GRAPPLING FOR THE CABLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 17, 18 January 1876, Page 4

GRAPPLING FOR THE CABLE.

[From the Times' own Correspondent] ; Onboard the Government p.s. ' ' Luna, Thursday, noon. Altogether, . yesterday was rather depressing. The monotony ot inaction began to be wearying. The usual resources of amusement at sea really seemed to pall, upon everyone. The smokers no longer enjoyed their t tobacco ; the once, ardent fishermen threw aaide|their lines in disgust. ,As wehad ta^en plenty of water in at Lyell'S: Bay, and had provisions and .qpalsjolastforthe next six days, there was a general longing for action, and involuntary prayers . that the clerk of •the. weather ..would grant a smooth sea and light wind. Although nt sondown the sky was not assuring, and the surf rolling in .on the beach had a hollow sound, not very agreeable to sailors' ears, midnight brought an equable change. Early in the morning the captain made arrangements for an 'early start, and about two a.m. the trampling overhead and. on deck showed all was activity once more. We were under weigh at half-past two, and, where We wanted to be, in less than two hours. Wind and tide being very favorable. The first cast was unsuccessful/We had crossed the line of the cable without hooking- it. We worked back as near the right spot ae possible, and made another cast, paying out j 170 fathoms of. chain. , This was said' to be 'not enough, CaptainiFairchild maintaining that in dragging it was necessary to pay out three fathoms for every fathom in depth to bring the grapnel to the proper angle. As the charmed line was. again crossed without any luck, it was decided to haul in and bend on the new grapnel .made . according to Dr. Lemon's plan, and which was brought out early that morning by, the Tui. There was no 'mistake about the quantity of slack paid out after this cast; The woik of dragging went on quietly. As breakfast was on, and something of the novelty of, the work bad worn off, the deck was pretty, dear of people. Captain Fairchild, and Captain Johnston, however, were keeping a keen look-out, as, according to the laud marks of each, we were about over the cable again. The work of steaming across, the supposed line is not so easy as might be supposed. The Luna has had only one boiler working since she has been out, and it is as much as. she can do to steam against; the rushing tide, the power of which can scarcely be credited; On the previous day, when wind add tide both were against her, she was actually .unable to take up the necessary position for dragging. The accuracy of the observations of Captains Johnston and Fairchild, was singularly borne out, as a few moments after the. . observation by Captain Fairchild — " The ship has passed the cable, but the grapnel. ib not yet , up to it"— -the >. steamer's head began gently to come round, though the helm was hard up, and immediately afterwards Mr Smith and Mr Mattison sung out that the ship was brought up by something. The previous failure showed the delicate nature of the work of bauling-in, and Captain Fairchild exercised the very greatest care, and displayed a good deal of skill in taking precautions to preyent the slightest slip or surge of the hauling-in hawser; and when the heavy straiu tif the cable, as it came to the, surface, began to be. felt, it was seen that the utmost skill and seamanship was required to bring the cable to the >surfaoe without an accident. The winding gear worked like a piece of clockwork certainly, but as the drum bad been made for wire-rope the chain was constantly slipping, and very annoying consequences might have . arisen . had not a steady strain been kept upon the alack as it wbb taken in. As the work of hauling-in went on the ship had to be kept under steam to counteract the force of the tide.. In rather lees than an hour a long thin shadow under the surface, running athwart ship, showed that the prize was hooked at last. There it was- showing up in a sharp bight, hanging ; on . a single prong of the grapnel,. looking none the worse for its long submersion, a few weeds and barnacles dinging to it and showing that it had not been silted over. Having caught the cable, then arose the question; of what to do next. There was no certainty as to what side of the break we had it, or even, whether it Was severed at all or not; and there was a good deal of doubt as to whether it was best to cut and test or to underrun it towards Wellington on the as * sumption that we were on the White Bay side of the break, which we ought to be according to the tests of Mr Floyd and. Dr. Lemon. The Tui is sighted coming up, and after a good deal of consultation the following course has ' been decided upon :— The Tui will be detained alongside for an hour to render assistance in towing or otherwise if required, during ihe experiment of underrunning for a mile or two to see if the break— if break there be — can be found. Tbiß part of the work required a great deal of management. : About eleven in the morning the work of underrunning was commenced, and the heavy strain upon the cable in passing /over the iron shears showed the danger of the process was all that had beep urged by some of those connected with the Telegraph Department., It was felt, however, that by underrunning *2LJ&jjU&is oi labor and trouble would **■ (De operation could be .W^j^ffiy performed j bu tj there was n^p^^llbat it was at(ieodea with ccM^^ risk. The

condition of the cable was admirable, though here and there appeared a broken strand of the wire covering. A great portion :of the cable was still covered with the outer seizing, but it ; was too rotten to stand any tear or wear, and it peeled off as it passed over the block, leaving the zinc wire under it as bright as when it left the manufacturers. In placeß ttere was quite a variety of algae and barnacles, and marine life generally. Shortly before one o'clock one end of the cable showed less strain than the other, and we thouht we were coming near a break, which turned out to be right. About half a mile from the break there were several kinks in the cable and stray wires curled up. Upon coming close to the break the cable became more attenuated by the wires being drawn out, and at the break the end of the cable tapered off to nothing. As soon as the end was seen coming the chain stopper dipped it, and the buoy was thrown overboard, but as the tide worked the vessel one way, while the cable held it at the nose, a hitch took place and the cable had to be let go. The buoy, however, is riding over the spot, and the cable can now be picked up in halfan hour. It ia worthy of note to those who took the. bearings, that the break is exactly where the rock was hooked on Sunday last, and where Captain Johnston said he was certain the cable was.. . We are likely to try the White's Buy end this afternoon. The Tui is waiting. Thursday afternoon. When the cable Blipped from us last, it did not do so without leaving a very, much abused piece of it in our hands. When the under-running process brought us close to the break, the cable slipped through the block with donbly increased velocity, and as some of the broken wires that stuck out were caught in the block, the whole of them were brought into something like a chevaux de jrise, much in- the same way as drawing a single strand out of a rope without untwisting the lays. The portion left on board has been saved as a curiosity. The enwrapping galvanised iron wire was very much oxidised. Many of the strands were 1 corroded almost in two, and all of them were so eaten away as to be very much weakened. The insulated triple cord was, however, as perfect as could be desired, except at the point of breakage. Why the outer covering of the cable should be so damaged at one place, and be so sound in all other parts that we had seen, led to no little speculation, and without any unanimity of opinion being arrived at. One theory was that the broken part had been lying on a rocky bed, and that as soon as the friction caused by the tide wore away the galvanised coating the iron became at once affected by the corrosive action of the sea water, and which had ever since been eating it away, steadily but surely. Another view was that the rooks were impregnated with some mineral substance antagonistic to iron, and hence its appearance of deoay. By the time dinner was over the buoy was scarcely distinguishable, and as this could not be accounted for by the vessel steaming away, it was soon disooverd that the tide had taken complete possession of the buoy, which, instead of bobbing up and down over the end of the cable, had drifted nearly five miles from where it was dropped overboard. This was another instance of the immense power of the tide, for it must be remembered that besides a large mushroom anchor fastened to the ; buoy, it was further weighted with 118 fathoms of chain and 120 fathoms of Manilla rope. As there was every probability of losing the buoy altogether if left to drift away much longer, it was taken in again. This consumed a little time, and aB a very heavy swell had got up in the meantime that rolled the sponsons under water and gave the landsmen a lively time of it to keep their feet, it was deemed safer to attempt nothing more that afternoon. There was a well-grounded fear that nightfall might overtake the work at a critical point, and: it had been amply proved that it would not be safe for the Luna to swing to the cable all night. A light and buoyant schooner, or a small steamer like the Tui, might do so with safety, but to do so with the Luna must result in a smash. The steamer was accordingly headed for the shore once more in the hope that en early start might be made the next day; and there wbb every prospect of doing so, as the eky and the glass alike indicated fine weather. One port of the arrangements about

which very little has been said, has been a very general theme of admiration. The winding-gear, it appears, its a composite production, portions of it having come from England, and the other, and really most important part of it, having been manufactured in the colony. The engine brought out for working the winding gear was found not to be at ail tip to the mars. Mr Nancarrow accordingly designed anew engine entirely. It was manufactured by Mr E. W. Mille. The result is a pleasing success, the machinery being more than equal to any work likely to be required of it, and the whole apparatus working as perfectly as a clock, and with little more noise.