FAILURE OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO LAY THE COOK’S STRAIT CABLE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 400, 6 August 1866, Page 2

FAILURE OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO LAY THE COOK’S STRAIT CABLE.

(From the Special Eeporter of the Wellington Independent.) THE PTJBGHASE OP THE CABLE.—ITS TEANSMISSION TO THE COLONY.—TEEMS MADE -WITH THB CONTEAOTOE3. Peehaps in no undertaking has greater or more general interest been taken by the colonists, than in the linking together of the Northern and the Middle Island by the means of the Cook’s Strait Submarine Cable. Nearly a year ago the General Government communicated with Mr John Morrison, the London Agent of (he province, and directed him to procure a cable of the kind required, and otherwise make what arrangements were, necessary for carrying out the object iu view. He accordingly opened communications with several firms, and ultimately after maturely considering the character of the channel, the contingencies affecting the shore-ends of the cable, and the delay and inconvenience which would be caused by a reference to England for repairs, it was deemed desirable to adopt a cable similar in construction but much heavier iron sheathing, to the proposed submarine cable for the China Seas and Torres Straits, as such is the description of cable now invariably adopted by the Submarine Telegraph Companies and the English Government. Actin» on the recommendation of the Director of Public Works at Hobart Town, Mr Morrison stipulated that the manufacturers should ship and submerge the cable at their own risk, and moreover maintain it in working order for twelve months. Several tenders were submitted, and in December last a contract was entered into with Mr F. W. Henley, Submarine Telegraph Cable Manufacturer and Electrical Engineer, to construct a cable for the Cook’s Strait service. The terms agreed upon were these:— . 1. The cable was to he forty-six nautical miles in length; it was to contain tlflree conductors, and to be conducted in every respect accordin'* to specification. ° 2. The cost of it was to be four hundred and forty-eight pounds per nautical mile, or twenty thousand six hundred and eight pounds free on board of ship. 3. The contractor undertook to submerge and maintain it against all risks and in good working order for twelve months from the date in which it was laid and in work; excepting only the risk of damage done to it by vessels. 4. For submerging and maintaining cable in good order and electrical condition for the twelve months, for providing, paying out, and packing up machinery, tank, in which to submerge the cable while on board the ship, timber, buoys, &c., &0., (all of which become the property of Government) and for sending out and paying all expenses (during the period of guarantee) of an efficient staff, the contractor was to be paid the sum of five thousand nine hundred pounds. Should Mr Henley bo required to guarantee and maintain the cable for twelve months against damage done to it by ships, a lurcher sum of two thousand pounds to be paid to him. 5. Tha Government on their part were to provide a suitable sailing vessel, to be approved by Mr Henley, for the conveyance of the cable; one or two steamers to tow her across the Strait, and to assist at laying ; to pay the freight, hire of steamers, and marine insurance on cable, &c. The remainder of the conditions, which it is not necessary to give at length, provided that the total cost of machinery, cable, guarantee, &c., bein* £26,508, a sum of £13,254 was to be paid on the shipment of the cable, and the remainder of the price in two equal instalments, the first to be paid after the cable had been in good working order for three months, and the second on completion of the twelve months guarantee. The freight of cable to Wellington in the Weymouth cost a further sum of £2,500, one half of which had to be paid by the Government on the arrival of the vessel hero and the remaining half on the cable being successfully laid. It was expressly stipulated that the Government should not be liable for any default of the officers, pilots or men, whom the contractor or the agent might have placed at his disposal to assist in laying the cable. Wo believe, that iu accordance with the above arrangements half the charges for freight and half the price of the cable have already be'en paid by the Government, All the remaining payments will not of course be made till the cable has been successfully laid and kept in working order for twelve months. We have been somewhat explicit in stating these facts, as it is important the publio should know what is the precise position of the Colony in the matter. AEEIVAL OF THE "WEYMOUTH.— SELECTION OF LANDING! PLACES. The fine clipper ship Weymouth, with the cable on board, arrived at Port .Nicbolson. from the Downs on the 3rd July, after a passage of 93 days. Mr Edward Donovan, who, with a small stall’of assistants, had been selected to carry out the laying and maintenance of the cable during the period of guarantee, were passengers by the vessel. Previous to the Weymouth’s arrival Mr Sheath Captain Holiday, the Wellington Harbor Master’ Captain Sharp, President of the Marino Board J-Labour, and Dr Hector, made an examination of several localities with the object of choosing the best landing-places for the cable, and ultimately recommended that it should run from Lyall’s Bay, on the north side of the Strait, to White’s Bay, on tiro south side. These localities were accordingly chosen, partly because the bottom at each side was sandy and regular, and also because the cable could thus be laid in the line of the only dangerous swell which could affect tiro places, and thus with a sandy bottom be almost free from injury. A final sufvey of the localities was made on the 25th July, in the s.s. Taranaki, and on Friday it was decided that tiro work should ba commenced that night. STARTING OF THE EXPEDITION.—LAYING- THE SHOES END AT LTALL’s BAY. I went on board the Weymouth on Friday night about nine o’clock, and an hour.afterwards she was lowed out*by the s.s. Taranaki, the little paddle steamer Sturt acting as teudeiv weather was eminently favorable to the under'

taking. Not a breath of wind rippled the waters of the harbor as they lay bathed in the clear silvery moonlight, and everyone on board augured happily of the enterprise. On passing Worser’s Bay a rocket was thrown up for a pilot, who afterwards came off in a boat and joined 113 at Lyall’s Bay, which we soon afterwards reached. Now commenced the work of laying the shore end, and here it is necessary to describe the machinery employed in paying out the cable. The cable lay in an enormous circular tank in the ship’s bold, round which were stationed twenty-five men .belonging to H.M.S.S. Esk, who lifted the coils as they were palled up on deck through a hawsepipo. Bake upon fake, in beautiful symmetry, lay the forty-six miles’ of cable, and they passed steadily up without the slightest hitch, the men working cheerily, and Mr Stafford, the foreman, watching, knife in hand, to separate any pieces of wood or ropeyarn which might accidentally adhere to it. The cable was two inches in diamater, and consisted of three copper wire conductors, each enclosed in guttapercha, to insulate them, and these again had a coating of hemp round them. The sheathing which enclosed the core consisted of twelve stout No. 1 Birmingham guage iron wires, while outside of all was a double coating of Bright and Clark's compound. The cable passed up through a large ring in the centre of the tank, and then reached the deck through a quadrant hawsepipo, from whence it led aft along a sort of •wooden trough till it reached the machinery near the mizenmast. Here it passed through a metal groove and over two wheels, with wooden wheels above, which could rapidly be screwed down to check its progress when necessary. The cable next reached the drum and took four turns round it, the end then passing along the poop till it reached the stern sheets, where a massive iron apparatus somewhat similar in principle to the davits for lowering a boat, projected over the taffrail. Through a large sheave fitted in this the cable descended towards the sea in a slanting direction, and' passed into the water about twenty feet from tbe stern. The machinery attached to the drum consisted first of a spur wheel close to the side of it. Smaller cogwheels acted on the spur wheel, aiid were themselves controlled by two flywheels. An arrangement of iron bands and powerful levers acting on the flywheels constituted the checking power employed. A ten horse power engine worked the machinery and enabled the cable to bo paid out while the vessel lay at rest, which was the case during the time of laying the shore end; but afterwards the force exerted by the Weymouth while towed through the water by the Taranaki was sufficient to pay out the cable. So much as to the machinery ; let me now return to the main business—the laying the shore end. This was done by means of the barge Wild Duck and the paddle steamer Sturt, both of which conveyed a sufficient length of the cable on shore. It was about two o’clock in the morning when the barge went away with Mr Donovan and his party, consisting of Mr Sheath, Captain Scott, Mr Staf ford, and others. They had a precious trying job of it, as the morning was bitterly cold, but on getting near shore they soon got the cable lauded and run along by the aid of the men waiting, to the station house. This was not done without some, difficulty, as even in that calm weather,' the surf .was pretty heavy-. Everybody got wet, MrDonovau wettest of all, because he was foremost and most enthusiastic in the work. However, the shore end was at lengt h placed, 1,260 yards of cable having been laid down in doing so ; and shortly after five o'clock the Taranaki got up steam again, and with the Weymouth in tow started merrily for White’s Bay, followed by the Sturt towed to the stern of the clipper by a hawser. SHE ACCIDENT-—BREAKING OF THE MACHINERY—PARTING OF THE CABLE. I don’t know well how to describe the disaster which so soon followed, in such terms as to convey a clear idea to your readers of its sudden, unforeseen, and lamentable character. I was on deck throughout, and witnessed the whole affair, but the' breakdown was so rapid, and events crowded so quickly upon each other, that no written description could convey an adequate idea of the actual events. After leaving Lyall’s Bay, the coble was paid out steadily at first, the speed gradually increasing until shortly after seven o’clock the rate was five knots an hour, as indicated by the revolutions of the drum wheel. This being considered rather a quick rate, the towing steamer slackened her speed, while the Sturt stopped paddling and was towed astern. By this time the effect of the tide, into the influence of which we had just entered, began to be felt. It was running strongly, directly in the same course as the vessel, and of course tended to increase her speed. But after careful enquiry, I come to the conclusion that, allowing for the tide, the actual rate of the Weymouth’s progress was not above five knots an hour, and in this opinion I am confirmed by Captain Mundle, late of the s.s. Wonga Wonga, who acted as pilot. At this juncture everything appeared to be going on smoothly. 1 was standing at the taffrail watching the cable gliding into tbe sea, when Mr Donovan came up from the cabin, where he had been recording the number of revolutions in that book which every now and then he devoted a few minutes to. Said a gentleman to him, “Well, everything appears to be progressing favorably,” and he replied in a cheerful tone, yet not without a certain tinge of anxiety, “I think so,” and walked forward, Then came the catastrophe, which we were not longin realising, Somethinghad gone wrong with the cable in the hold. As it passed up, one of the men had caught hold of the wrong coil, or two of the coils had stuck together and passed up to the hawsepipe in a double bight. Probably no one will ever know exactly what was the origin of the disaster, but the immediate results were soon apparent. - Tbe alarm was at once given by the foreman to Mr Donovan that the cable had got foul below, who instantly shouted “Stop her,” to the steamer Taranaki, then rushed aft and hailed the Sturt to paddle back so as to check the way of the ship. Alas! all these precautions were too late. Up caine the cable through the hawsepipe, passed along the wooden gutter, got on to the wheels in a tangled mass, smashed them with tbe strain, and then coiled round the drum; not in four symetrical single turns, but in tea or twelve coils, each overlapping the other

and jamming between tbe drum and the spur wheel. “Let go, and come away, for God’s sake,” shouted Mr Donovan to the men-o’-war’s men, who bad a stopper on the cable, ne ir the drum, and quickly obeying the advice, they retreated to save their lives. Nor did they do so a moment too soon. There was a dull creaking and straining of the machinery, ar the cable paid out, not in a single smooth line, but scraped bare of its covering and threatening every moment to part. Then there was a sudden pause, and for a moment the uiaciiiucrjf was still. Nust instant & crash was heard as the spur wheel broke to shivers, then tbe cable broke short over the stern sheets, and oil was over.

_A. buoy, with anchor and chain, was immediately thrown overboard to mark the spot where the broken end had sunk, and then the few spectators on deck were able to realise that the first attempt to lay the Cook’s Strait Cable had proved a failure. People rushed up from below to ascertain what had happened, and groups crowded together to look at the broken machinery, the fragments of wheels, and the remains of the cable twisted out of all resemblance to its original shape. Nothing could have been more distressing than the scene presented. Mr Donovan, who throughout had inspired everyone with confidence, by the energy, ability, and activity which he disployed, now that all was over, for a moment looked the image of despair. But it was only for a moment as immediately he gave the order for a return, the Tarauaki was put about, and oneo more our course was directed towards Wellington. The Lady Bird and H.M. s.s. Esk, which had been following in company, also altered their course, and in a couple of hours all had reached harbor. 1 am glad to say that this disaster is by no means irremediable. The cable broke eight miles from Lyall’s Bay, and about twenty-five miles from the station on the other side. Through the straining, 500 yards of it have been injured, but the rest, I learn on good authority, can easily be grappled up, and the repairs to the machinery, which have been entrusted to Mr E. W. Mills, of the Lion Foundry, can be completed this day week. Such being the ease,Jthere is no need to grieve over what has been, after all, a temporary and unavoidable misfortune, which will very soon bo remedied. Those who witnessed every incident that occurred during the recent expedition have perfect confidence in the ability of Mr Donovan and his staff, so that we have every hope, when a few weeks hence another attempt is made to lay the cable, we shall be able to announce its successful result.