Cable-Laying

Abstract

IT is somewhat remarkable that the business of making and laying submarine telegraph cables—which hitherto has been a monopoly of Great Britain, and employs large numbers of skilled workmen of all kinds, of scientific men, and of sailors—should be so little understood by people not directly connected with it. Yet the daily history of any cable-laying expedition, if faithfully written, would contain matter of engrossing interest for all readers. To secure a contract on advantageous terms requires diplomatic talent of a high order. For, although the business is a British monopoly and there is no competition with the foreigner, there is all the keener competition between the rival British companies. Further, the negotiations are almost always with Government departments, either home, colonial, or foreign, and are necessarily of a delicate character. In the history of any particular cable the preliminary diplomatic details would no doubt have by far the greatest interest for most readers, but it would be obviously indiscreet and unadvisable to publish them. In tendering for a cable against powerful competitors it is important to have as accurate a knowledge as possible of the depth of water and the nature of the bottom where the cable is to lie, in order to know exactly the lengths of the different types of cable which will have to be employed, and so to estimate the cost. In obtaining this knowledge the cable-laying companies have been the chief contributors to the science of deep-sea research, or oceanography. The contract obtained, the cable made, and the route determined on, the operation of laying has to be undertaken. When it is merely a question of laying a length of cable between two points over smooth ground, this is in most cases a very simple affair; although if the shore-ends of the cable have to be landed on exposed beaches, as is only too often the case, there is plenty of opportunity for thrilling incident and hair-breadth escape. The expedition in which Mr. Crouch was engaged had for its object to connect a number of settlements on the West Coast of Africa from Bathurst to St. Paul de Loanda, and belonging to the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Although it is fixed beforehand what places are to be connected, it is only when the ship arrives on the ground that the exact place of landing, the amount of assistance to be got from the shore, and a host of matters of minute local detail, but of great importance, can be settled, and to do so satisfactorily, expeditiously, and without friction, requires qualities of a very high order in the chief of the expedition. How difficulties were overcome, dangers met, and accidents repaired, in the course of the laying of one portion of the West African Company's cables is told in a pleasant and readable way in “On a Surf-bound Coast.” Mr. Crouch carries his descriptions only as far as Cutanu, a French settlement lying between Accra and Lagos. From this place the cable was taken to the Portuguese islands St. Thomê and Principe, the French settlement on the Gaboon, and the Portuguese town St. Paul de Loanda; but this part of the expedition is reserved for description in a possible future volume.

On a Surf-bound Coast; or, Cable-laying in the African Tropics.

By Archer P. Crouch. (London: Sampson Low, 1887.)