Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-02-12
ure and Difficult Work Go Into Splicing Gable at Sea

hour cut and test. Then the fault
found TO have passed InbOard. and
hands hung upon the verdict from tn
testing room.
And here comes the queerest thiH
of all queer things in cable work. Tt
fault that mad kept ship at sea 10:
10 days. that had puzzled the cablc
men because OF Its evasive position
that had saved a mans life when tus.
detected on the surface Of. the cak.e
at an. Two apparent breaks were a.
amined.. 70 find the core intact, hefor
this actual fault was found.
And the thing that put a whole cat.
out of business, stopping importan
traffic, causing all kinds Of trouble an
delay, CHANGED TO be one Of those fault.
which might be put into museum un-
der glass and remain for years Uithou.
any soul ever seeing what II vas tiIer.
for There was not the slightest traco
Of entrance In the outer member Oniy
in the gutta percha was there a TIM
scratch, not big enough TO stick a p.n
into; but there had entered measl"
bit Of worm-an embryo toredo-and
had gone through the gutta percha an,
let water into the core
And the reason for the delay In find
! ing the cable is obvious. There vas 80
| per cent of slack In the original lay
ing The cable runs into a wide curve.
| That alone tells story Of the weather
t OF 40 years ago. when the old cable We
laid by ship boasting few modern
| appliances.
fault. splice on a piece of new cable.
put on service to stand the water and
tear Of the ocean bed and start paying
out again, back TO where the other end
Of the broken cable vas buoyed. Then
both ends are on board again, and the
| elimination Of all cabling Jobs be-
gins-the final splice.
! ~
THERE Is more tradition-sentiment
If you hke--about this final splice
than any real thrill. It Is not harder.
or different, from the first splice after
| picking up.
| But when all is done and the finished
| job goes back into the depths from
which 1t was dragged, the men give
cheer. That Is tradition. When job
has taken 10 days. and the actual re-
| pair takes only hours. the cheer Is
likely to be a weak "Hooray!" and
feryid, soto yoce: Hope a whale gets
| caught in it,
But the job Is done True. a fog is
. over the sea again. and three buoys
have TO be picked up. But finally this
Is accomplished and the ship starts
homeward. There is to be midnight
docking. all going well. Aft. the men
sing and keep their piano twanging.
The wireless operator has fixed loud
speaker TO his set and there are con-
certs and prices Of hogs and Of wheat
1t is the end of an easy job. even
though it has taken overlong
But over the radio comes something
which tells a different story about the
cable business. The Lord Kelvin. the
companion ship which handles the deep
sea jobs. is sending a message. And il
tells Of trouble She has been caught
in a hurricane. Her boats are swept
away. Buoys have broken adrift. The
, ship has been swept so badly that her
saloon, captains room. engine room
and officers quarters are flooded and
smashed. Her helmsman. in his snug
wheelhouse, has been swept away on
the wreckage of the bridge. Her fourth
officer. diving for the helm. has his
scalp taken of by flying port glass
Only an accident TO the engine room
telegraph which allowed the engine
room indicator TO fall. to STOP" By
sheer gravity after the wire had parted.
made the engineers stop the ship and
thus save her from DOOM
The cable ship reaches her dock at
midnight But her men are wondering
about that other ship out there In the
Atlantic. They know her men. They
are all likely TO be friends There Is q
gloom over all. What will the fun re-
port be?