THE CABLE SHIP OX REPAIRS. 



205 



prong is broken off the grapnel generally tows with the broken 

 side underneath, and misses the cable, while it cannot be 

 known on board every time this occurs. And whether there 

 has been a desire or not to put to frequent test the facility 

 with which prongs on this or that system can be renewed 

 it is impossible to say, but the metal is very much skimped 

 in some specimens. Again, if prongs break easily, it may 

 happen that one on which the cable is safely lodged may 

 break before the grapnel, owing to slack of rope, has had time 

 to lift, with the result that the cable is lost. With the view of 

 lessening these defects as far as possible, Mr. Edward Stallibrass 

 devised in 1892 the grapnel illustrated in Fig. 116. Normally 

 the toes A A in this grapnel are retained in position by the pins 

 at C (Fig. 117), but if, through meeting with some obstruction 

 while towing, a strain equal to three tons is brought to bear 

 on the point of a toe, the pin is sheared through and the toe 



Fig. 116.— Stallibrass Grapnel. 



capsizes, turning on its pivot B to the position indicated by 

 the dotted lines. By this action a toe can never get broken, 

 and further, when in the capsized position it projects more 

 than before, which has the eflfect of canting the grapnel over 

 so that another toe takes the ground. By varying the size of 

 the pin the toe can be made to capsize at any desired strain. 

 The toe is only used to guide the cable into a large rounded 

 surface in the shank of the grapnel, and consequently, although 

 a toe might be capsized by a rock after hooking cable, the 

 latter could not be lost. The grapnel is made in two parts, 

 each having four toes, and these are shackled together, as in 

 the illustration, or with a short length of chaio intei'vening. 

 This enables it to fit better into any irregularities of the 

 ground, and increases the chances of hooking a cable, besides 

 being more convenient in other ways. For soft bottoms longer 

 toes are provided, and one single grapnel can be used instead 

 of the pair, 



