THE CABLE IS LAID 141 
to see. A large shoal of porpoises gambolled about us for half 
an hour. A glorious sunset, and later, a crescent moon, which 
we hope to see in the brightness of her full, lighting our way 
into Trinity Bay before the days of this July shall have ended.” 
The cable-laying went splendidly, and the old bogey of elec- 
trical continuity gave not a particle of trouble. 
After several days of halcyon conditions, a real shock broke 
the spell. ‘he cable became snarled in itself as the coils 
unwound from the drum. The ship was stopped immediately 
and the paying out halted. In the words of Deane: “No fish- 
ing line was entangled worse than the rope was when thrust 
up in apparently hopeless knots from the eye of the coil to 
the deck. There at least five hundred feet of rope lay in this 
state, in the midst of thick rain and increasing wind.” Can- 
ning was prepared to cut the cable and mark it with a buoy, 
if necessary. Fortunately this was not necessary, and after 
three anxious hours, the crisis was over. 
This interference of the coils of cable, coming unexpectedly 
at midnight, shows how difficult it was to guard against acci- 
dents. Every precaution that could be thought of had been 
taken, especially in view of the troubles of the year before, 
when small needles of wire had been sufficient to spoil the 
cable. The men who worked in the tank where the cable was 
coiled had been clothed completely in canvas over-suits, and 
in slippers instead of shoes with nails. The discipline and 
cooperation were noteworthy. The artist, Dudley, made ex- 
cellent sketches and paintings of the men at work under such 
novel conditions. 
So satisfactorily could messages be sent through the cable 
that European news was transmitted freely to the ship. Those 
on board followed closely the accounts of the fresh war that 
was under way—the most momentous for Europe since Water- 
loo. Bismarck was humbling Austria and consolidating the 
Germanic states. 
Messages received in mid-Atlantic reported that the Ital- 
