The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-12-10
THE CABLE
PROJECT
The Pacific Was
Charted Long
Ago.

cables cross the Atlantic between
4 Europe and North America; three
cables connect Europe and South Amer
lea: Africa's coast is girdled; even
antipodal Australia and New Zealand
have been reached; but the Pacific
ocean yet remains to be spanned The
great girdle around the globe will never
he complete until the little gap is filed
between America and Asia. Then the
modern Puck will be able to put his
"rirdle round about the EARTH" not in
forty minutes, but in that many sec
onds.
The wondrr is, as one of our states
men recently said, not that vast oceans
have been spanned by cable, but that
this vastest of oceans has not been
crossed before That the nineteenth
century should have come and gone
without a submarine cable connecting
the continents adjacent to the Pacific
Is almost inexplicable. 1t need not be
argued that there is great need of it;
we know that for many years there has
teen agitation respecting it, and with
in three years emergencies have arisen
that have demanded its completion.
Several times within the past few
fact that congress is legislating about
the granting of charter for the build
ing of a transpacifc cable. Private
companies have offered to construct it,,
both with and without the aid Of gov
ernmental subsidies, and yet the prof.
ect has hung fire. Since the acquisi
ton of Oriental territory by our gov
eminent since the annexation of Ha-
wall and taking of Midway or Wake ISL
and. the cession of Guam and the
Philippines, we have had a chain of
islands stretching in an uneven line
from our western coast to Asia, form
ing, as it were, stepping stones across
the Pacific. They are rather far apart,
to be sure, and to connect them will re-
quire cable nearly 1000 miles in
length, with an expenditure of from
81 900 900 to $4,000 600 But that is
nothing. When our Uncle Sam shall
have drawn on his famous seven
league boots" he will step across that
intervening stretch of ocean in "A jiffy
According to recently completed sur
Veys, the distance from San Francisco
to Hawaii is about 200 miles, thence
to Wake island, that low lying spot in
midocean, it is 1000 miles 1900 more
to Guam, and 1870 to the east coast of
Luzon, whence short land line reaches
into Manila. From Manila to Hong
kong is GEO miles, where connection Will
be made with the continental systems
and cables-the Great Northern and
Chinese land line and the Eastern EX-
tension-that make for Europe and the
Atlantic.
The Pacific was Charted some years
ago with reference to the laying of a
cable between California and Hawaii
and only last year Lieutenant Com
mander NJ. II. Hodges on the collier
Nero made a ten months survey oi
proposed routes between our western
coast and the Asian islands. His OBJ
jeCtives were San Francisco and Yoke
hama, taking in the Philippines, Guam
Midway island and Hawaii. Between
the time of leaving San Francisco and
the return the Nero spent 2Ss days and
10 hours, steamed 292S3 knots and put
in 2i0 days of actual work. ITO the
best of my knowledge" reported Com
mander Hodges Il do not believe a ca
BILE route was ever so extensively ant
thoroughly surveyed and developed.
believe the result of the survey proves
the route to be eminently satisfactory
and thoroughly practicable"
There are, in fact, no insuperable oh
stacles to the laying of "A cable, tn
only adverse development being tina
of great depth, in some places thu
soundings showing more than 800
fathoms. The two deepest sounding'
gave 5,l60 and 5269 fathoms, or nearly
six miles, which far exceeds the heigh
Of any mountain in America. But th'
deepest spot can be avoided as we'll al
the highest submarine mountains
which are more dreaded by cable layer
than anything else, owing TO the DANCE
of breakage on account of strain AM
the possibilities of volcanic action rails
ing the temperature of the water an,
setting free elements inmiCal To tn
composition of the cables. But there Il
a vast plateau on this route, and in tn
ooZe Of the ocean depths, once the CABLE
has been successfully laid, it may res
FOR years in greater safety than 1
nearer the surface, exposed 10 the dan
gers of navigation and the assaults o
whales, swordfish and other leviathan'
pertaining to Neptune's domain.
While the route necessarily chosel
as that for the projected cable uniting
the continental United States with IL
insular possessions in the Pacific |
the shortest distance between our Pa
cific coast and Asia. In a survey q
the Pacific from the equator to the arc
tic circle it will be seen that the tw
continents approach each other mos
nearly in the northern region. TIL
shortest possible length of submarin
cable connecting Asia and Americ
would be- of course. across BERN
strait, less than forty miles in widt
in its narrowest part. but it is doubtfl
If that would be feasible though III
route for a great siberian an
Alaskan line was surveyed years ag
Southwark, again, we find the Alel
tian islands, stretching invitingly froi
Alaska to Kamchatka, by which a suC
cession of land lines and cables cOul
be run from Seattle or Vancouver, vi
Sitka, TO Kamchatka, TO connect wit
the s-Siberian line ending for II
present at the mouth of the Amur.
The most inviting route is that b,