, 1891-06-21
SHIPS PULL UP CABLES.
QUEER FISHING WITH PROPELLER
SCREWS OF BIG BOATS.

SCREWS OF BIG BOATS
An Ocean Steamship Carries a Piece Of
Submarine Cable from New York to
Liverpool and BAok-ETPerienos Of =
ship That Ran Into the Mud.
Submarine cables laid in shallow wa
teH 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 g an ocean going steamship, in
leaving her dock at Jersey City, plowed
up the soft bottom with her powerful
propeller, and secured a costly and valu-
able catch in the shape Of about a dozen
submarine cables, which enneshed them
selves in the blades of the propeller so
effectively that all the cables were torn
Rsunder, and the ship had 20 go into dry
dock TO clear her screw Of the glrlands
OF iron, hemp and Kerite with which it
had become embellished-not to say en-
b-arrassed.
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 inqui tive vessel, was the aggrieved
party, decided in favor Of the latter,
holding that a harbor is 10 be kept free
for navigation, and that a steamer is en-
titled to pillow 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, ever down TO hard rock. and the
waters of a harbor for purpose Of uavi-
cation nave no bottom" This is cold
comfort for owners Of submarine cables
in hRrbors, 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 NJ CABLE.
1t is quite conceivable that the power
full machinery Of an ocean steamer should
make light work Of gathering up and
rending into fragments a dozen or so Of
submarine cables, but hat a river tug
should take TO the same game and twist
JAIL ~ ANNN VI ~ va AAN@NAAN ~
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 tho
-. u-.-..~.I 49,. au.a-Na... - s4.
law of harbor navigation, snatched it
from Its quiet resting place in the silt,
and n stern battle between the puyua-
cious propeller and the inoffensive and
defenseless Though armored) cable en-
sued Needless 10 say the propeller was
victorious. The iron armor resisted Wig
~orously, but il was never intended to
Withstand the attack of a river tug'sprO-
peller, So, after Il stout resistance, ac-
companied by endless writings and con
+"-+inns. it sucCumbed.
The sea serpent lJseIr yu,Id ..-s hove
made a better fight. If the cable was
YRnquished, its enemy wa also, at least
for a time, placed hors de combat, for.
30 closely were propeller and cable in
terlocked in their deadly feud that the
tug had to be brought to New York and
put III u1 hOCh III oIhtA 70 separate
them. The snarl contains about one
hundred feet of cable, and bears strong
evidence as to good construction.
Few would believe that u 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. aud was found
to be in perfect condition when repairs
were made. Indeed. the snarl testihes
to that.
oME STORIES.
Not long ago Frank Stockton contrib
uted to one Of the magazines a nonsense
cal story, in which a startling incident
was narrated. By a stroke Of lightning
n steamer had been converted into an
immense magnet, and had attracted to
itself a submarine cable, which held it
fast until the cable ship came to the res
cue. iris fight of fancy is not alto
gether without excuse.
There is a story of an ocean steamship
catching up a piece of cable in the North
river, and towing 1T 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 a 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 IN 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 (so 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 a