The Southern herald., 1899-08-18
LAYING A HAVANA CABLE.
How the Work Is DOne-LRndInE the
Line Is n Most DitncuIt
Task.

ne lay ing OF second cable from IIa-
yana to the Florida coast is one of the
results of the Development of closer re-
lations between this country and
Cuba. The new line is being laid by
the Commercial Cable company, which,
failing to secure special authority from
Washington, is going ahead under the
post-roads act, which will give the post
master general power to fix its rates for
official messages and authorize the gov
ernmen. to take over the line at any
time on appraisal.
The business of making and laying
cables has been reduced to an exact
science since the Agamemnon and the
Niagara planted the first submarine
telegraph line between Europe and
America in 1858. The machinery and
methods of modern telegraph-ship,
like the Commercial company's Mackay-
Bennett, do not differ radically, how
ever, from those of the experimental
stage.
The cable itself varies with the water
in which it is to lie. The bottom of
the Gulf of Mexico is serrated with coral
reefs, and its waters are infested by the
teredo, against whose ravages special
armor is required. This will make the
Cuban cable unusually heavy and cost
ly. First comes the core, or conductor,
consisting of intertwined copper wires;
then an insulating covering of gutta-
percha, then layer of jute yarn, theu
sheathing of steel wires, with another
layer of jute, and a bituminous coating
over all. The core is the same size
throughout, but the sheathing varies,
being thickest for shallow and thinnest
for deep water.
On board ship the cable is kept coiled
in huge round iron tanks in the hold.
On a platform projecting over the bow
is large iron pulley, back of which is
a revolving drum. This ie tho riel.i-s
up apparatus. At the stern is the pay
ing out gear, similar, but with the addi-
ton of four retardng wheels, brake,
and a dynamometer TO record the
amount of strain the cable is subjected
TO. When laying actually begins the
great cable glides up from its coil in
the tank like graceful but intermin-
able serpent, passes over the retarding
wheels, takes several turns around the
brake drum, under the dynamometer,
over the stern pulley, and into the wa
er, In good weather it can be paid out
at the rate of seven nautical miles an
hour.
Landing the cable is the most difficult
task. This is done by small boats. A
short section of the strand is coiled into
one of these, or on a lighter, and towed
inshore. Cables are seldom landed in
harbors. and the task of getting them
ashore through the surf is frequently a
risky one, for which reason the men en-
gagged are provided with life preservers.
Once on dry land the line is anchored in
a cable hut, rough structure built near
the water. The cable-ship next pays
out until deep water is reached, when
the cable is sealed at the end and let
down to the bottom attached by rope
TO buoy. This is done at both land
ings. Then the deep-sea section is
splced to one of the shore ends and paid
out until the other sha How water section
is reached. There the final splice is
made and the line is ready for working.
Telegraphic connection is maintained
with the shore as the cable runs out.
and constant electrical tests are made.
Wonderful feats Of finding lost
cables are recorded. In 1866 the Great
Eastern grappled and recovered, in
midocean, the Atlantic cable, which
had parted there the year before, and
in 1894, when the Faraday was laying
the Commercial company's third At
lantic line, both the buoyed shore ends
were lost and afterward picked up.
Instances like these furnish romance
and excitement for the men on the
cabIe-ships.- Golfers Weekly.