of Edinburgh, Session 1865 - 66 . 501 
But if the fault is between the land end and the fresh-cut sea- 
ward end on board ship, proper simultaneous electric tests on hoard 
ship and on shore (not hitherto practised, but easy and sure if pro- 
perly planned) must be used to discover whether the fault lies so 
near the ship that the right thing is to haul back the cable until it 
is got on board. If it is so, then steam power must he applied to 
reverse the paying-out machine, and, by careful watching of the 
dynamometer, and controlling the power accordingly (hauling in 
slowty, stopping, or veering out a little, but never letting the dyna- 
mometer go above 60 or 65 cwt.), the cable (which can bear 7 
tons) will not break, and the fault will be got on board more 
surely, and possibly sooner, than a sulky” salmon of 30 lbs. can be 
landed by an expert angler with a line and rod that could not 
bear 10 lbs. The speaker remarked that he was entitled to make 
such assertions with confidence now, because the experience of the 
late expedition had not only verified the estimates of the scientific 
committee and of the contractors as to the strength of the cable, 
its weight in water (whether deep or shallow), and its mechanical 
manageability, but it had proved that in moderate weather the 
Great Eastern could, by skilful seamanship, be kept in position 
and moved in the manner required. She had actually been so 
for thirty-eight hours, and eighteen hours during the operations 
involved in the hauling back and cutting out the first and second 
faults, and reuniting the cable, and during seven hours of hauling 
in, in the attempt to repair the third fault. 
Should the simultaneous electric testing on board and on shore 
prove the fault to be 50 or 100 or more miles from the ship, it 
would depend on the character of the fault, the season of the year, 
and the means and appliances on board, whether it would be 
better to complete the line, and afterwards, if necessary, cut out the 
fault and repair, or to go back at once and cut out the fault be- 
fore attempting to complete the line. Even the worst of these 
contingencies would not be fatal to the undertaking with such a 
cable as the present one. But all experience of cable-laying shows 
that almost certainly the fault would either be found on board, or 
but a very short distance overboard, and would be reached and cut 
out with scarcely any risk, if really prompt measures, as above de- 
scribed, are taken at the instant of the appearance of a fault. 
