EQUIPMENT. 
33 
Between the reeling-engine and the drum the wire rope is led 
on deck through heavy iron sheaves, and is guided in the same 
way over the bow. The dredging-boom (Fig. 
29) moves on a swivel, and can be raised or 
swung sideways to facilitate the bringing of the 
trawl on deck after a haul has been completed. 
The small size of the “ Blake” ' (one hun- 
dred and forty feet on the water line, twenty- 
six feet and six inches beam, with a draught of 
only eleven feet) rendered many devices neces- 
sary for the easy handling of the wire rope. 
As it was not considered best to bring the 
strain of hoisting directly upon the winding- 
reel, and as considerable room was required to 
handle the slack of the wire rope as it passed 
from the surging-drum to the reel, we sent the 
rope by means of blocks round the deck almost 
back again to the surging-drum. (Figs. 29a, 
30.) The close proximity of the reel and drum 
enabled the men at the brakes to watch either 
engine readily and act accordingly. 
The plan of the flush upper deck of the 
“Blake” (Fig. 30) gives the position of the 
large iron reel B, on which the steel-wire dredg- 
ing-rope was coiled, the position of the snatch- 
blocks О, leading the rope to the winding-en- 
gine with surging-drum A, to C, and then to 
the large block C, at the end of the swinging 
dredging-boom D, — this last block, C, being 
connected with the accumulator hung along 
the foremast; the position of the sounding- 
machine, G, on the port side is also shown, 
and that of the small winding-engine to reel in 
the sounding-wire. 
Fig. 30. — Plan of 
Deck of '* Blake." 
(Sigsbee.) 
B..Dredging-reel for wire 
rope. 
С. Snatch-blocks. 
A. Hoisting-engine. 
D. Swinging-boom. 
K. Pilot-house. 
б. Sounding-maehine. 
Н. Reeling-engine. 
In paying out the wire rope for a haul after the trawl or 
1 The “Blake ” is sehooner-rigged, her knots. She ean carry coal at that rate of 
speed but moderste, and with a consump- consumption for thirty-eight days’ steam- 
tion of four ions, steams about eight ing. 
