THREE CRUISES OF THE BLAKE 175 



" With steel rope, one haul in 804 fathoms, the dredge 

 being down at bottom 25 minutes, occupied exactly 1 

 hour 23 minutes from time it left the ship's side till it 

 was on deck again. This speed does not appear to have 

 injured contents of dredge in any way, specimens com- 

 ing up in excellent condition. Of course what we have 

 gained by this method of dredging will be apparent at 

 once. 



" I thought that these results would be interesting to 

 you and I think we shall see the day when steel rope 

 will be exclusively used in all this sort of work. Expe- 

 rienced little trouble from kinking by keeping line well 

 stretched and not allowing any slack to fall on ground." 



The cruise was marred by a most annoying accident, 

 of which he writes to Sir Wy ville Thomson : — 



" You may have seen from the papers that we ran 

 aground at Bahia Honda (Cuba), in charge of a Spanish 

 pilot, and my private opinion is that it was a put up job, 

 for ever since we have had anything to do with the 

 noble Dagos, as we call them, it has been one series of 

 obstacles and red tape, but you know the cubs and my 

 writing on the subject only drives me mad. I had, how- 

 ever, the satisfaction at Havana, on leaving, to express 

 my mind freely to the Spanish Admiral in command, 

 and to thank him in my best Spanish for his duplicity 

 towards us ever since we landed on his infernal island. 

 I have of course known people to lie, but to go out of 

 your way, as these people have done, in order to keep 

 us aground, was more than I could stand. It was only 

 after seeing that we got no help from Havana, in spite of 

 telegraphic promises, that I went overland to Havana — 



