20 



Chapter 



WORDS UNDER WATER 



o 



NCE, after many stormy days at sea, I brought a small 

 vessel into a foreign harbor that I had not previously visited. The 

 light from a murky winter sun was already fading from the sky as 

 I was casting about for an anchorage. I found a likely spot in quiet 

 waters a little removed from the larger shipping and was about to 

 give the order, "Let go," when my first mate pointed to a sign along 

 the shore. Owing to fatigue, to poor light and unfamiliarity with the 

 port, I had ignored the sign. What it actually said was this: Cable 

 Crossing Do Not Anchor! 



Perhaps you have been in similar circumstances or have seen a 

 similar sign from the deck of a steamer. The sign is often inconven- 

 ient and irritating to a seaman but if you have a proper respect for 

 your own property as well as for that of the cable company the thing 

 to do is to begin casting about for a new berth. 



Even after traveling thousands of miles and living many months 

 at sea, such a sign and a few markings on a chart may be the only 

 visible signs you ever encounter that hint at the vast hidden empire 

 of ocean communication that is forever flowing between the conti- 

 nents across the bottom of the sea. 



The whole world uses the cable services. They are woven into the 

 fabric of modern life and yet they operate so unobtrusively and so 

 efficiently that they attract little public attention and few people 



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