534 SUBHAKINE CABLE LAYING AND REPAIRING. 



use at the present day, and the system of buoys, mushrooms, 

 sheaves and steam gear was originated in her. 



The illustration of the original "Monarch" (Fig. 196 — 

 reproduced from the Illustrated London News of June 18, 1853, 

 by the courtesy of the Editor) is from a sketch by Mr. F. C. 

 Webb, and represents her laying one of The Hague cables from 

 Orfordness in that year, this being her first operation. She was 

 a, wooden steamship of 500 tons, with paddle wheels, and was 

 already 23 years old when bought by the International Tele- 

 graph Company for laying the above cables. The expedition 

 is of interest, as showing the practice in those days. The cable 

 (136 miles) was distributed in five coils, two in the main and 

 three in the fore hold, coiled alternately in order to keep the 

 ship trimmed during paying-out. Ships are now built with 

 -water ballast tanks which can be pumped up or discharged, as 

 trimming is necessary, while loading or paying-out. The coils 

 were oblong, which economised room in the holds, but were not 

 so simple to uncoil as circular ones. In paying-out from these 

 coils, in order to allow sufl&cient vertical height for the turn put in 

 in coiling to untwist itself, the cable was led over an iron saddle 

 or sheave erected on shear legs on deck 10ft. high immediately 

 over the hatch. These may be seen in the illustration, one over 

 each hold. To prevent cable running out too free the turns of 

 the coils were stoppered down in places to the underneath turns 

 by rope yarns. While paying-out, the stoppers were cut adrift 

 and cable cleared away by twelve men stationed in the hold. 



A perusal of the works on this and earlier expeditions from 

 which these particulars have been gathered, viz., the Paper 

 read on February 23, 1858, before the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, "On the Practical Operations Connected with Paying- 

 out and Kepairing Submarine Telegraph Cables," by Mr. F. C. 

 Webb, and " Old Cable Stories Retold," a series of interesting 

 articles in The Electrician,'^ o\. XIII., by the same author, conclu- 

 sively shows that the greatest difficulty experienced was in steer- 

 ing. Towing was tried and given up, although this was a great 

 assistance until matters were better understood. For instance, 

 when laying the first sheathed cable (Dover to Calais, 1851), 

 it was not deemed prudent to trust one vessel to carry it, lay 

 it, and keep her course across Channel. A vessel was, therefore, 

 -secured to act simply aA a hulk for storing and laying the cable 



