xc MEMOIR 



Should it prove the young cable ! We are apparently crossing 

 its path not the working one, but the lost child ; Mr. Lid dell 

 would start the big one first though it was laid first : he wanted 

 to see the job done, and meant to leave us to the small one 

 unaided by his presence. 



' 3.30. Grapnel caught something, lost it again ; it left 

 its marks on the prongs. Started lifting gear again ; and after 

 hauling in some 50 fathoms grunt, grunt, grunt we hear the 

 other cable slipping down our big one, playing the selfsame tune 

 we heard last night louder however. 



' 10 P.M. The pull on the deck engines became harder and 

 harder. I got steam up in a boiler on deck, and another little 

 engine starts hauling at the grapnel. I wonder if there ever 



was such a scene of confusion : Mr. Liddell and W and the 



captain all giving orders contradictory &c. on the forecastle; 



D , the foreman of our men, the mates, &c. following the 



example of our superiors; the ship's engine and boilers below, 

 a 50-horse engine on deck, a boiler 14 feet long on deck beside 

 it, a little steam winch tearing round ; a dozen Italians (20 

 have come to relieve our hands, the men we telegraphed for to 

 Cagliari) hauling at the rope ; wiremen, sailors, in the crevices 

 left by ropes and machinery ; everything that could swear 

 swearing I found myself swearing like a trooper at last. We 

 got the unknown difficulty within ten fathoms of the surface ; 

 but then the forecastle got frightened that, if it was the small 

 cable which we had got hold of, we should certainly break it by 

 continuing the tremendous and increasing strain. So at last 

 Mr. Liddell, decided to stop ; cut the big cable, buoying its end ; 

 go back to our pleasant watering-place at Chia, take more 

 water and start lifting the small cable. The end of the large 

 one has even now regained its sandy bed ; and three buoys- 

 one to grapnel foul of the supposed small cable, two to the big 

 cable are dipping about on the surface. One more a flag- 

 buoy will soon follow, and then straight for shore. 



' June 20. 



4 It is an ill-wind &c. I have an unexpected opportunity of 

 forwarding this engineering letter ; for the craft which brought 



