Year: 1865

GREAT EASTERN, August 16, 1865.


My Dear.Sir + have no doubt you will
read yith some interest the opinions of a
sailor whom you know, respecting telegraph
cables across the Atlantic, and especially as
to the cause of our present failure. was
formerly doubter; then, as I became init
mate with the men and means, to be employ
ed to overcome all the difficulties 1 had
thought of, I became hopeful; but now
that I understand personally the difficulties
in the way of practically laying cable in
an ocean of great depth, T.have become
sanguine.


The cable has failed for the present, priu.
cipally from the cause of its own wires PEN
-etrnting tho sussa- pcrcna core. and tbss
cause has been SO far fatal only because it
was unanticipated. mean by that, if we
could have foreseen this probability, and
sufficiently understood the action of this
ship, appliances could have been arranged
that would have recovered the faults with
out the elaborate process that past expert
enee has. taught to be Efficient


They can generally tell Immediately
when fault occurs. Very little-only a
few miles-is necessary to be hauled in /;
for this purpose, the cable has to be passed
from the stern to the bow of the ship, at
the best of times hazardous thing to do,
and in this very long ship difficult opera
ton. An engine applied to thS paying. out
gear, so as to reverse and haul in at once
before the cable has reached the bottom,
and while the fault was being located,
would have reduced our three faults to a
very small risk. So that even this cable
which in all other respects seems perfect
could be efficiently laid when We have OBJ:
tanned the appliances our new experience
has taught to be necessary. ..s


It never was anticipated that we should
have to attempt the recovery of lost cable
from the depth of two and half miles,
and for the same reason we failed. Our
graphing gear was insufficient.


Three times out of four attempts we
hooked the cable and raised it from the
ground several hundred fathoms. Upon
two occasions the swivels of the grapnel
rope broke, and upon the third occasion our
rope, which was made up of ships stores,
added on to the proper rope, and when we
had once more begun to. be hopeful, if not
sanguine, good looking six-ineh. rope
broke like thread. This much, however,
we have established-we can have the ca.
bic whenever we choose, and we fairly be.
lieve that, with proper appliances, we can
lift it and complete its laying.


No one can be blamed for not anticipa-
ting this unfortunate result. Every kind
of experiment had been tried and the wire
had never before. penetrated the CORE
This and some other aspects seem to have
fixed the idea in some of the leading minds
that the faults have been the result of NAL
ice. 1 incline tothe opinion that they were
the result of accident, as I know by expe-
rience that accident will produce more Gu.
rious results than design, and they are as
easily explained one way as the other. But
this follows, that appliances should be used
that would prevent such fatal results, wheth-
er produced by one cause or the other
This can be done hereafter by machinery
We now know how to construct, and the ad-
ditional security can be had of making
those of a number of smaller ones, SO that
no one would be sufficiently strong to pene-
trate the core or, if necessary, cover the
core with canvas or wire gauze, to make 1t
still more secure.


This done, there can really be no Difficult
ty with this ship in laying submarine Ca
bles all round the world.


1t would be long and useless story to
tell you how our hopes alternated betwixt
hope and hopelessness during the ten days
that we grappled and hooked and lost the
dear old thread. Our backs are very much
up, and all of us long to recover the cable
and restore our prestige. 1, have become
positively eager, aud hope circumstances
will admit of my finishing what have be-