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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

6

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

24 November 1896.]

86

Captain GOODSALI..

Sir Donald Smith-continued. supply all rope, and take it away to a chance position and lower it down in the bottom and take the grappling with it, she will secure the rope to a dummy head, as it were, and there is no sign of what she is doing. The first thing that may occur then is that it is made fast to a bollard. There are no signs of any movement on the bottom. Of course the rope gets caught and breaks, and there is no chance of your stopping; there is nothing showing the lift. Of course when you have got a dynamometer you can see the thing that there is if you are grap pling with something that is slack behind, as it were, and keep touching the rope it will tell you at once what you are doing the mere fact of touching-and if you hit the grappling rope and it happens to hook your cable there is a great difference between the grapnel striking at any-

[Continued.

Sir Donald Smith-continued. thing that is pliable and anything that is solid. When the rope is across if you just give a mere touch and watch the rope, it will tell you whether you have got the cable or not at that depth of water, but it must have something that will lift between the position that you strike and the gear, the point that it is made fast to on the It is on a big drum, but picking-up gear. between that and the barrel-sheath you have got a lifting weight. like a pair of scales, as it were; a dynamometer tha, lifts up between that I have been point and the bow. You can tell it. told when i have hooked the cable that I have got the cable very often when my bearings have given the position, and I have not quite got the position as I have thought, but I have known I have got the cable.

The Witness withdrew.

Mr. WILLIAM HENRY PREECE, Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician to the General Post Office. callel in; and Examined.

Chairman.

1298. MR. PREECE, I think you are Engineer- in-Chief and Electrician to the General Past Office? Yes.

1299. And you are also consulting engineer to the Crown Agents for the Colonial Office work?--Yes.

1300. Before you were appointed to your pre- sent offices, can you tell the Committee what your previous connection with telegraphic work was? -I commenced my telegraphic career in 1852, and during all the first years was intimately associated with the earlier cables.

I was one

of the assistants employed in testing and in in specting the manufacture of the early cables. In 1858 I became engineer to the Channel Islands Then in 1870 I Was Telegraph Company. transferred to the Post Office, and for the last three or four years I have been engineer-in- chief, and in that capacity I have over 140 cables now under my own personal charge. In addition to that I have inspected and designed cables for nearly all parts of the world.

1301. Are your present duties entirely con- fined to the public service ?—Yes.

1302. In the course of your experience, have you ever actually been engaged in laying a cable ?—Yes.

1303. Which one? Well, nearly all the cables round about our coasts; but there is only one cable, one deep sea cable, with the laying of which I have been connected, and that is the two cables from Marseilles to Algiers.

1304. What depth do they go through?-- Seventeen hundred fathoms.

1905. That is in the Mediterranean ?-That is in the Mediterranean, yes.

1306. You have heard the evidence of the various experts on the subject of this Pacific cable route?—Yes.

1307. Do you regard the preliminary survey do, and as absolutely indispensable? — 1

Chairman--continued.

mention this: that in I should like to

Was 1860-1 Was the

year think it really the first to announce the necessity of an accurate survey of the bottom. 1 did so in a paper before the Institution of Civil Engineers, and my proposal then to survey accurately the bottom of the ocean, for the purpose of Atlantic cables, was received with great ridicule. They thought it was so utterly impossible, but after that the Challenger" Expedition and one or two other expellitions of that kind started, and now I think you may take it that it is absolutely unanimous amongst engineers that a survey is imperative

I was very much surprised to hear Mr. Siemens's doubts on that point

1308. When you speak of a survey, about on the average what distance apart should the soundings "be -1 think it would depend upon the ground. Now take, for instance, the Atlantic; I should say that for the first 250 miles of Ire- land it should be accurately surveyed, soundings should be taken every quarter or half mile; for the rest, when you get into 1,500 fathoms every five miles would suffice. When you arrive off the coast of Newfoundland in the iceberg region, then it would still be necessary to sound at very numerous points, but on a long flat, apparently uniform, bottom like that of the Pacific

should

be quite contented with soundings at every 10 miles, unless there were suspicion of under-water volcanic action, when of emirse it would be necessary to have them much more frequently.

1309. Then the carrying out of the survey that you think necessary really would be no hindrance to the conduct of this work if it were I quite taken in hand?-Not the smallest. agree with the evidence which was given, I think, by Mr. Lucas, that the survey could be carried on during the same time as the cable was being manufactured.

1310. You heard the account Mr. Siemens

24 November 1896.1

Chairman--continued.

87

Mr. PREECE.

Mr. Murray-continued.

[Continued.

1316. Route No. 1 differs from that ?—Yes, I have taken our own route. I think you may This take my evidence on this point simply as the view submitted by the Post Office to the Colonial Office the year before last.

gave of his wire plan. I understand you do not regard that as an adequate substitute for a survey-Not in the smallest degree. wire plan was really brought out by Dr. Werner Siemens quite 20 years ago, perhaps 25 years ago. It has ever since been used by that firm, but it has never been used by anybody else. It assumes, and necessarily assumes, a knowledge of the depth. It does not give any informa- tion whatever as regards the depth. The only information that it gives is an accurate account of the rate at which the ship is

the going over

it ground, and thereby enables the engineer to calculate exactly the slack that is being paid out. It has been men- tioned by two or three witnesses that there is at least 20 miles of cable suspended from the stern of the ship, and, of course, it stands to reason that if there were any patch of shallow water under the ship the cable would not reach it for three hours; so the wire simply gives the speed of the ship, and you can only know the depth you are crossing by a preliminary survey. Mr. Siemens implied in one of his answers that the strain of the dynamometer gave some indication of the bottom, but it does not. lt only gives an indication of the strain on the cable that is suspended for 20 miles away.

1311. Would it be probable that Mr. Siemens would say that nobody except himself and his employees understand the working of his system? -Well, it is open to that assumption, of course, but I think if it had been so useful as he makes out, other firms would certainly adopt it. To them the advantage is this, that they, as a rule, take a contract for a lump sum, and it is to their advantage to reduce the length of cable paid out as much as possible, whereas in other contracts they are paid by the milenge laid by the mile- age paid out, so that it is not the interest of the contractor to reduce the length paid out.

1312. I will go now to the actual No. 1 route proposed from Vancouver via Fanning Island; what is the exact nautical mileage that you make that to be?-We put this matter in the hands of a surveyor of the Admiralty. Captain Jenkins, who has been attached for some time to the Post Office. He spent a good deal of time upon it, and I think that we can take these figures as accurate; they probably will be confirmed by Admiral Wharton when he comes to you-the direct distance in nautical miles from Vancouver leland to Fanning is 3,298; from Fanning Island to the Isle of Canton, 845; from Canton to Fiji, 1,130; from Fiji to New Zealand, 1,080; the total being 6,353.

1313. But have you not left out Norfolk Island ?—No, this route does not propose to touch Norfolk Island.

1314. But I think for practical purposes you must consider that if this route is adopted at all, Norfolk Island will be a station. I do not know, really, why we have not taken it into consideration; but I expect Norfolk Island breaks in the distance between Canton and Fiji.

Mr. Murray.

1315. You are speaking of your own route? -Yes.

Chairman.

1317. This route that you are describing is the route that was suggested from the General Post Office to the Colonial Office?—That is so.

1318. It is not one of the exact routes selected for tender by the Dominion Government ?--No, and it really does not affect the rest of my evi- dence that I am about to give.

1319. Is the whole of this route British terri- tory -It is; that is, No. 1 route. No. 2 route is the same route, but breaking in at Honolulu.

1320, Vancouver Island, Fanning Island, Canton Island, Fiji, New Zealand, is all British ?

Is all British territory.

1321. Then, route No. 2?-Route No. 2 in- cludes the diversion to the Sandwich Islands, and the distance of No. 2 route is Vancouver to Honolulu, 2,340 nautical miles; Honolulu to Canton, 1,650 nautical miles; Canton to Fiji, 1,130 nautical miles; Fiji to New Zealand, 1,080 nautical miles; total, 6,200.

1322. And that route is all British, with the exception of Honolulu ?--That is so.

1323. Now, how many repeating stationa would there be on these two routes respectively? -On the first, four, that is considering New Zealand as a repeating station to Australia.

1324. Then we will say from London to Australia - From London to Australia it would depend upon the route taken. If you take it from Vancouver, of course you have London to Waterville and Waterville to Canso, Canso to Portland, I think it is, and then to Montreal ; and then it joins the Canadian Pacific to Victoria, so that then there would be at least four repeat- ing stations there, and then there are four others to Australia, making eight in all.

1325. Can you tell the Committee what the number of repeating stations is now on the direct Eastern line? No, sir, I cannot, but I think Dr. Muirhead gave it pretty nearly accurately yesterday. He has very extensive experience.

I have not been further east than Suez.

1326. Do you consider that there is any practical difficulty in making this cable ?-None whatever.

1327. Do you consider the depths along the proposed route serious?—I do not; I think they are very convenient.

1328. Very convenient 7-Yes. 1329. Would you kindly explain why you call them very convenient?—I think the deeper we go the safer the cable will reat

In laying a cable depth is of no consequence whatever." I do not think we would have more difficulty in laying a cable in 4,000 fathoms than we have in 3,000 fathomis. The difficulties are difficulties that are met with in repairing. The deeper the water the softer the bottom, and the more of this globerigina ooze that is met with the longer will the cable last, and the less the liability to any accident of any kind; therefore I

I say

that L 4

1

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