Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-03-27
MEND|NC A CABLE
The Swapping Of a m
Line Entails Hard Work.
LOCATING THE BREAK IS EASY.

This 10 Accomplished by the Use Of
Sensitive Instruments, and Then
Comes the Difficult Task Of Graphing
and Raising tho Severed Ends.
The 700 mile cable that connected
Hamilton. Bermuda. with Halifax.
Nova Scotia. had snapped. Some where
under many fathoms Of water lay the
two broken ends. perhaps only a few
inches apart-more likely half a mile
or so from each Other-carried from
their accustomed bed by the wash OF
the waves. Until the two ends were
connected the thousands and thousands
Of dollars invested In the cable were
bringing no income.
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 q
message to Jamaica and having It re-
layed to Newfoundland and thence by
telegraph to New York it was possible
to get a few words through In a fairly
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 few back and
forth. telephone bells rang, messengers
scurried in and out Of the office, and
in a few hours the cable repair steam
err was on its way to Bermuda.
The operators at Halifax and Hamil-
ton had located the break. 1t was
about six miles from the Hamilton end
Of the cable. This they calculated
with sensitive Instruments used to re-
cord the resistance" ..s
The writer was in Hamilton when
the Mackay-Bennett steamed into the
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 a cable re.
pair ship knows that the break is about
six miles from n end it's no easy
affair to pick up the big wire ropes.
The floor Of the ocean is uneven. ana
he must allow for slack.
The crew was ready when the ship
stopped. With a splash the big crap.
mel went overheard. and yard after
yard Of line was paid out until the
hook touched bottom. The water was
100 fathoms (72O feet deep at that
spot.
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. 1t
was hauled on board. The electricians
attached their instruments and called
Hamilton. The station answered i'm.
mediately.
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 graphing hook
and not even a nibble from the missing
part of the cable. Farther and far.
Their the cable ship worked away from
the buoy. At last. after three hours
work. tile grapnel resisted the pull.
The fish had been caught. There was
Il cheer from the crew as it was pull
ed on board. about a quarter OF a mile
from the other end.
This end was connected with a tele.
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
spliced to the cable that had just been
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. vas dropped
overheard to resume its place on the
oceans bed !.
Rarely does a cable repair ship have
such good luck. Often storms arise
which drive the ship from her course.
tear the buoys from the ends they hold
and compel the work to be done ove
again.
In northern waters these conditions
are felt at their worst The ship be-
comes crusted with ice. it is difficult
to neu 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
meD 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
Tho S1@ 0o0c. om-1nrre ny1 hmm tn LOT