THE CABLE SHIP ON EEPAIES. ~ 247 



being put on. Again, if cable is led on to the drum with an 

 outside lead, as in paying out, the knife is required on the other 

 side, and can be shifted to the left along the bar D, by slacking 

 the set screw C. Also the curved piece B can be unbolted 

 and shifted from the left-hand side and bolted up again on the 

 right-hand side, so as to bear against cable on the other side. 

 In some ships — as, for instance, on the Eastern Telegraph 

 Company's vessel, the *' John Pender " — the more convenient 

 arrangement of two knives is provided (Fig. 142), either of 

 which can be moved up to the drum face and the other 

 removed by the screws A A, according to which side the 

 cable is first led on to the drum. The first occasion on which 

 the fleeting-knife was used with the drum was on board 

 the original "Monarch," when she was first rigged out to lay 

 the Hague cables in 1853. Mr. F. C. Webb, in his interesting 

 "Old Cable Stories Retold" {The Electrician, Vol. XIII., 

 page 56), details the development in the arrangement of 

 gear on board this 500-ton paddle-steamer, which was the first 

 cable-ship fully equipped, and after whose name the present 

 cable-ship belonging to the General Post Ofl&ce was christened. 

 Mr. Webb points out that the flaeting-knife, drum, and brake 

 were made to the designs of Mr. R. S. Newall, of the firm of 

 R. S. Newall and Co., of Sunderland, who served and sheathed 

 the cores of the four Hague cables, and supplied the skilled 

 labour on this the first expedition of the " Monarch." The 

 knife had been used previously in collieries in connection with 

 cable drums, but its first employment in submarine-cable work 

 was due to Mr. Newall. As the result of four years' work on 

 board this vessel, Mr. Webb had gradually evolved and organ- 

 ised the system of picking-up and paying-out gear, cable 

 buoys, mushroom anchors, bridles, and grapnels, the originals 

 of those in use at the present day. 



The first picking-up machine (illustrated in plan in Fig. 143, 

 from a sketch kindly supplied to the writer by Mr. F. C. 

 Webb) was also the work of Mr. Newall, and fitted by him to 

 the " Monarch " for recovering the Irish cable, which he was 

 forced to cut and abandon when two-thirds of the distance from 

 Scotland to Ireland had been successfully laid. The successful 

 grappling for and picking up of these 16 miles was the first 

 instance of the kind. lb is evident that Mr. Newall anticipated 



