RETURN OF THE GREAT EASTERN.

Evening Star, Issue 3369, 6 December 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

RETURN OF THE GREAT EASTERN.

{ THE GRAPPLING FOR THE 1865 I GABLE. j (From the Special Correspondent of the Standard.) j OIF Queenborocgii, Sepfc. 17. As many readers will remember, this cabl I broke down after it was laid and worked ! and in 1866, subsequent to the submersion o I the second large cable, it was grappled fo I and recovered, the fault mended, and tin continuity restored. But it has always beer a trifle weaker than its successors, and nc surprise need ever be felt if it should go iron week to week or month to mouth. It was on the sth of August that soundings began, on the edge of the Newfoundland bank, buf the weather was so squally that after a few minutes’ trial the attempt was abandoned as useless for practical purposes, though it was ascertained the bottom lay at 570 fathoms. Grappling was then unsuccessfully tried foi three and a-half hours, and on the following day, the weather being more moderate, thirteen hours and three-quarters were fruitlessly spent in grappling. Eleven hours of grappling on the 7th and two hours and aquarter on the Bth were also without result, and then work was suspended until Monday, the Ilth, when, after an hour and a-half in the morning, and all but three hours in the afternoon, the cable was found and brought to the surface. But the fault still lay much further to the eastward; and there is no reason to suppose that the electricians were a mile out in their localisation of the interruption of continuity. So after nearly eight hours had been expended in repairing the cable-that is to say in putting in a length where the cable had been injured by the grapnels-the rope was committed to the sea, Mr J. C. Laws, the accomplished electrician on board, previously sending to Heart’s Content a message stating what had been done. From that hour the Great Eastern was cut off from communication with the shore, and when a week had passed without news, electricians on both sides of the Atlantic began to shake their heads ominously. The prophet Jeremiah centuries ago wrote “There is sorrow on the sea ; it cannot be quiet,” and the saying is just as true now as when it was drat uttered. From the Lsth of August until the llth September persistent efforts were made by drifting over the well-known line laid out on the chart by Sir James Anderson, Captain Moriarty, and Captain Halpin, to obtain a hold on the desired cable, but the weather was so very vile that in those 24 days it was only possible to use the grapnels for a period, all told, of 114 hours and 10 minutes, or to sound for more than. 4 hours and 55 minutes. Thus, less than five days altogether in the second position were the grapnels brought to bear, and of these it may be truthfully said not more than two days were in any way suited to the delicate task, which has been aptly likened to a man in a balloon, at a height of two miles above St. Raul’s, attempting, blindfold, to grapple a 3 inch rope laid from the north to the south of Hyde-park. The weather, exceptionally bad tor the time of year, appeared to grow worse, and one of the very few days on which work was possible, was inevitably consumed iu recovering a grapnel rope, which had got foul and broken. There has not been known for many years so much bad weather in this part of the Atlantic, and on the 9th of’ September Captain Halpin, although he had ten days’ coal to spare, felt that further efforts in such an inclement season would be a' useless waste of money, and resolved to give up the task and make the best of his way homewards across the stormy waters. But if the 1865 cable has not been recovered at the point at which the fault was localised, the results of the attempt are veryfar from uninstructive. The cable, when picked up on the edge of the Newfoundland bauk, iu comparatively shallow water—now-a-days we talk of three-quarters of a mile in depth as hardly worth considera' ion—was in excellent condition. The hemp coating of the outside wires was, of course, somewhat frayed by the grapnel; but the core remained perfectly sound and good, and the conducting wires were perfect iu their insulation. Just before the grappling was abandoned there was one of the luckiest “ finds” which it is possible to conceive, and one which no one on board could by any possibility have looked for. Fifteen years ago the science of cable laying in deep water was in its infancy, j There is no reliable record of the course i taken by the Agamemnon on that memorable voyage when she laid Newall’s small cable, j which gave but one week’s feeble token of ife after its submersion had been with the I xtmost difficulty completed. The general ! mpression certainly was that this cable of ! LSSS had been laid considerably to the south- j vard of the track chosen for the series I if cables beginning in 1865 ; but all j heorising on the matter is put enireiy to rest by the fact that about 00 fathoms of the old cable of 1858 was licked up in lat, 51deg. 58tuin. N., and long. 15deg. 41 min. W., in 1,800 fathoms water, hat is to say, about 100 yards more than wo miles. The stretch recovered is damaged ;ere and there as regards the wire sheathing, nd in some places the gutta-percha core is ntirely laid bare. Here is conclusive evience of the existence of animal life at this norraous depth, for where the core has been j ared there are distjuct marks of worms, uch as one sees iu the very old hard timber, I r in the rich calf binding of old folios in a • 1 brary. Where the outer sheathing was not ; < estroyed, the core and the whole substance , • f the cable remain as good as when it was l ’ lanufactared. The conducting wires are not I £ jrroded, the gutta-percha core is perfectly j t itact, the very hemp serving under the : ' leath of wires retains the smell of the tar j f ith which it was soaked when it was made | £ 1 the winter of 1857- That these things j £ ill be deemed almost incredible I am per- 1 :Cfcly aware, but Captain Halpin has judici- ! i isly preserved the various portions of the i £ JO fathoms, and they will - doubtless be I c callable for inspection by electricians and ■ 1 ther scientific men who may wish to ex- ! i mine closely into the subject. 1 The gentlemen of England wlfo live on £ lore at ease have probably but a very dim ( :ition how wild has been the weather during £ le last week on the Atlantic, Residents t

on the more sheltered parts of our coast* no doubt were conscious that “the blue waves” low sussurus” was a little louder than usual, but to the west of Ncilly there to have been a gale on Sunday night which those who were off the Welsh coast when the Royal Charter was wrecked in October, 1859, declare to have been only paralleled by that fatal storm. Between 2 and 4 a.m, on Monday, the wind blowing from the south-west, with shifts two or three points ‘ each way, lifted two solid pieces of wood off the deck of the Great Eastern and carried them aloft and overboard. The gale, which was accompanied bv lightning and heavy rain, in the course of the morning blew away a whole suit of sails made as strong as ever canvas was put together, this sail having been set before the storm burst with the view of steadying the ship, and it being impossible from the violence of the wind to reduce the canvas. In point of fact, Captain Halpin, who had been heading between the Scilly Islands and the Land’s End, was obliged to put the ship about, and bring her head to the wind when ten miles west of the Bishops. For six or eight hours the wind was of a force all but incredible, but the Great Eastern behaved as handily as any small steamer, although she rolled when in the trough of the sea more than twenty degrees, and although green seas dashed over her huge bulk amidships, swamping her deck and deluging the deck cabins, which rise not less than 45ft above her line of flotation.