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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TITLE C.O. 885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

17 November 1896.]

Chairman-continued.

Mr. SMITH.

came out, and a careful calculation beforehand of what retarding strain you have to put on the cable to lay such slack.

796. But the greater the depth, would it be a rule, the greater the slack, or not?--No, it is impossible to pick up in a great depth of water; you would have to break your cable; you would have to pick up near the end, or else you would not get it up on the bight.

797. I do not quite understand that?-You would leave, say, your cable hanging on each side of your grapnel in a great depth of water, the cable on each side of the grapnel would not bear the strain, it would break before you could get it up to the surface.

798. The cable that you contemplated, what would have been the breaking strain on the

į

Chairman-continued.

[Continued.

grapnel in 3,000 fathoms -It would support about 9 miles of itself, 81 to 9 miles of itself in the water.

799. In the water?—Yes.

800. Then would not that have been sufficient? -That is a single part of the cable; that would have been sufficient, of course. In 3,000 fathoms the weight of the cable would be about five tons, I should think. You would have a safety margin of three and a-half tone.

801. Then why would it be necessary for repairing to go on as I understood you to say?— Because you would only have one part

of the cable then, and only a short length, say half a mile, on the other side of the grapnel, instead of having, say, perhaps, 20 miles.

The Witness withdrew.

Adjourned till To-morrow, at Eleven o'clock.

FOURTH DAY.

WEDNESDAY, 18TH NOVEMBER 1896.

PRESENT:

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF SELBORNE, CHAIRMAN, Presiding.

The Hon. Sir DONALD SMITH, G.C.M.G. The Hon. Sir SAUL SAMUEL, K.C.M.G., C.B. The Hon. D. GILLIES,

The Hon. A. G. JONES, P.C. Mr. G. H. MURRAY, C.B.

Mr. W. H. MERCER, Secretary.

Mr. F. R. LUCAS (Engineer in Chief to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company), called in and Examined.

Chairman.

802. Mr. LUCAS, I think you are engineer in chief to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company?—Yes.

803. Would you kindly tell the Committee what experience you have had in the laying of submarine cables? I have been employed in laying submarine cables since 1865. I was out with the unsuccessful attempt to lay the cable across the Atlantic, and with the successful expedition in 1866. Since that I have been con- stantly employed in laying submarine cables. I have been at the laying of over 50,000 miles of submarine cable, of which I have been in charge of the laying of over 30,000 miles.

804. You are aware of the general nature of the proposal which this Committee is appointed to consider? Yes.

805. Do you consider that, speaking techni- cally, the project is practicable?-Certainly

I do.

806. The difficulties, I imagine, are con- nected mainly with the great depth of the Pacific, and with the length of the span, say from Vancouver to Fanning Island?—Yes; the difficulties are principally with the great stretch. I should like to say before I go any further in the matter that I very much regret that I am obliged to be before you to-day instead of Sir George Henry Richards, who was to have represented our company. His sudden death has been a great loss to us. He, of course, as you know, spent the greater part of his active service in surveying the Pacific. He was keenly interested in the Pacific cable, and though I know he did not treat the difficulties too lightly, at the same time he was very sanguine of this cable being carried out, and he was very anxious to see it done.

807. I am speaking for this Committee in

say. ing that we express our sympathy in the great loss that your Company has sustained, and in- deed that everybody has sustained who are con nected with the important public works with which Sir George Henry Richards was con- cerned.

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Chairman-continued.

What is the greatest depth that you expect to find on this route, and if you are able to quote authoritatively what the opinion of the late Sir George Henry Richards was on the subject we should be glad to have that on record too?-As regards the depth, of course, there are a good many soundings that are 3,000 fathoms and over. I do not think myself there is any difficulty or any danger in laying a cable in 3,000 fathoms and over. I should enter upon that with a

light heart. This day last week I was laying a cable in 2,700 fathoms across the Bay of Biscay, and if it had been 3,000 I do not think that it would have made much difference. I think that the Pacific Ocean is a very favourable place for a cable, and a place where a cable will probably have a long life when once it is laid down. It is a matter of fact that the deep-sea cables have lasted better in the tropics than they have in the northern oceans. It is very strange that they should, because at first sight one does not see what effect the sun on the surface can have at a depth of 2,000 fathoms and over, but in every instance of picking up a cable in the tropics it has been found to be in a better state of proser- vation than a cable that has been picked up in the northern part of the ocean. We know that the globigerina ooze at the bottom of the ocean is formed by minute shells and animal life settling down like dust on the bottom and making a deposit. It is the sun and the hot surface water that calls into life these countless glo- bigerina, which live for a short space, then die, and fall to the bottom. In the Arctic currents, where the surface is cold, the water does not teem with life in the same way as it does in the tropics; and for that reason the deposit in the tropics at the bottom is formed quicker, and there is more of it than there is in the northern oceane. And so we have found that all the cables that we have had to repair and pick up in deep water in the tropics have been in better condition after a period of years than those laid in the far north. Well, this Pacific cable, of course, is to be laid right through the

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