THE CABLE SHIP ON REPAIRS. 



193 



ing an old cable great care has to be taken not to "run 

 through" it, and the ship goes dead slow. The speed can be a 

 little greater in shallow water on a new cable, but it must be 

 remembered that speed increases the difficulties of an always 

 difficult operation. 



Cable-ships generally carry various kinds of grapnels to suit 

 different conditions of bottom met with. The old form of 5 or 



Fig. 100. 



6-prong grapnel (Fig. 100) is still a very effectual grapnel 

 for bottoms of a soft nature, such as sand or ooze; but meeting 

 with any hard obstruction, such as rock, the prongs bend down 

 or break off. To retain the use of the shank of the grapnel 

 ■while the prongs are bent or broken off, many forms of grapnels 

 with removable prongs have been devised. In one of these 



Fig. 101. 



(Fig. 101), made by the Telegraph Construction and Main- 

 tenance Co., the prongs fit into a hollow boss on the shank 

 at A, and the ends at B are all enclosed by a collar and firmly 

 fixed in position by the nut n. Another form, constructed by 

 Messrs, Johnson and Phillips, is the sliding-prong grapnel, 







