LAYING THE CABLE--"FAULTS" AND FAULT-FINDING--ANXIETIES, ACCIDENTS, AND
OTHER MATTERS.
Come with us now, good reader, to another and very different scene--out
upon the boundless sea. The great Atlantic is asleep, but his breast
heaves gently and slowly like that of a profound sleeper.
The Great Eastern looks like an island on the water--steady as a rock,
obedient only to the rise and fall of the ocean swell, as she glides
along at the rate of six knots an hour. All is going well. The
complicated-looking paying-out machinery revolves smoothly; the
thread-like cable passes over the stern, and down into the deep with the
utmost regularity.
The shore-end of the cable--twenty-seven miles in length, and much
thicker than the deep-sea portion--had been laid at Valentia, on the
22nd of July, amid prayer and praise, speech-making, and much
enthusiasm, on the part of operators and spectators. On the 23rd, the
end of the shore cable was spliced to that of the main cable, and the
voyage had begun.
The first night had passed quietly, and upwards of eighty miles of the
cable had gone out of the after-tank, over the big ship's stern, and
down to its ocean-bed, when Robin Wright--unable to sleep--quietly
slipped into his clothes, and went on deck. It was drawing near to
dawn. A knot of electricians and others were chatting in subdued tones
about the one subject that filled the minds of all in the ship.
"What! unable to sleep, like the rest of us?" said Ebenezer Smith,
accosting Robin as he reached the deck.
"Yes, sir," said Robin, with a sleepy smile, "I've been thinking of the
cable so much that I took to dreaming about it when I fell asleep, and
it suddenly turned into the great sea-serpent, and choked me to such an
extent that I awoke, and then thought it better to get up and have a
look at it."
"Ah! my boy, you are not the only one whom the cable won't let sleep.
It will be well looked after during the voyage, for there are two sets
of electricians aboard--all of them uncommonly wide awake--one set
representing the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, under
Monsieur de Sauty; the other set representing the Atlantic Telegraph
Company, under Mr Varley and Professor Thomson. The former are to test
the electrical state of the cable, and to keep up signals with the shore
every hour, night and day, during the voyage, while the latter are to
watch and report as to whether the cable fulfils her conditions, as
specified in the contract. So you see the smallest fault or hitch will
be observed at once."
"Do you mean, sir," asked Robin in surprise, "that telegraphing with the
shore is to be kept up continually _all_ the voyage!"
"Yes, my boy, I do," answered Smith. "The lengths of the cable in the
three tanks are joined up into one length, and telegraphing--for the
purpose of testing it--has been kept up with the shore without
intermission from the moment we left Ireland, and began to pay out. It
will be continued, if all goes well, until we land the other and in
Newfoundland. The tests are threefold,--first, for insulation, which,
as you know, means the soundness and perfection of the gutta-percha
covering that prevents the electricity from escaping from the wires,
through the sea, into the earth; secondly, for continuity, or the
unbroken condition of the conductor or copper core throughout its whole
length; and, thirdly, to determine the resistance of the conductor, by
which is meant its objection to carry our messages without vigorous
application of the spur in the form of increased electrical power in our
batteries. You see, Robin, every message sent to us from the shore, as
well as every message sent by us in reply, has to travel through the
entire length of the cable, namely about 2400 miles, and as every mile
of distance increases this unwillingness, or resistance, we have to
increase the electrical power in the batteries, in proportion to the
distance to which we want to send our message. D'you understand?"
"I think I do, sir; but _how_ is the exact amount of resistance tested?"
Mr Smith smiled as he looked at the earnest face of his young
questioner.
"My boy," said he, "you would require a more fully educated mind to
understand the answer to that question. The subtleties of electrical
science cannot be explained in a brief conversation. You'll have to
study and apply to books for full light on that subject. Nevertheless,
although I cannot carry you _into_ the subject just now, I can tell you
something _about_ it. You remember the testing-room which I showed you
yesterday--the darkened room between the captain's state-room and the
entrance to the grand saloon?"
"Yes, sir, I remember it well," responded Robin,--"the room into which
the conducting-wires from the ends of the cable are led to the
testing-tables, on which are the curious-looking galvanometers and other
testing machines."
"Just so," returned Smith, pleased with his pupil's aptitude. "Well, on
that table stands Professor Thomson's delicate and wonderful
galvanometer. On that instrument a ray of light, reflected from a tiny
mirror suspended to a magnet, travels along a scale and indicates the
resistance to the passage of the current along the cable by the
deflection of the magnet, which is marked by the course of this speck of
light. Now, d'you understand that, Robin?"
"I--I'm afraid not quite, sir."
"Well, no matter," rejoined Smith, with a laugh.
"At all events you can understand that if that speck of light keeps
within bounds--on its index--all is going well, but if it travels beyond
the index--bolts out of bounds--an escape of the electric current is
taking place somewhere in the cable, or what we call a _fault_ has
occurred."
"Ah, indeed," exclaimed Robin, casting a serious look at the cable as it
rose from the after-tank, ran smoothly over its line of conducting
wheels, dropped over the stern of the ship and glided into the sea like
an an endless snake of stealthy habits. "And what," he added, with a
sudden look of awe, "if the cable should break?"
"Why, it would go to the bottom, of course," replied Smith, "and several
hearts would break along with it. You see these two gentlemen
conversing near the companion-hatch?"
"Yes."
"One is the chief of the electricians; the other the chief of the
engineers. Their hearts would probably break, for their position is
awfully responsible. Then my heart would break, I know, for I feel it
swelling at the horrible suggestion; and your heart would break, Robin,
I think, for you are a sympathetic donkey, and couldn't help yourself.
Then you see that stout man on the bridge--that's Captain Anderson--
well, _his_ heart would--no--perhaps it wouldn't, for he's a sailor, and
you know a sailor's heart is too tough to break, but it would get a
pretty stiff wrench. And you see that gentleman looking at the
paying-out gear so earnestly?"
"What--Cyrus Field?" said Robin.
"Yes; well, his heart and the Atlantic Cable are united, so as a matter
of course the two would snap together."
Now, while Smith and his young assistant were conversing thus
facetio-scientifically, the electricians on duty in the testing-room
were watching with silent intensity the indications on their
instruments. Suddenly, at 3:15 a.m., when exactly eighty-four miles of
cable had been laid out, he who observed the galvanometer saw the speck
of light glide to the end of the scale, and vanish!
If a speck of fire had been seen to glide through the key-hole of the
powder-magazine it could scarcely have created greater consternation
than did the disappearance of that light! The commotion in the
testing-room spread instantly to every part of the ship; the whole staff
of electricians was at once roused, and soon afterwards the engines of
the Great Eastern were slowed and stopped, while, with bated breath and
anxious looks, men whispered to each other that there was "a fault in
the cable."
A fault! If the cable had committed a mortal sin they could scarcely
have looked more horrified. Nevertheless there was ground for anxiety,
for this fault, as in moral faults, indicated something that _might_ end
in destruction.
After testing the cable for some time by signalling to the shore,
Monsieur de Sauty concluded that the fault was of a serious character,
and orders were at once given to prepare the picking-up apparatus at the
bow for the purpose of drawing the cable back into the ship until the
defective portion should be reached and cut out.
"O _what_ a pity!" sighed Robin, when he understood what was going to be
done, and the feeling, if not the words, was shared by every one on
board with more or less intelligence and intensity; but there were
veterans of submarine telegraphy who spoke encouragingly and treated the
incident as a comparatively small matter.
Two men-of-war, the Terrible and the Sphinx, had been appointed to
accompany and aid the Great Eastern on her important mission. A gun was
fired, and signals were made, to acquaint these with what had occurred
while the fires were being got up in the boilers of the picking-up
machinery.
Electricians as well as doctors differ, it would seem, among themselves,
for despite their skill and experience there was great difference of
opinion in the minds of those on board the big ship as to the place
where the fault lay. Some thought it was near the shore, and probably
at the splice of the shore-end with the main cable. Others calculated,
from the indications given by the tests, that it was perhaps twenty or
forty or sixty miles astern. One of the scientific gentlemen held that
it was not very far from the ship, while another gentleman, who was said
to be much experienced in "fault"-finding, asserted that it was not more
than nine or ten miles astern.
While the doctors were thus differing, the practical engineers were busy
making the needful preparations for picking-up--an operation involving
great risk of breaking the cable, and requiring the utmost delicacy of
treatment, as may be easily understood, for, while the cable is being
payed out the strain on it is comparatively small, whereas when it is
being picked up, there is not only the extra strain caused by stoppage,
and afterwards by hauling in, but there is the risk of sudden risings of
the ship's stern on the ocean swell, which might at any moment snap the
thin line like a piece of packthread.
The first difficulty and the great danger was to pass the cable from the
stern to the bow, and to turn the ship round, so as to enable them to
steam up to the cable while hauling it in. Iron chains were lashed
firmly to the cable at the stern, and secured to a wire-rope carried
round the outside of the ship to the picking-up apparatus at the bows.
The cable was down in 400 fathoms of water when the paying-out ceased,
and nice management was required to keep the ship steady, as she had now
no steerage-way; and oh! with what intense interest and curiosity and
wonder did Robin Wright regard the varied and wonderful mechanical
appliances, with which the whole affair was accomplished!
Then the cable was cut, and, with its shackles and chains, allowed to go
plump into the sea. Robin's heart and soul seemed to go along with it,
for, not expecting the event, he fancied it was lost for ever.
"Gone!" he exclaimed, with a look of horror.
"Not quite," said Jim Slagg, who stood at Robin's elbow regarding the
operations with a quiet look of intelligence. "Don't you see, Robin,
that a wire-rope fit a'most to hold the big ship herself is holdin' on
to it."
"Of course; how stupid I am!" said Robin, with a great sigh of relief;
"I see it now, going round to the bows."
At first the rope was let run, to ease the strain while the ship swung
round; then it was brought in over the pulley at the bow, the paddles
moved, and the return towards Ireland was begun. The strain, although
great, was far from the breaking-point, but the speed was very slow--not
more than a mile an hour being considered safe in the process of
picking-up.
"Patience, Robin," observed Mr Smith, as he passed on his way to the
cabin, "is a virtue much needed in the laying of cables. We have now
commenced a voyage at the rate of one mile an hour, which will not
terminate till we get back to Owld Ireland, unless we find the fault."
Patience, however, was not destined to be so severely tried. All that
day and all night the slow process went on. Meanwhile--as the cable was
not absolutely unworkable, despite the fault--the chief engineer, Mr
Canning, sent a message to Mr Glass in Ireland, asking him to send out
the Hawk steamer, in order that he might return in her to search for the
defect in the shore-end of the cable, for if that were found he purposed
sacrificing the eighty odd miles already laid down, making a new splice
with the shore-end, and starting afresh. A reply was received from Mr
Glass, saying that the Hawk would be sent out immediately.
Accordingly, about daybreak of the 25th the Hawk appeared, but her
services were not required, for, about nine that morning, when the cable
was coming slowly in and being carefully examined foot by foot--nay,
inch by inch--the fault was discovered, and joy took the place of
anxiety. Ten and a quarter miles of cable had been picked up when the
fault came inboard, and a strange unaccountable fault it turned out to
be--namely, a small piece of wire which had been forced through the
covering of the cable into the gutta-percha so as to injure, but not
quite to destroy, the insulation. How such a piece of wire could have
got into the tank was a mystery, but the general impression was that it
had been carried there by accident and forced into the coil by the
pressure of the paying-out machinery as the cable flew through the
jockey-wheels.
Signals were at once made to the fleet that the enemy had been
discovered. Congratulatory signals were returned. The fault was cut
out and a new splice made. The Hawk was sent home again. The big
ship's bow was turned once more to the west, and the rattling of the
machinery, as the restored and revived cable passed over the stern, went
merrily as a marriage bell.
The detention had been only about twelve hours; the great work was going
on again as favourably as before the mishap occurred, and about half a
mile had been payed out, when--blackness of despair--the electric
current suddenly ceased, and communication with the shore was ended
altogether.