DIFFICULTY AND MENTAL STRAIN OF CABLE -LAYING. 167 



laying was for me therefore all the more instructive, 

 and certainly also the more exciting and straining. 



The cable must pass out of the ship's hold, in 

 which it is carefully coiled round a cone, over the 

 brake-wheel and under the roller of the dynamometer, 

 day and night without any stoppage, which is always 

 dangerous in deep water. Every stoppage is a source 

 of great danger, since the progress of the ship cannot 

 be checked with sufficient celerity. At the same time 

 the brake-force must be carefully regulated in proportion 

 to the depth of water, and to the velocity with which 

 the ship is moving, otherwise the cable is either 

 needlessly wasted, or it is strained at the bottom. 

 Furthermore the electrical quality of the insulated 

 core must be unceasingly tested, in order that the 

 occurrence of a fault in the freshly immerged parts of 

 the cable may be immediately detected. In such a 

 case the laying must be at once suspended, and the 

 last laid portion of the cable taken back again to repair 

 the defect. 



The continuous mental strain, and the conscious- 

 ness that any error committed may occasion the loss of 

 the whole cable, makes the laying of a deep-sea cable 

 a very anxious, and for a length of time thoroughly 

 exhausting affair for all concerned, and especially for 

 the leader of the undertaking. Towards the end of 

 the foregoing work, in which I would not allow myself 

 a moment's rest and refreshment, I could only keep 

 myself up by frequently taking strong black coffee, 

 and required several days for recovering my strength. 



