New-York tribune., 1905-06-12

@ t3 eSSsI1f rePaTing S SentuPe Unattended WITH luck
What stands alone in cable repairing annals is
the extraordinary case of the 1874 line. which;
owing to series of unfortunate misnapo @ S occge o
one fourth of it's original cost Ordinarily now
n tante rs cabe cost about 1000 year After
about thirty years a cable deteriorates SO from
new one than to repair that in In the earlier
days Of submarine telegraphy IT was rouna @ ne6es s
within twelve years of their being laid Latterly,
f6nd possibe to construct cables so as to enghen
their existence considerably and when cables break
trawlers tn T anchors seismic disturbances and kindred
e bso not Sa d Sections Us Ss
Irregularities Of the bottom and breaking
there thereon. few Years ago an Atlantic cable was
repaired twice in the same winter though only
due to this cause. Two years back two other cables
We're broken in deeper water ter an ana SEISMIC %
the repairs satisfied that the mishaps were
due to bad laying of these lines.
PERILs OF THE MEN.
In all these operations the ship is alone con-
cerned-her boats have to do great part of the
work. The placing and mooring releasing and re-
covering of the buoys have all be done by them.
and often in the worst of weather. In the best
the North Atlantic in midwinter it is positive
rule that no man enters boat without his life
belt being adjusted and in rough weather second
boat and crew are ready to be lowered II danger
had to be avaed Of Te dreadu inWe f
uuently met with swamps the boats and causes the
the keenest suffering, especially in the intense
y cold weather. and only the exhibited in the
different operations has prevented more than one
disaster.
The greatest of midwinter repairs was made in
the last season at a depth of Just 2.600 fathoms-
two and Six-tenths nautical miles. This had occu-
pied one ship for four months without success. and
later another ship spent similar period in futile
costing 100000 for ships alone. besides the value
of cable required TO replace that destroyed IN the
ago required us miles of cable. In another the
experiment was made of using 300 miles OF cable
armored only with manila rope. instead OF steel
wire, and 1t proved complete failure. Some
of the earlier Atlantic cables and prolonged at
tempt TO make good another, but after more than
100000 had been spent in the fruitless task both
cables were abandoned. Even nowadays enor-
spent in effecting repairs the
cables, they punched together in sections
where they cross or parallel one another. and eight
have compelled the loss of hundreds of miles OF
cable long stretches having to be abandoned so as
to avoid breaking others by graphing for them in
congested
Last winter, in two months. six different cables
were broken at different ponts between Newfound-
land and canada, and a steamer spent the whole
French cable ship Pouyer Ouertier. while trying
to repair the BreSt cable, St. Pierre.
driven ashore by gale. and. being subsequently,
relocated and brought to st. Johns for dOckage
and repairs, these cost s80ONO 1t is thus easy to
understand why cable companies operating across
the Atlantic do not pay larger dividends for 1t is
for repairs to these lines at $4,000. Nevertheless
the cables are steadily growing factor among the
worlds economic accessories, and their volume of
business enlarges every year, and will doubtless
continue to do until wireless elegraphy proves to
be the vigorous competitor that its advocates long
ago claimed that 1t would be, but which IT has thus
has had free 1eld-on the ocean and along the
coast between ship and ship and ship and shore.