KINKS xciii 



' 27th, Sunday. 



' This morning was a beautiful calm. We reached the buoys 

 at about 4.30 and commenced picking up at 6.30. Shortly a 

 new cause of anxiety arose. Kinks came up in great quantities, 

 about thirty in the hour. To have a true conception of a kink, 

 you must see one : it is a loop drawn tight, all the wires get 

 twisted and the gutta-percha inside pushed out. These much 

 diminish the value of the cable, as they must all be cut out, the 

 gutta-percha made good, and the cable spliced. They arise 

 from the cable having been badly laid down so that it forms 

 folds and tails at the bottom of the sea. These kinks have 

 another disadvantage : they weaken the cable very much. At 

 about six o'clock [P.M.] we had some twelve miles lifted, when 

 I went to the bows ; the kinks were exceedingly tight and were 

 giving way in a most alarming manner. I got a cage rigged 

 up to prevent the end (if it broke) from hurting anyone, and 

 sat down on the bowsprit, thinking I should describe kinks to 

 Annie : suddenly I saw a great many coils and kinks altogether 

 at the surface. I jumped to the gutta-percha pipe, by blowing 

 through which the signal is given to stop the engine. I blow, 

 but the engine does not stop ; again no answer : the coils and 

 kinks jam in the bows and I rush aft shouting stop ! Too late : 

 the cable had parted and must lie in peace at the bottom. 

 Someone had pulled the gutta-percha tube across a bare part of 

 the steam pipe and melted it. It had been used hundreds of 

 times in the last few days and gave no symptoms of failing. I 

 believe the cable must have gone at any rate ; however, since it 

 went in my watch and since I might have secured the tubing 

 more strongly, I feel rather sad. ... 



June 28. 



' Since I could not go to Annie I took down Shakespeare, and 

 by the time I had finished Antony and Cleopatra, read the 

 second half of Troilus and got some way in Coriola/nus, I felt 

 it was childish to regret the accident had happened in my watch, 

 and moreover I felt myself not much to blame in the tubing 

 matter it had been torn down, it had not fallen down ; so I 



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