THE NORDERNEY CABLE 



IV. 



And now I am quite at an end of journal keeping ; diaries 

 and diary letters being things of youth which Fleeming had at 

 length outgrown. But one or two more fragments from his 

 correspondence may be taken, and first this brief sketch of the 

 laying of the Norderney cable ; mainly interesting as showing 

 under what defects of strength and in what extremities of pain, 

 this cheerful man must at times continue to go abput his work. 

 ' I slept on board 29th September having arranged every- 

 thing to start by daybreak from where we lay in the roads : but 

 at daybreak a heavy mist hung over us so that nothing of land 

 or water could be seen. At midday it lifted suddenly and 

 away we went with perfect weather, but could not find the buoys 

 Forde left, that evening. I saw the captain was not strong in 

 navigation, and took matters next day much more into my own 

 hands and before nine o'clock found the buoys ; (the weather 

 had been so fine we had anchored in the open sea near Texel). 

 It took us till the evening to reach the buoys, get the cable on 

 board, test the first half, speak to Lowestoft,. make the splice, 



and start. H had not finished his work at Norderney, 



so I was alone on board for Reuter. Moreover the buoys to 

 guide us in our course were not placed,, and the captain had 

 very vague ideas about keeping his course ; so I had to do a good 

 deal, and only lay down as I was for two hours in the night. I 

 managed to run the course perfectly. Everything went well, 

 and we found Norderney just where we wanted it next after- 

 noon, and if the shore end had been laid, could have finished 

 there and then, October 1st. But when we got to Norderney, we 

 found the Caroline with shore end lying apparently aground, and 

 could not understand her signals ; so we had to anchor suddenly 

 and I went off in a small boat with the captain to the Caroline. 

 It was cold by this time, and my arm was rather stiff and I was 

 tired ; I hauled myself up on board the Caroline by a rope and 



found H and two men on board. All the rest were trying 



to get the shore end on shore, but had failed and apparently 

 VOL. i. 



