to the coral hook. After allowing nearly an hour for the coral hook 

 to settle in and Stage 6 to stablize, the remaining signal cable was 

 laid on the bottom up to the pre-arranged splice area outside the reefs. 

 At 0100, 5 October, the bitter end was sealed and left on the bottom 

 in 14 fathoms. At 0300 we were on our harbor moorings. 



The principal difficulties experienced in the Signal Cable /Sensor 

 Array installation were associated with control of the vessels. The 

 problems we encountered while attaching the Inner Mooring to 

 Station 1 have already been described. Another problem was en- 

 countered in holding the YC-1378 barge on station after Stage 4. 

 The required thrust was slightly over 7000 lbs. whereas we had 

 already measured that the T-426 could only pull 6000 lbs. We 

 had therefore planned to use assistance from the R/V Erline 

 during the final stages after she was no longer needed for patrol 

 duty. In order to minimize the control problem we requested a 

 constant pull from Erline while the T-Boat regulated her throttle 

 below 100% to hold station. It was not possible to adhere to this 

 plan exactly due to a lack of experience in this mode of operation. 

 To avoid overstressing the cable, we requested a throttle hold 

 and accepted some backsliding during the final minutes before the 

 coral hook grounded, missing its target by a few hundred feet. 



On October 9, after delays due to weather and other difficulties, 

 we spliced the signal cable to a heavy U5P cable, which we then 

 laid 8000 ft. through the reefs to Ruth's Bay. In a beach box at 

 Ruth's Bay,the 115P cable was connected to a land line we had 

 previously run to the SOFAR Station recording room. Thus 

 ended the five-week continuous field operation. 



232 



