THE LAYING OP SUBMARINE CABLES. 115 



Tiie snip now piCKS up tne second buoyed end ofl" Fort A, 

 splices on intermediate in main tank and proceeds fco pay out 

 on the long cable. While this goes on continuous tests are 

 being carried out between ship and cable house at Port A. 

 The bottom end of 200-mile length of deep-sea type in main 

 tank is also brought up and spliced to top end of cable in fore 

 tank and bottom end of the latter spliced to top end of 120 

 miles in aft tank (as shown by dotted lines Fig. 53).- 



When the 160 miles of intermediate and 200 miles of deep- 

 sea type are payed out the ship is slowed, and the bight 

 between the main and fore tank passed up carefully to avoid 

 kink. Once outboard paying out is continued from the fore 

 tank. This leaves the 11 miles of shore-end in main tank 

 ready exposed for laying from the other end. When the end 

 of the 340-mile length in fore tank is nearly reached ship 

 is slowed again till the bight between this and the aft tank 

 has passed out safely, when paying out is continued from the 

 120 miles in the aft tank. When all is payed out the end of 

 this length is buoyed and the ship proceeds to Port C, to lay 

 the 11 miles of shore end from main tank. This done, the 100 

 miles of intermediate in main tank is payed out up to buoy 

 when the final splice is made. 



We have here considered a simple case of two cables for the 

 sake of showing the principle of the course followed without 

 introducing complications. Sometimes cable has to be turned 

 over from one tank to another to bring the required sections 

 into proper succession, and, as mentioned above, there is gene- 

 rally a small surplus of some types left over. 



The cable is led over in the proper order of sections from 

 the factory to the ship's tanks, where it is carefully coiled. A 

 series of idle sheaves are fixed in any convenient way between 

 factory and ship to guide the cable on board without resistance 

 or obstruction. When the factory is on the river, and the latter 

 is not dredged for wharfing the ship alongside, she loads cable 

 while moored in mid-stream. When this is done it is convenient 

 to fix sheaves on staging erected on barges moored in convenient 

 positions between ship and shore, as shown in Fig. 54. 



The cables are drawn on board by small hauling machines, 

 driven off the ship's winch by ropes. The machines consist of 

 a V-sheave, on the top of which, where the cable rides, a small 



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