Arizona republican., 1899-04-06
PHILIPPINE CABLES
Ship to Lay Them Now Being
Fitted OUT.
She Is the Former Prize Ship Panama
and will Be Used 10 Connect All
Necessary Points in inc Philip.
pine Islands.

New York, April 5.-With her decks
| torn UP and her inner works torn out,
the army transport Hooker lies along
side the Morse Iron works pier, at the
foot of Twenty-sixth street in Brook
lyn, fitting out as the first cable boat
in the service of the war department.
AS the Ceballos liner Panama, held up
by a toy gunboat while trying to run
the blockade of Cuban ports last
spring, the boat contributed to Samp-
sons squadron its richest prize, and
to the naval operations on the Atlantic
their most diverting episode. Now she
is designed for important work in the
Philippines, and is expected to start
within three weeks with cable enough
aboard to connect all the points con-
tamplated in General Otis extensive
plan for military operations in the
archipelago.
The plans for the boat have had the
general supervision of the chief signal
officer, General Greeley, who was last
in New York about week ago in con
nection with them. Colonel MaXfield
will take the Hooker by the Mediter-
ranean route and will have general
charge of the cable-laying in the
Philippines The sailing-master will
be Captain Hanion, and he will have
crew of about ninety men. There will
be about 200 miles Of cable slowed in
the big water-tight tanks that are be-
ing constructed in the hold of the yes
sci.
The equipment of the cable ship is
new venture for this government, and
the Hooker is being designed according
to the experience OF the commercial
companies and of the English govern
ment, which has had such vessels in
the service for nearly thirty years, and
has now fleet of ten boats OF this
sort in Oriental waters. The main
feature OF the equipment will be the
three huge tanks one each fore and ait
and a larger one, with capacity of l22
miles of cable midway between them
There will be an apparatus for taking
the soundings and for laying, cutting
and repairing.
For laying the cable the beat is be-
the stern; a dynamOmeter, aft, which
will indicate, by pressure on spring,
whether the cable is lying along the
bottom of the sea or is being fes-
tooned from peak to peak of subma-
rine mountains, and ''picking-up
gear" which is really an engine OPP
Grating a drum six feet in diameter
HI fy--,y f11O mi
and pays it out through the dyna-
mometer and over the drums in the
stern into the sea.
E. W. Stevenson, the electrical eX-
pert whom the government has Sc
cured to equip the Hooker, gave an in
terestfng explanation of the process of
cable laying, as it will be practiced in
the Philippines. In the early days,
said Mr.. Stevenson, ''the sounding of
lead was used. and where the water
was quite deep it took hours for tha
lead to touch bottom. An equal time
was taken to haul il in again. In this
time the boat might have drifted
three or four miles and the cCnfgura-
ton of the bcttom might have changed |
considerably from that indicated by
the soundings. But some years ago the |
engineers resorted to pianoforte wire |
to use in sCundings, because Of its !
under tension. At the end of |
it was attached a gloDular fifty-found |
weight surrounding a spring and ter
in a pair Of steel jaws that
closed upon any obstacle encountered. |
The moment this touched bottom the !
fact was known on the surface and |
the mechanism of the spring permitted !
the drawing up of the weight with |
great rapidity. One of the improve
ments in this instrument was devised |
by Captain Sigsbee of the cid Maine.
In laying the cable one man will be
stationed with instruments in a cable
hut on shore at the point selected for
tbs terminus of the line, and cOmmuni-
cation will be kept up with the boat
every minute The shore section OF
the cable, some miles of length, must
be of stronger material to withstand
the greater friction, and it's sea end
will be buoyed up. By the use of the
dynamometer the ship is able to tell
every minute what the confguratiOn
Of the bottom is like, and can pay out
enough Cable. in crossing submarine
to conform to the Unequal
ties of the bottom"
REPORT is NOT TRUE.