SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH\ 219 



has to be stopped at once, the ship's engines reversed, and all 

 hands busied in setting the mischief to rights. The following 

 extract from a speech delivered at Glasgow by Captain 

 Hamilton, who accompanied the expedition as a Director of the 

 Atlantic and Anglo-American Companies, gives a graphic de- 

 scription of the foul flakes which occurred during the laying of 

 the 1866 cable : 



This interruption occurred in consequence of the cable, which 

 was being paid out from the after-tank, bringing up with it a bight 

 from the next lower flake, and also the lead from the inside to the 

 outside of the next layer of the coil, so that five cables were running 

 out from the tank instead of one. 



These were carried aft together till they were stopped by the pay- 

 ing-out machinery ; when, in a very short time, they appeared like 

 the tangle of a gigantic fishing-line. The ship was immediately 

 stopped, but the night was pitch dark, rain falling heavily, and a 

 fresh breeze blowing, the cable over the ship's stern being only visible 

 by a slight phosphorescent light where it dipped into the water. Sir 

 James Anderson, however, by great skill, contrived so to handle his 

 ship of 23,000 tons, which was riding at single anchor in 2,000 

 fathoms by a mere thread, that the engineers and sailors had time 

 to reduce this apparent confusion to order, and in about three hours 

 the paying-out was resumed without the perfect testing of the cable 

 having been in the slightest degree interfered with. 1 



160 or 170 miles of cable were paid out daily during the 

 1865 Atlantic expedition, and from five and a half to six and a 

 half knots per hour may be considered a good speed in cable- 

 laying. In 1866 the speed was rather slower, the distance was 

 generally about 120 miles per diem, and the cable paid out 

 about 135 miles. The 1865 and 1866 cables are 1,896 and 1,858 

 nautical miles long respectively. The total distance from shore 

 to shore is 1,670 nautical miles. The 1858 cable was 2,022 

 miles long, and it was paid out as fast as in 1865, but more 

 cable was wasted and the ship went slower. A footnote gives 

 the principal dimensions and weights of these cables. 2 



1 From the Glasgow Daily Herald, November 5, 1866. 



First Atlantic. Length as laid, 2,022 knots ; copper conductor 7-wire 

 strand, weighing 107 Ibs. per knot, diameter 0'083 in. ; covered with gntta- 

 percha, weighing 260 Ibs. per knot, diameter 0'38 in. ; served with tanned 

 hemp, and covered with eighteen strands of seven bright charcoal iron wires 



