THE CABLE SHIP OX REPAIRS. 225 



a blow upwards, opening the link and allowing the chain to 

 slip oflF, leaving the buoy quite free. 



But to return now to our preparations for buoying. On 

 the end of the mooring chain about 20 fathoms of rope are 

 attached, and the chain and rope so attached to the buoy are 

 led along outside the ship to the bows and held a few feet above 

 the water by pieces of small line tied to the gunwale, a few 

 feet apart. The appearance of this is sketched in Fig. 131, which 

 represents a cable ship preparing to buoy cable. Meanwhile 

 the end of the cable and the mushroom anchor have to be con- 

 nected on to a length of buoy rope wound over the drum, and 

 the rope paid out until the anchor and cable reach the sea-bottom. 

 About 40 fathoms of fin. mooring chain are shackled on at one 

 end to the anchor and at the other to a thimble in the buoy 

 rope round the drum. The cable is not connected on directly 

 to this chain or the anchor, but to a length of stray chain, 

 shackled on a few fathoms beyond the mushroom anchor, as 

 shown in Fig. 132. This illustration shows the position of 

 <3able, buoy chains, rope and anchor when the whole operation 

 of buoying is completed. The stray chain is attached to the 

 cable with back hitches and stoppered on with spun yarn. 

 The buoy rope used is 3 x 3 compound rope, consisting of 

 three hemp-yarn ropes stranded together, each with a heart of 

 three steel wires. This rope has a breaking strain of 9 tons. 

 The drum is now heaved in a little to take up the slack and 

 "then heavily braked. The stopper first put on the cable is then 

 cut adrift, and all is ready to lower. The brake is now released 

 gradually, and the cable and anchor sink below water, while 

 the paying out continues until the anchor has grounded and 

 sufficient slack has been paid out to allow for irregularities of 

 depth and strong currents. It is important that the depth be 

 correctly taken. If too little buoy rope is paid out, the buoy 

 may sink altogether out of sight, and it has sometimes happened 

 that the end has had to be grappled for. The rope is then stop- 

 pered at the bows, and the nearest thimble in it shackled on 

 to the end of the 20 fathom piece previously attached to 

 the buoy. The bight so formed is then secured to a piece 

 of stout manilla and lowered overboard close to the water, the 

 manilla then being made fast. The stopper on the paid-out 

 rope is then released, and the strain taken entirely by the 



