Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-26
SHIPS PULL UP CABLES.
QUEER FISHING WITH PROPELLER
SCREWS OF BIG BOATS.

QUEER FISHING With PROPEhlER
SCREWS OF BIG BOATS.
Submarine Cable from New York to
Liverpool and Back-Experience of a
Ship That Ran Into the Mud.
Submarine cables laid in shallow wa
ters are often exposed to greater risks
and rougher treatment than the great
ocean cables, which sometimes cost their
owners a small fortune in repairs. Not
long ago an ocean going steamship, in
leaving her dock at Jersey City, plowed
up the soft bottom with her powerful
propeller, and secured costly and valu-
able catch in the shape of about dozen
submarine cables, which enmeshed them
selves in the blades of the propeller so
effectively that all the cables were torn
asunder, and the ship had to go into dry
dock to clear her screw of the garlands
of iron, hemp and Kerite with which it
had become Embellishments to say en-
barrassed.
The learned judge who presided over
the argument as to whether the tele-
graph company, which owned the cables,
or the steamship company, which owned
the inquisitive vessel, was the aggrieved
party, decided in favor of the latter,
holding that harbor is to be kept free
for navigation, and that steamer is en-
titled to plow through mud as well as
water, cables or no cables. If the cables
were thought to be secure because they
were lodged in two feet Of silt, why, so
much the worse for the cables, or rather
for their owners
According to the learned judge, ocean
steamers possess the right of way through
the silt, even down to hard rock, and the
waters of a harbor for purposes of navi-
CATION have no "bottom." This is cold
comfort for owners of submarine cables
in harbors, but by way of adding insult
to injury the very practical suggestion
was made that cables might be laid in a
species of submarine trench, and thus be
kept out of harms way when ocean
steamers (or others) find it necessary to
''take the ground"
TUGBoAT AND CABLE.
It is quite conceivable that the power
full machinery of an ocean steamer should
make light work Of gathering up and
reDding into fragments dozen or so Of
submarine cables, but that river tug
should take to the same game and twist
some hundred feet or so of heavily ar
mored seven conductor cable into bunch
of Gordian knots is a little too much
The cable is the property of the American
Telephone and Telegraph company, and
serves to connect the pole line across
Staten Island with that running through
New Jersey, the cable crossing the Kills
between Linoleumville and Carteret.
The tug caught up the cable in the
most approved manner, according to the
laws of harbor navigation, snatched it
from its quiet resting place in the silt,
and a stern battle between the pugna-
cious propeller and the inofensive and
defenseless though armoreO cable en-
sued. Needless to say the propeller was
victorious. The iron armor resisted Wig
orously, but it was never intended to
withstand the attack of river tugs pro-
peller, SO, after stout resistance, &C.
companied by endless writings and con-
tortions, it succumbed.
The sea serpent itself could not have
made better fight. If the cable was
vanquished, it's enemy was also, at least
for time, placed hors de combat, for,
so closely were propeller and cable in
terlocked in their deadly feud that the
tug had to be brought to New York and
put in dry dock in order to separate
them. The snarl contains about one
hundred feet of cable, and bears strong
evidence as to good construction.
Few would believe that cable could
resist long enough to be. twisted up into
such hideous shapes instead of breaking
almost at once. The cable, which is a
seven conductor, Kerite make, has been
down for about five years, and was found
to be in perfect condition when repairs
were made Indeed, the snarl testifies
to that.
SOME CABLE STORIES.
Not long ago Frank Stockton contrib
uted to one Of the magazines NONSENSE
cal story, in which startling incident
was narrated. By stroke of lightning
steamer had been converted into an
immense magnet, and had attracted to
itself submarine cable, which held it
fast until the cable ship came to the res
cue This fight Of fancy is not alto
gether without excuse.
There is a story Of an ocean steamship
catching up piece of cable in the North
river, and towing it all the way from
New York to Liverpool and back with
out discovering to what mysterious cause
the strange reduction of speed on the
round trip could be attributed.
There is yet another story of sound
boat which fouled a submarine cable in
New York waters and towed a goodly
length Of it to New Haven. There the
piece of cable was cleared away, coiled
down on the dock, and subsequently sold
by the steamship company to another
corporation whose business it is to main
tain electrical communication between
places. That corporation put the cable
into service, and $50 the story goes) is
using it at the present time. Herbert
L. Webb in Electrical Engineer.
To Preserve Shoe Leather.
A German chemist has invented
preparation which, it is claimed, when
appliod to the c01as Of shoes has the eff