Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-01-18
WORK OFF NEWFOUNDLAND
BANKS HAZARDOUS.
BAD BREAKS OFTEN OCCUR
Always Danger of Bringing up Line
Owned by Rival company-ln
Rough Weather the Task involves
Great Care and Peril-Possibfe to
Locate Break in Cable from Shore.


OF them are dead" they still enter in
to all the calculations of the repair
ers, because in the region of the
Grand banks, where several lines are
iald near or over each other, a mistake
In Judgment may mean bringing to the
surface dead" cable or one belong
ing to another company which is un-
damaged and very much alive" as
the unlucky skipper will learn when
he reaches port and finds awaiting him
red-hot protest from the people
whose line he has interfered with and,
sometimes, rendered temporarily use
less.
This arises from the fact that in
splicing the cable after cutting it-for
II must be cut by a mechanical crap
mel, and one end gripped by it and
brought to the surface. as the strain
would otherwise cause it to break on
the grapnel and both ends be lost-the
splicing may be badly done and the
line cease to work; and this he can
not know till he returns to port, be-
cause the splicing and Insulating of
the cable shut him off from any knowl-
edge of its condition.
II he finds, on making harbor, that
It Is not working, he must go out and
seek for 1t again to make a better Job
OF it; and, in the endeavor to accom-
plish this, may work mishap to an
other cable or more than one. until
the whole fraternity of cable operators
ON both sides of the ocean are crying
for his blood by the few electric con
duits that remain uninjured.
1t may not be generally known that
it is possible to locate from cable of.
flee on shore the break in midocean TO
within half mile of the exact SPOT.
This Is ascertained through the fact
that the sensitive instruments used
record the resistance" of the cable
when working properly and also the
resistance" of the portion between
the office and the break. so ii is simply
matter of calculation to inform the
skipper of the repair-ship that the
break Is 1,142 miles from New York.
Boston, Halifax, or st. Johns, as the
case may be.
The ship then sails for that locality.
his reckoning discloses to the captain
when he is near the scene, the chart ON
which the route of the cable was plot
ted when 1t was originally laid enables
MIN TO discover its approximate latl-
tude in that area, and thus fortified he
usually brings 1t to the surface at the
first cast of his grapnel Then his
electricians connect the exposed
nerve with their instruments and
"call' the station they have left
III 1t answers they know that half of
the line is in good order and sealing
up the end they buoy it on the water
and go in the other direction till they
think they have overshot the break
when the ship makes another cast of
her grapnel and hooks and other sec
ton.
This is then hauled up, connected as
before, the other shore station is
called" and if it responds a new sec.
ton of cable is spliced to that end
and paying out as she goes the ship
returns to the end she has buoyed.
makes another splice of the new end
with that and lowers the presumably
perfected cable back into its ocean
bed.
Nor is the repairing as quickly or
easily accomplished always as in the
above example, when everything goes
favorably. Often storms arise. drive
the ship from her course, tear the
buoys from the ends they are fastened
10 and compel the whole work to be
done over again.
In midwinter these conditions are
felt at their worst. The ship becomes
thickly encrusted with ice, It Is diff.
ficult to maneuver her and doubly so
to deal with cable on bow or stern
when the roll of the seas threatens to
fracture 1t again; the launching of
boats with men in them to buoy a
loose end is positively hazardous.
From these causes occasionally
get short of coal and have
to abandon work at the most critical
periods and bear up for port, or they
are enmeshed among the ice foes or
bergs and have to let go all and re.
treat, or the storms cripple them in
their machinery or deck gear, and
like result ensues. The fierce hnr-
ricanes which scourge the north At
lantic every winter try the merits
OF marine material as nothing else
can, and the storms these cable
ships have to endure at this season
are such that only the stanchest
fabrics could withstand.
Some serious and costly failures to
effect cable repairs have occurred on
the Grand banks. One instance is
recorded of break which cost JIG
days and $4,000 to make good; an.
other occupied eighty-seven days and
cost 100000, and third eighty-one
days and almost a similar sum. II
takes fully twenty-four hours to crap
pie and lift cable from 1000 fathoms