinery was still in
motion. and the ropes travelled aft together,
one towards the capstan and the other to-
wards the drum, where, just as the cable
reached the dynanometer, it parted. and
with one bound leaped, as it were, over a
few feet Of intervening space, and splashed
into the sea.
1t is not possible for any words to por-
tray the dismay with which the sight was
witnessed and the news heard. When a
man came aft with a piece Of the inner
end still dashed to the chain, and one saw
the tortured strands, torn wire and LAGER
ated core, it is no exaggeration to say that
strange feelings of pity, as though some
human creature had been mutilated and
dragged asunder by brutal force, passed
through the hearts of the spectators.
Captain Moriarty was just coming to the
foot of the companion to put up his daily
statement of the ships position, having
had excellent observations, when the news
came.
II feel" he said, ave will not feel
much interested in knowing now how far
we are from Hearts Content" However,
it was something to know, although it
was little comfort, that we had now run
precisely one hundred and sixteen miles