The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-09-18

snD'e Srenks-its Buoyed and Picked Up
From the diary of the correspondent of the
London Netrs, We quote a part of the account of
the parting Of the cable on the LIST of July. He
says
The wind had increased in the night. and now
1t was blowing a gale, and in order to keen the
stern OF the ship directly over the line of the cable
1t was necessary to back her almost at full speed
directly against both wind and waves. This, of
course, made her kick and heaye now and AGAIN
tremendously, and three or four times she shipped
green seas over her stern, fairly drenching those
on duty there, and breaking the little gallery
around the stern V wheel, which certainly is not
less than thirty feet above the level of the water.
Orders were given to be in readiness to buoy the
cable if necessary but, as the fault was pro-
nounced to be close at hand, the process O fpickine
up was cOntinued-and most successfully and I'M.
inicrruptediy continued-till about five knots had
come on board, when a heavier sea than usual
striking the ship, she gave u kick so sudden and
severe that the cable was unable to bear the extra
strain thrown upon 1t, and it parted on board,
some two hundred feet beyond the drum. All
check being thus suddenly removed from the
cable, the drum began TO revolye with great ra-
pidity, and the broken end to make frightfnlly
rapid progress toward the stern of the ship, over
which 1T would have disappeared in a very few
seconds had not the stout fellows on duty with the
shoppers put forth their utmost strength, and SO
managed 10 save the French Atlantic Cable liter
ally by a few inches. The buoy was in readiness.
and IN an incredibly short space of time the BUOY
rope was made fast to the end of the cable, and
the buoy itself cast adrift. Two other buoys
were then let go-one by the Great Eastern, and
another by the &anderiG-to serve as mark-buovs
should any accident befall the buoy which held
the end of the cable and graphing become neces-
sary.
July BY six O'Clock this morning the
tempest had dwindled to a calm,'' and all being
prepared, n boat was lowered with a few experi-
enced i" hands" in her, who soon managed to at
tach the chain of the buoy to a stout rope conveyed
from the ship. The latter was then cast adrift.
and once more the cable, banished for a time.
was hanging from the Great eastern. Picking
up then commenced, and by half-past seven the
end of the cable had come over the stern of the
ship, and an hour later the electricians pronounced
the fault to be on board. Splicing commenced
forthwith, and by halfpast ten, to the unspeaka-
bic delight OF every one, we were again {" paying
out" and making our way westward. This was
the first time in the history of submarine tele- |
that q cable had been cut, buoyed, and
picked up again in such deep water during the
process of laying. Although as an engineering
it is not to be named with the famous Crap
ping OF 1866, still as an accomplished fact it is
scarcely less important. We had already seen
that IN calm weather, with the necessary machin-
cry, there was no real difficulty in picking up a
cable of 800 fathoms, and now Sir Samuel Can
ming had shown us that should the weather be
unfayorable for immediate recovery, it was COM
easy, in skillful hands, to buoy the
cable IN a gale of wind, and then when the storm
abated to pick up tine buoy and resume operations.
The fault has been cut out and examined. 1t
ously described. Their mode of occurrence puz-
lies everybody, and although many ingenious
theories have been preached, none Of them will
hold water"