xciv MEMOIR 



went to bed, and slept without fretting, and woke this morni 

 in the same good mood for which thank you and our friend 

 Shakespeare. I am happy to say Mr. Liddell said the loss of the 

 cable did not much matter ; though this would have been no 

 consolation had I felt myself to blame. This morning we have 

 grappled for and found another length of small cable which 



Mr. dropped in 100 fathoms of water. If this also gets full 



of kinks, we shall probably have to cut it after 10 miles or so, or 

 more probably still it will part of its own free will or weight. 



4 10 P.M. This second length of three-wire cable soon got 

 into the same condition as its fellow i.e. came up twenty kinks 

 an hour and after seven miles were in, parted on the pulley over 

 the bows at one of the said kinks ; during my watch again, but 

 this time no earthly power could have saved it. I had taken 

 all manner of precautions to prevent the end doing any damage 

 when the smash came, for come I knew it must. We now 

 return to the six-wire cable. As I sat watching the cable to- 

 night, large phosphorescent globes kept rolling from it and 

 fading in the black water. 



'29th. 



f To-day we returned to the buoy we had left at the end of 

 the six-wire cable, and after much trouble from a series of 

 tangles, got a fair start at noon. You will easily believe a 

 tangle of iron rope inch and a half diameter is not easy to un- 

 ravel, especially with a ton or so hanging to the ends. It is 

 now eight o'clock and we have about six and a half miles safe : 

 it becomes very exciting however, for the kinks are coming fast 

 and furious. 



* July 2. 



1 Twenty-eight miles safe in the hold. The ship is now so 

 deep, that the men are to be turned out of their aft hold, and the 

 remainder coiled there ; so the good Elbas nose need not burrow 

 too far into the waves. There can only be about 10 or 12 miles 

 more, but these weigh 80 or 100 tons. 



' July 5. 



* Our first mate was much hurt in securing a buoy on the 

 evening of the 2nd. As interpreter [with the Italians] I am 



