Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-06-01
MEND|NC A CABLE
The Snapping of a Submarine
 Line Entails Hard Work.
LOCATING THE BREAK IS EASY.
This Is Accomplished by the Use ot Sensitive Instruments, and Then Comes the Difficult Task of GrappIng and Raising the Severed Ends.

Comes the Difficult Task of GrappIins
 and Raising the Severed Ends.
 The TOO mile cable that connected Hamilton, Bermuda, with Halifax Nova Scotia, had snapped. SomeW here under many fathoms of water lay the two broken ends, perhaps only a few inches apart-more likely half mile or so from each other-carried from the waves. Until the two ends were l connected the thousands and thousands of dollars invested in the cable were bringing no income.
 l As the result of the accident Hamil- ton was practically isolated from the rest of the world, for the only other ! cable went to Jamaica. By sending a message to Jamaica and having 1t re layed to Newfoundland and thence by telegraph to New York it was possible to get few words through in a fairly i short time. But the tolls were enor, mously high.
 The moment the operator at Halifax found that the key on the Bermuda cable did not respond to his touch he reported the fact to his superior in the Halifax office. Orders flew back and forth, telephone bells rang. messengers scurried in and out of the office, and in few hours the cable repair steam CT was on its way to Bermuda. 1 The operators at Halifax and Hamil ton had located the break. It was about six miles from the Hamilton end of the cable. This they calculated with sensitive instruments used to re cord the resistance"
 The writer was in Hamilton when the Mackay-Bennett steamed into the 1 harbor and through the courtesy of the captain was on board when the steamer went out and grappled for the ends of the cable and restored it to usefulness.
 Even when the captain of cable re, pair ship knows that the break is about six miles from one end it's no easy affair to pick up the big wire ropes 1 The floor of the ocean is uneven, and he must allow for slack. 1 The crew was ready when the ship stopped. With a splash the big grap. nel went overheard. and yard after hook touched bottom. The water was 12O fathoms T2O feet) deep at that spot
 l Luck was with the cable ship. So we'll had the captain calculated that the very first cast of the hook brought up one end of the broken cable. It was hauled on board The electricians attached their instruments and called Hamilton. The station answered i'm mediately.
 1 A huge buoy was attached to the heavy wire rope and lowered into the water. Then we set out to find the other end.
 Cast after cast of the grappling hook and not even d nibble from the missing part of the cable. Farther and far. ther the cable ship worked away from the buoy. At last, after three hours work. the grapnei resisted the pull The fish had been caught. There was a cheer from the crew as 1t was pull. | ed on board. about a quarter of mile from the other end.
 This end was connected with tele- l graph instrument, and the operator at Halifax, about 700 miles away. an swered. There was nothing more to do except to join the broken ends. A new section of cable was carefully
  1 picked up. The cable was paid out over the stern as we steamed back to the buoy. This was hauled on board and the broken end spliced to the new piece of cable, an operation consuming less than half an hour The repaired cable. as good as new. rwas dropped overheard to resume it's place on the oceans bed.
 Rarely does cable repair ship have such good luck. Often storms arise which drive the ship from her course. lear the buoys from the ends they hold and compel the work to be done over again.
 | In northern waters these conditions are felt at their worst The ship be. comes crusted with ice, it is difficult to maneuver and doubly so to deal with a cable on bow or stern when the roll of the seas threatens to fracture 1t again, and the launching of boats with men in them to buoy a loose end is hazardous.
 From these causes occasionally cable ships get short of coal and have to abandon work temporarily at critical periods, or they are enmeshed among the ice foes or bergs and have to let go all and retreat-Karl K. Kitchen in New York World.
 A Star Idea. Small Edgar happened to see the new moon. 'Mamma." he Queried.