It was a gutta-percha cable of six wires or
conductors, and manufactured by Messrs. Glass & Elliott, of Greenwich--a
firm which afterwards combined with the Gutta-Percha Company, and became
the existing Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. Mr. Brett
laid the cable from the Result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more
manageable steamer; and, meeting with 600 fathoms of water when twenty-
five miles from land, the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein
came up out of the hold, and the line had to be severed. Having only
150 miles on board to span the whole distance of 140 miles, he grappled
the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and 'under-run' or passed it
over the ship, for some twenty miles, then cut it, leaving the seaward
end on the bottom. He then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward
end and resumed his paying-out; but after seventy miles in all were
laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and Mr. Brett was obliged
to cut and abandon the line.
Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success.
Mr. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer
Dutchman, but owing to the deep water--in some places 1500 fathoms --its
egress was so rapid, that when he came to a few miles from Galita, his
destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the
land.
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