LETTER TO GORDON. 173 



made my proposal. In the first night the frame had become 

 warped through the wet, and the place where the height was 

 measured was about 2 feet lower than the other. A trustworthy 

 measurement with an apparatus so crudely and hurriedly made 

 and calculated is therefore out of the question. 



That soon after the commencement of the laying much 

 cable was wasted was clear. I therefore at once proposed a 

 stronger loading of the brake, but could not have my way. 

 Undoubtedly there were moments when the cable -line was 

 almost straight, although in the ordinary course there was a 

 depression of from 4 to 5 inches, and one such moment might 

 have sufficed to break the cable. The brake was also too 

 weak, and I was always in mortal terror lest, with the load 

 of at least 5 hundredweight, which subsequently, when Newall 

 left the matter in my hands, was applied, it should give 

 way. As the cable would have been irrecoverably lost if 

 the brake had given way, it certainly required a prodigious 

 resolution to justify loading it in this manner. It is certain 

 that we strained the cable too severely on the following day. 

 We certainly laid it without any loss whatever, and perhaps 

 already had some catenary curve force in the cable. This was 

 owing to the circumstance that nobody knew how fast the 

 vessel was going. Newall and Liddell thought we were not 

 making 5 knots an hour, whereas in fact we had made 7 l /. 2 . 

 As the cable ran off with the velocity of 7 y a knots, I could 

 only conclude that the waste was still too great for reaching 

 shallow water, was obliged therefore to continue the loading. 

 Thus there were moments, when the loading reached quite 6 

 tons, and the fluctuations were even greater. 



That there was no regular log in the ship was a serious 

 misfortune, and might easily have had for its consequence the 

 loss of the cable. The greatest danger in cable-laying always 

 consists in the snapping of single wires. That under the 

 circumstances we came off as we did is a real marvel. I 

 should not advise attempting a cable-laying in deep water 

 without having previously subjected the wire in its whole 

 length to a maximum strain, never to be exceeded in the actual 

 laying. 



OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



