320 THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, JANUARY 1957 



Here it was reluctantly decided to bury the cable in a deep trench on 

 the inner side of the road, as the other side falls sharply to the sea. The 

 desire to avoid roads was due to their instability and the methods used 

 for construction and repair. This road is dirt only, with no foundations, 

 and in this particular section has been known to slide away into the 

 river bed below\ 



The final length of cable laid was just short of 55 nautical miles. 



Cabot Strait Laying 



Coaxial submarine cables in which rigid repeaters are inserted cannot 

 be laid with the existing cable laying machinery except by stopping the 

 ship, removing the turns of cable from the drum and then passing the 

 repeater by the drum and restoring the turns. Special equipment is also 

 needed for launching the repeater over the bow sheaves. 



Ship Modifications 



The following equipment was installed on Monarch for the laying of 

 cables carrying rigid repeaters. 



A gantry over the bow baulks, consisting of a 22 foot steel beam pro- 

 jecting 6 feet beyond the sheaves, was installed for handling repeaters 

 at the bow. This gantry was fitted with an electrically operated traveling 

 hoist for lifting the repeaters over the bow sheaves and lowering them 

 into the sea. A standby hand operated lifting block and traveller were 

 provided to guard against failure of the power point. 



A rubber-tired steerable steel dolly (or trolley) was developed from 

 the chassis of a small car to transport the repeaters from the cable tank 

 hatches to the bow sheaves. These repeaters weigh about 1200 pounds' 



Storage racks were built up from steel sections provided with shaped, 

 rubber lined wood blocks and were fitted at each cable tank hatch on 

 the shelter deck. Each rack held 4 repeaters in double tiers. A hand 

 operated lift was furnished for moving the repeaters from the storage 

 racks to the dolly. 



A special quick release grip was furnished for use when lifting the 

 repeaters by the electric hoist on the bow gantry. Deflection plates were 

 also fitted on the fore deck around dynamometers and hatches to avoid 

 their fouling the dolly. 



Launching Rigid Repeaters 



The rigid repeaters were stowed in their racks in the order of their 

 laying. The bights of the cable attached to the ends of the repeaters 



