RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, COPY "of CORRESPONDENCE between the Board of Trade and Telegraph Cable Companies on the Subject of Protecting from Injury SUBMARINE CABLES and VESSELS engaged in Laying and Repairing SUBMARINE CABLES." Board of Trade, (Mr. Chamberlain) T. H. FARRER. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, COPY of CORRESPONDENCE between the Board of Trade and Telegraph Cable Companies on the Subject of Protecting from Injury SUBMARINE CABles and VESSELS engaged in Laying and Repairing SUBMARINE CABLes. Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Limited) to Sir, (H. 8767.) 38, Old Broad-street, London, E.C., 12 December 1881. THE question of injury to submarine telegraph cables by fishing and other vessels, and the impediments placed in the way of repairing such cables through the accidental or wilful removal or destruction of the buoys used for marking their positions by the repairing ships, having lately been brought into prominence by the rupture of several of the cables across the North Sea, by which communication with the continent of Europe and India has been partially interrupted for considerable periods, we have felt it a duty to bring the subject under the consideration of the Board of Trade in the hope that some measures may be adopted, legislative or otherwise, to reduce the difficulties and delays which are now experienced in effecting such repairs. This company has lately been engaged in endeavouring to repair the German Union Telegraph Company's cable between Lowestoft and Greetsiel, which was broken (probably by a ship's anchor) about 41 miles from the English coast. The s.s. "Kangaroo," a vessel of 1,700 tons, has been employed on this service between the 23rd of October and the 4th of December, a period of six weeks, and has returned unsuccessful. The officer in charge of the operations reports that he has been greatly retarded by fishing nets drifting across the moorings of the buoys, by which they have frequently been removed several miles from their original positions, and in some instances the buoys have been unshackled from their moorings, and have not been recovered at all, while in others the staffs have been broken and the lamps removed. In one instance, on the 24th of November, a buoy with very heavy mooring tackle was missed, and the crew of the fishing vessel "Dahlia," No. 463, in answer to inquiries, acknowledged to having sunk it, adding "We have found out the way to sink them now, and we intend to do so." The loss of repairing gear during the "Kangaroo's" efforts to repair the cable amounted to five buoys and five sets of moorings, four lamps and several staffs and flags, and this loss was entirely due to fishing vessels. The failure to repair the cable, although not wholly due to the same cause, was in a great measure so, as much favourable weather was lost in endeavouring to recover the buoys, and in waiting for a fresh supply to be sent from the company's works at Greenwich. Another source of inconvenience and danger is found to be in the distinctive signals prescribed to be used by telegraph ships when employed in laying or repairing cables, which are similar to those carried by vessels when not under command, viz.: three red lights vertical by night, and three balls by day, thus rendering the cable ships liable to be mistaken for vessels requiring assis tance. In the case of the "Kangaroo," during her recent cruise, she was constantly beset by vessels taking her to be in distress, and on one occasion while in the frequented track of vessels off Lowestoft, no less than six steamers bore down upon her with offers of assistance, thus entailing the risk of damage to the cables and repairing gear, as well as serious danger of collision. It is no doubt difficult to suggest any regulations which would fully provide against the inconvenience and dangers complained of, but if it were made incumbent on fishing vessels to avoid the fixed buoys of telegraph ships, which are well marked by day and lighted by night, and it were cleary understood that any injury to their vessels or nets so incurred was at their own sole risk, and furthermore if any wilful damage to such buoys or moorings were made punishable, it could not fail to lessen the inconvenience and delays now experienced. And as regards the danger of collision, it would seem not difficult to substitute some other distinctive signal for vessels employed in laying and repairing cables. The question of damage to telegraph cables while lying at the bottom of the sea, arising from preventible causes, is perhaps almost entirely confined to ships' anchors being dropped in too close promiximity to them. As a remedy against this, precautions have been taken by having the shore ends of the cables marked on the charts, and by placing leading marks on the shore, pointing out the line of direction of the cable. Still they are not unfrequently hooked by vessels anchoring at night, or through carelessness; and there are unmistakeable evidences that cables are frequently hove up with a vessel's anchor, and to save trouble in clearing them are chopped through with an axe. The knowledge that such an act of wilful damage was punishable might prove a deterrent. I BEG leave to enclose a printed copy of a letter which has been addressed to the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs by the representatives of all the principal Submarine Telegraph Companies. The letter was sent to Lord Granville as involving the necessity of correspondence with other Governments, but the matters treated of intimately concern your department, and I would respectfully commend them to your serious consideration. If you will be pleased to receive a deputation from the several companies, we should be happy to wait on you, and communicate personally any further information which you might require. The important interests concerned would appear to call for prompt action on the part of Her Majesty's Government. My Lord, London, 12 December 1881. FOR Some years past there has been an increasing recognition of the fact that submarine cables need protection from careless and wilful damage, and that the repairing operations necessarily consequent upon interruptions call in like manner for protection from careless and wilful interference. In the shallow waters of the Channel, the Irish Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, on the Newfoundland Banks, the bank along the Coast of Nova Scotia, and in Massachusetts Bay, |