Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-05

to the instruments on the deck of the Ship
The Field is one of the most useful vessels
In army service. She is called upon to lay
submarine cables at all the army posts on
the Atlantic coast and has done work from
Maine to Texas. This is however her first
visit up the Potomac and she was sent
here for the purpose of laying cables In
the river connecting Fort Washington with
Fort Hunt. The cah1e-laying work was
started Monday morning, and In two days
a big cable mile long was laid from Fort
Hunt to Fort Washington, to be used for
telegraph, telephone and other purposes,
and smaller cable was laid from Fort
Washington across Piscataway creek to
connect with a land line to Bryan Point
and Marshall Hall for the purpose of oper-
ating big searchlights which will be sta
toned on these wharves during the army
and navy maneuvers next month. The
laying of this cable was attended with
much trouble, owing to shoal water in
Piscataway creek, making it necessary to
use rowboats in the work. These cables
are not for use in the mining of the river,
the mining work being done by the tor
planting ship Major Ringgold. The
remain permanently in the bottom of
the river. The wires in it are wrapped
with paper in two layers; over this is a
lead covering, wrapped in jute. The wires
running the length of the cable are next
to the jute to prevent the cable cutting
through. and the whole is covered with
several layers of heavy jute rope: The
Field came here from Fort Monroe, where
she had been employed in cable laying,
and will return there when her work here
Is completed. The Field entered the service
of the United States at the outbreak Of
the war with Spain.
Once Steam Merchant Barge.
Before that time she was a steam mer-
chant barge named the Margaret and was
used for carrying stone from the Connec-
ticut quarries to New York. When secured
by the government she was completely re-
modelled, equipped with cable-laying ap-
paratus and renamed the Cyrus w. Field
in honor of the layer of the first Atlantic
cable. She is wooden hull, twin-screw
steamer of :s35 tons burden, Is 1918 feet
long, 307 feet wide, 81 feet deep, and was
built at Hartford, Conn, in 1901. Her en-
gines are of the triple-compound type
and give her a speed of ten or twelve miles
an hour. In laying a cable the big wire
rope is first wound by steam upon an i'm
mense drum that takes up the greater part
of her forward deck; then the end of the
cable is run through a pulley in the end
of a boom and goes overheard on either
the cable as the vessel moves along. With
this apparatus several miles of cable can
be laid each day without difficulty.
Cable in Shoal Water.
For laying cable in shoal water where
the steamer cannot go she is equipped
with power launches and big yawl boats
to carry the wire over the shoals. Besides
laying cable, the vessel also RECEIVERS old
cables. For this purpose she is equipped
with graphing hooks to catch and raise
the cable from its underwater bed and |
leading it through a chocks over the bow
of the steamer, it Is coiled away in the
hold. to be repaired for future service If
fit for it, if not to be condemned and sold
Before the Field leaves the Potomac she
will recover an old cable that connected
Fort Washington with Fort Hunt. Stored
down in the hold of the steamer are cables
of all sizes and kinds, some ready for use
at once and others apparently gone be-
yond repair but The Star reporter was
assured that the greater portion of them
could be used again. as the men aboard
Were skillful in making all kinds of cable
repairs, splicing, plumbing or the like. The
Field, while rated as lighter in the army
quartermaster's department service, is I'M
der the charge of the United States army
Signal Corps. Capt. B. o. Lenoir is the
military commander of the vessel, and be-
sides her crew of sailors who navigate the
ship. She has eleven non-commissioned Of
flcers and privates of the Signal Corps
aboard to attend the cable-laying work
its branches. They are graduates of the
electrical school of the army at Fort
Wood, on the Statue of Liberty island, in
New York harbor, and are telegraphers
and can use lights, flags or any other sys-
tenn of communication extant. The vessel
is now being equipped with wireless tele-
graph and the men will be made experts
in this line of work also. They are quar-
tered in large room on the main deck
and seem to be a contented and happy lot
Mr. W. E. West is the electrical engineer
connected with the ship land her marine
commander is Captain Rhodes, Mr.. John
Kirk being in charge the engine room. AS
stated, the Field is the only vessel of her
kind in army work and her usefulness can
not be overestimated. She will remain in
port here until tomorrow morning and
later in the week will return to Fort