The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-11

him, but should be obliged TO send his CON
| gratulations and receive his wellmerited
honors on bed of sickness, prepared for him
| by over work and over anxiety for a great
cause When we got to Beerhaven, all our
fair felow-travellers took their leave, and left
us alone. This was sad indeed; but one can
not be dull on board a ship like the Great
! Eastern, where so much Of interest is daily
going on.
There were now several ARRANGEMENTS
to be made before we started on the real
business of the expedition. Some thousands
of tons Of coal had to be taken on board, and
for this purpose nearly a hundred of the native
peasantry had been engaged. Their pay was
to be 5s. day and their rations, and vet
Notwithstanding themunifcence ofthe stipend,
devil bit would they work. No. they were
full of excuses. ooh, bedad, your honor, I'll
do as much work as ony man, barring it's not
in caul hole" "Put me in the open fields,
your honor, to hay-mowing or oow-milk-
ing, and Pm the boy that will tire out the
parish; but, by jabers 'twould tear the soul
out of ony man to work all day with his mouth
so full of cinders that he can't spit" And so
on, through fifty or sixty. The end of it was,
that they all had permission to go, and the
5s. per diem was given to the ships men, who
were glad enough to get it, and willing to
work.
The Great Eastern is a wonderful ship, but
not until you have lived on board her for at
least week are you fully aware of her size.
Every day one comes across something new
that strikes with amazement. AS an instance
of this, let me mention the shorings of the
tanks. 1t is exceedingly unpleasant to have
to perform the journey necessary to see them,
but in the end the adventurous traveller is
well repaid. You cannot see much after all,
except what is revealed by the light of an oil
lamp for in these regions darkness reigns
supreme.
What this part of the ship was used for be-
fore the tanks were erected ] have not an
idea, but now it presents the appearance of
dead forest, all the trees of which have been
roughly trimmed. The amount of timber used
for supporting the tanks is simply appalling,
and must be reckoned by shiploads Huge
beams stretch in all directions, vertical, hori-
zontal, and diagonal, firing the eye by their
similarity and numbers, and giving an idea of
almost unnecessary strength. This may be so
as long as the ship is at rest, but when she be-
gins to roll, as she alone knows how, it must
be work of extraordinary solidity, and put to-
gether with great engineering skill, that will
bear up against dead weight of 1000 tons
pressing upon it in all directions. Another
remarkable spot is the ships ice-house, where
were stored some 100 tons of ice and nearly
10000 pounds of dead meat. Another spot
worthy of notice was the farm-yard in the bow
of the ship. Here was flock of Ia sheep,
herd of 10 oxen, a milch COW, and 36 pigs,
besides 300 head of poultry. By closing the
eyes, and simply listening to the chorus of
bleating, lowing, cackling, and growing, one
imagined oneself in a large farmyard in the
depths of Hampshire rather than on board
the Great Eastern. On July IL we sailed
| from Beechaven, and by P. M. on the
| following day we had effected the splice with
the shore end off Valentia, and had fairly
started on our journey across the Atlantic.
| The voyage, as of course you know, was one
of uninterrupted prosperity. We steamed
slowly but surely ahead, and the cable passed
noiselessly and continuously over the wheel
in the stern for fourteen long days and as
| many nights. The insulation was always per-
| feet, ditto the continuity. In fact, everything
was managed so well, and all possible acct
dents were so wonderfully guarded against
| that had it not been for one little incident that
rather woke us up, | am afraid we should
have regarded the laying of an Atlantic cable
! as one of the simplest operations possible,
and nothing to make fuss about. The
| night of July 18th will always be
! easily remembered by all who sailed in the
Great Eastern ON that occasion. This was
the night on which the ''foul fake'' occurred.
dare say you are rather wondering what a
| "foul flake" is. ! will try and tell you. As
the cable was leaving the tank and as one of
| the coils nearest to the circumference was
| sweeping inwards towards the "eye," passing
in its course, over the flake of cable next
beneath it, rough piece of yarn or project
ing wire, don't know which, caught in four or
five of the coils below it, and dragging them out
of their normal positions, took them bodily into
the "eye'' of the coil, and so on out of the tank
and into the trough along which the cable
travels to reach the paying-out gear. The
mischief was done in a minute, in far less time
than it takes to describe, and it was a marvel
to all on board that so complicated a knot
could be tied in so short time. 1t could
hardly be called knot; it was awondrous en-
tanglement; what would be called in the west
of England ''terIible harl." You remember
last year, when you were sitting in the sum-
mer house (you know where mean), holding
a skein of silk, while certain "sweet young
thing" to whom have alluded before, was
trying to wind the aforesaid silk on to a
reel, that either owing to your unsteadi-
ness or clumsiness (of course yours) the silk
got into a regular mess, which took the lady
and yourself the whole of that afternoon to
unravel. If you Tecollect the above fact Gas
of course you do not), and if you can call to
your minds eye the appearance presented by
that skein Of silk, then, and only then, you
! will have some idea of the "foul flake" only
! you must imagine each thread of silk to be
more than an inch in diameter, and nearly as
stiff as the kitchen poker.
! The instant the mischief occurred the ship
was stopped, and the engine was reversed.
| MIR. Canning and the other chiefs were at the
! scene OF accident in a moment. The case looked
hopeless, and the first determination was to
cut the cable and buoy it till daylight, for to
aou TO the misfortune, the night was as
uark as pitch, and the rain was descending in
torrents wish we had had one of the
Davenport brothers on board to help us out of
the olIlcnlty' 1t was certainly such knot