THE CABLE Sllir ON REPAIRS. 199 



upwards through the shank of the grapnel, where they are 

 lashed together and form the thimble at T by which the 

 grapnel is hauled. There are two prongs or flukes, one 

 each side of the grapnel, and one of which is shown in the 

 figure. On hooking the cable, the strain on the steel ropes at 

 T causes the extremities of the arms A A to bear inwards with 

 a force which causes the bolts at B to snap off at the thin 

 central part. The moment the bolts snap the full force of the 

 strain is brought to bear in closing the jaws, and the bight of 

 the cable is jammed in between the curved portions of the 

 arms and the central stem, as shown in Fig. 111. As the 

 jaws close, one pair of cutting edges, as at K K, close across 

 the cable on one side, and the rapidity and force of closing 

 cuts the cable clean through, leaving the other end firmly 

 gripped in the jaws. The pair of knife-edges shown at K K 

 are on the near side, and would cut the left-hand side of a 

 cable hooked on the near prong, as shown In the figure. The 

 pair of edges S S are on the far side, and would only cut a 

 cable caught by the far prong. In grappling it is, of course, 

 only the lower prong that hooks the cable, and supposing we 

 are looking down upon this grapnel as it Is being hauled along, 

 the underneath prong will hook the cable, and the pair of 

 edges S S will cut the cable on the right-hand side. If, now, 

 the grapnel should roll over a rock and turn upside down, the 

 cable, when hooked, would still be cut on the right-hand side, 

 as the pair of edges K K are now on that nide. So long, there- 

 fore, as the grapnel is hauled in one direction with reference to 

 the line of cable, it will always cut the cable on the side 

 desired, no matter whether it rolls over or not, and will bring 

 up the right end. But if the direction of grappling is reversed, 

 the knives must be unbolted and shifted to the opposite side, 

 in order to cut the cable on the desired side. This grapnel, 

 which has proved very successful, was used for the first time 

 on board the "Scotia" during the repairs of the Lisbon- 

 Madeira cable, in January, 1891, which it cut and brought up 

 from a depth of 1,500 fathoms. 



Figs. 112 and 113 represent the grip and automatic retaining 

 grapnels designed by Mr, Henry Benest, of the Silvertown 

 Company. In these grapnels the flukes perform the function 

 of automatically-acting gripping jaws. Secured to the lower 

 part of the shank by a lock nut is a central boss, A, of cast steel, 



