CAUGHT A WHALE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8883, 7 August 1907, Page 4

CAUGHT A WHALE.

] An extraordinary incident was responsible for the temporary interruption •of the working of the Pacific Ooast cable. An officer of the Central and South American Telegraph Company called on the director of the New York Aquarium some time ago with a letter from the electrical engineer of the company, who desired to know to. what depth a whale could descend, and whether an air-breathing animal could stand a water pressure of nearly half a ton to the square inch. According to the Telegraph Age, these inquiries were prompted by an interruptiou'of the submarine cable between Iquique and Valparaiso, Chili, which occurred on August 14th last, and which was caused by a large whale that was afterwards drawn to the surface by the repair ship Faraday from a depth of 400 fathoms. Tiie cable in which the whale was entangled weighed in air while wet 17151 b per nautical mile, and had a breaking strain of 6.06 tons. The cable’s weight in salt water was 10051 b per nautical mile. If the whale came on the surface to blow he must have held two or three miles of cable in suspension. This, however, is unlikely, since it had four turns of the cable round its body, one being in its mouth. When the trouble with the cable was discovered, tests from Valparaiso and Iquiqne placed the break about 13 miles from the latter place. The repairing steamer Faraday left the Iquique for the position of the break, and commenced grappling in 343 fathoms with 500 fathoms of rope out. The cable was hove up, cut, and tested to Iquique. The end was buoyed, and the ship, grappling further" out, picked up the cable, which came m badly twisted and with ' increasing strain. A large whale was finally brought to the surface completely entangled in the cable. The stench being unendurable, the cable was cut close to the whale, and the vessel moved to windward. Tests wore made, and Valparaiso spoken. • The ship made soundings in the vicinity, which showed a depth of [415 fathoms, nearly half a mile. It is extremely doubtful whether an air-breathing animal could go so deep as 400 fathoms, and as that depth is _ much below the limit of pelagic life on which most whales feed, it is not likely that the whale would penetrate such a depth. Total darkness, moreover, prevails in depths of 400 fathoms. According to tiie records of whalemen, whales have been known to stay under water over an hour, and after being harpooned to have carried out a mile of line before re-appearing at the surface, although this doeshiot necessarily mean that the 'line was carried down vertically. The Valparaiso-Iquiqao cable was laid on January 27th, 1906. At first sight it seems unlikely that the whale entangled in this cable could have remained eight months without complete disintegration, or being gradually consumed by small forms of life on the bottom. The deep sea, however, is intensely cold, the temperature being close to the freezing point of fresh water, and the carcase, unless actively attacked by bottom life, might he expected to last longer than in the warmer surface water. Since from what_ wo know of air-breathing animals it is unlikely that [the whale would descend 400 fathoms of its own accord, and as a deep-sea cable is not laid very slack, it is doubtful that the whale could have fouled at the bottom. The logical conclusion is that it became entangled during the laying of the cable when 'there was considerable length of It in suspension. Tiie twisted condition of the stiff and heavy cable about the animal shows that the energy expended in the vain attempts to freo itself miist have been enormous.