THE LAYING OP SUBMARINE CABLES. 129 



delay. If the rope breaks, the steam launch is despatched to 

 grapple for the end near shore and underrun it up to break, 

 a fresh length of rope being taken from ship to launch, to 

 bend on. -If the cable fouls, a boat's crew is sent to the spot 

 to try ana clear it, but if this cannot be done, another rope is 

 made fast to cable on the sea side of the foul and connected 

 to the shore side of hauling rope, when, after cutting out the 

 part fouled, hauling is continued. 



The balloon buoys (Fig. 61) introduced by Mr. Robert Kaye 

 Gray and adopted by the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Tele- 

 graph Works Company, of Silvertown, take the place of the 

 empty casks first proposed by Mr. R. S. Newall and first 

 used by Mr. F. C. Webb for floating shore-ends. They 

 can be packed into very small space, as they need only 



Fig. 62. — Pump for Inflating Buoys. 



be inflated when required, the inflating being done by a small 

 hand pump (Fig. 62). After the cable is ashore boats are sent 

 to detach and pick up all buoys. The small piece of cord C 

 connecting the two arms a a is cut : this allows the arms to 

 fall apart and release the rope thimbles at R, R. The cable 

 and rope then sink, and the buoy is recovered. 



When there is not sufficient water to take the ship in near 

 enough, a repairing steamer of lighter draft is sometimes 

 utilised to land the end in the manner described, in which 

 case, as there is no steam gear affc, the work is done from the 

 bows. If, as in all modern gear, there are two independent 

 drums on the forward picking-up machinery, these are set to 

 rotate in opposite directions, one hauling cable up from tank 



