The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-24
WIRES IN
THE DEEP
Cable Experiences
Of Local
Expert.
j. D. Gaines Speaks Be-
fore the Research
Club.
Draft of the Torrens Land System
D.ts AE..A Dbl, e.. IT,
Draft Of the Torrens Land System
Bill Almost Ready for the
Legislature.

Gable laying, repairing and operat-
! ing experiences formed the subject
of an interesting address by J. D
i Gaines, the Honolulu superintendent OF
| the Commercial Pacific Cable Com
pany, given last evening before a large
audience of the Research Club mem
bers at the bachelor quarters, "Bohe-
mia in Pensacola street. The gath
ering was one of the largest of the club
in many months, attesting to the pop
ularity of the subject and many of the
intricate details connected with cables
not generally understood by the lay
man, were easily explained by Nj.
Gaines, whose connection with cables
dates back to 1869. Messrs. Single,
Lewis, Williamson, Holt and Campbell
of Bohemia were the hosts and the
guests were entertained with an ex-
cellent lunch after the literary portion
of the program had been completed. !,
Among the business matters of the
club brought up, was the suggestion
of Mr.. Case that the secretary write
to Mr.. Birney, the organizer of the
club, now residing abroad, telling him
of the success which the club has at
tanned, especially in advancing the Tor
the Legislature. The Torrens Land
committee through Philip Weaver re-
ported that the draft of the proposed
bill was in the course of preparation
and that shortly it would be completed
and laid before the Legislature.
George B. Mcclellan suggested also
that as the subject of attracting tourists
was uppermost in Hawaii that the Leg
islature be asked to make over certain
of the public lands on Tantalus into
park reservations. A committee of
three will be appointed by President
Pond to present the matter.
Mr.. Gaines spoke of his earliest Gan-
nection with cables at Canso on the At
lantic coast, where his father was a
cable superintendent. The bachelor life
at Canso, where Manager Dickinson
ruled with a strong hand the men who
have attained in later years more or
less fame, was described. In those
quarters no one was allowed to whistle,
talk loud or make any disturbance as
men were asleep at all times.
He related many interesting expert
ences of cable breaking in the Allan
tic, the difficulty arising mostly in the
region of the Grand Banks. There were
several cables lying there and fishing
vessels often hooked on them with their
anchors and breaks We're constant.
When cable ship was sent out to
grapple for a cable and repair break,
the distance out was measured by mi
mute figuring and he considered the
average distance that ships picked up
the cable away from the break, to be
about quarter of mile. A buoy was
dropped where the cable was supposed
to rest and then two other buoys were
dropped one on either side about ten
miles apart. The graphing began along
the line of the three buoys. Sometimes
three or four days passed by before the
cable was hooked. Experienced cable
men generally knew when the Crap
pling device had hooked to rock or the
cable by the sensation experienced in
standing on the wire rope running out
from the ship He said it was an odd
thing that most of the breaks and
faults were discovered on Sundays.
The first cable-repairing trip Mr..
Gaines made was from Canso. He was
called from church by Mr.. Dickinson, |
handed valise, bundled into a carriage !
and sent to Halifax and was then put |
aboard a French cable steamer. They |
went to the Grand Banks and began !
graphing. They grappled into a nest
of ten cables about mile from each |
other. They generally identified the |
various cables by the right and left |
handed sheathing and other peculiar |
features of workmanship. Once they !
I
they discovered their error, the cable |
broke. They grappled for it, it being a
question of honor among cable men to
repair any breaks they make. On
calling for the shore end and asking |
who was there, the reply came
Gaines" 1t turned out that the opera
tors We're father and son. When they |
the cable and dropped it they
back to port only to find On
arrival that the same cable had broken
when they had cast it overooard, and /
they were compelled to go back again
and repair it.
As to codes, Mr.. Gaines said, he had |
few complimentary things to say about
those used on the Atlantic. There was
often no way of knowing whether a
sender had used a ~ or an N" and
the punishment generally fell upon the
operator. the innocent party. The oper-
ators We're practically expected to do
impossible things. and in cases where
heir judgment could not be used. where
codes were in use, they were the ones
70 suffer.
As to the wireless systems on the At
antic receiving the letter 50 as often
appears in the dispatches, he said this
was not unusual with cables, and no
me knew where the mysterious signal
came from. A flash of lightning &C
easionally knocked a word out of the
cable or gave a signal that appeared
10 come from the opposite end.