THE CABLE SHIP ON EEPAIES. 



303 



like cable-laying ships, with paying-out gear aft. A dynamo- 

 meter is always provided aft with the necessary leading pulleys 

 or rollers. It is usual to fix these on the port or starboard 

 quarter, to give the cable as straight a course as possible from 

 the forward drum. A sicgle sheave, 3ft. or 4ft. diameter, is 

 fitted at the stern for paying out (Fig. 181). This is usually, 

 like the bow sheaves, gun-metal bushed to rua loose on a fixed 

 shaft. Stauffer grease-cups are used for lubricating the sheave. 



Buoyed End Inboard. — As the ship approaches the position 

 where the other end of the cable was left buoyed, a sharp 

 look-cut is kept to sight the buoy in time to bear down directly 

 upon it, and should this occur at night it is generally possible 



Fig. 181. — Stern Sheave. 



with the aid of the searchlight to sight it two miles off. As 

 soon as the ship is up to buoy a boat is lowered with four or 

 five hands to unmoor her and make faso a line from ship's 

 picking-up drum, this manoeuvre being illustrated in Fig. 182 

 from an instantaneous photograph. 



Getting the boat up to buoy and hanging alongside is not an 

 easy job in a heavy current or tide-way, such, for instance, as 

 rushes through the Straits of Lombok and about the neigh- 

 bouring islands east of Java, near to which the three Australian 

 cables pass. In such strong currents the boat has to be assisted 

 with a line from the ship. To get the buoyed end on board a 

 length of three-by-three rope is passed over one of the bow 

 sheaves from the picking-up drum, and the first thing to be 

 done by the boat's crew is to make this fast to the stray leg of 



