The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-03

are firmly secured. by lines from the
! ship, and the blight is cut. After the
| two ends have been tested from the
testing room, the short length is aban-
doned or buoyed, and the other is splic-
ed to the cable in the tanks, when pay
ing out is once more resumed.
THE SILvERTOwN.
The telegraph steamship Silvertown
which is about to lay the San Fran
| cisco-Honolulu cable for the CONNER
cial Pacific Cable Company is the first
ship that was built expressly for cable
work. When launched, she was the
largest merchant ship afioat with the
exception Of the Great Eastern"
though her cable tanks are one-third
larger in cubic capacity than those CT
the Leviathan. The reason for their
great size is that she was designed to
carry a cable sheathed with hemp ropes
instead of iron wires and such a cable
would occupy much more space than
the accepted type. If an attempt We're
made to fill to the brim the Silver
towns tanks with steel-sheathed cable,
she would sink long before the cable
reached the top of the tanks. She car
ries this trip 2413 nautical miles of
cable, weighing 1907 tons, her total
freight being between 5000 and 900
tons. H.
MIR. MACKAY AND THE CABLE
SERVICE. ,JsS-ssss,.
Business men on either side NS1H
Atlantic who use the cables, are AJH
indebted to the late ]. w. MackaSSfsyH
the excellent service which now OBJ
tains. In 1883 Mr.. Mackay, together
with Mr.. Bennett, the we'll known
proprietor of the New York Herald,
founded the Commercial Cable Com
amongst the existing Atlantic tele-
graph companies. AS Mr.. Mackay re-
fused to join it, a war of rates ensued,
the price being reduced from forty cents
to twelve cents per word. The COM
bination found, however that they had
to deal with a stronger man than they
anticipated, and withdrew from the
contest, leaving the Commercial Gable
Company its independence and the rate
at twenty-five cents a word. Since that
date the company has always been in
the van in all matters relating to tele-
graphic progress.
But Mr.. Mackay not content with his
achievements in the Atlantic turned his
attention to the Pacific where he fore
saw an American cable must be laid
sooner or later. AS far back as 1874 a
Pacific cable from the States via Ho-
nolulu to japan had been proposed, and
in that year the "Tuscarora," u. S. N,
under the command of Captain, now
Admiral Belknap, surveyed the route.
In 1879, Cyrus Field, whose name fig
ured prominently in connection with the
first Atlantic cable, renewed the Pacific
scheme, but nothing more was done till
the ''Albatross' and "Thetis," u s. NJ
were commissioned in 1892, to survey
the route between San Francisco and
Honolulu. This. survey resulted in the
report drawn up by the then 4
of the United States a
Navy, Commander Richardson Glover.
Three more years passed before the
Senate voted 100000 for the laying of
this section, but the measure failed to
pass in the House of Representatives.
The steamer Nero" u. s. N, surveyed
the route between Honolulu and Manila
In 1899. On the ratification of peace
with Spain, President Mckinley adj
dressed a message to Congress, direct
ing attention to the imperative neces-
sity of speedy communication with the
Philippines via Hawaii and Guam.
The present conditions" he said,
should not be allowed to continue a
longer than is absolutely nec-
essary."
The project, however, hung fire, and
might today have still been as far as
ever from accomplishment, IL Mr.
Mackay had not taken the bull by the
horns, and offered to lay the cable with
out any subsidy whatever from Con-
gress. Thus to the enterprise of pri-
vate individual, and not to their Gov
will Americans owe the enor-
nous advantages Of telegraphic COM
across the Pacific The
Silver King crowned his adventurous
career with an undertaking which
should earn him in history a place
amongst the most public-spirited men
IF his day.