'Telegraph and travel. A narrative of the formation and development of telegraphic communication between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental notices of the countries traversed by the lines.' [‎127] (160/782)

III.]
extract* from press.
127
As far, however, as the most anxious care and forethought can
guard against accidents none are likely to arise. In fact, the
same delicate system of testing adopted during the manufacture,
which could detect and record the loss of one thousand-
millionth part of the current by leakage, shows that, if possible,
the cable now in the tanks on board the Assaye is in even better
electrical condition than when it left Mr. Henley's works. The
Assaye was driven into Plymouth by desperately heavy weather,
yet so strong was the ship, and so well was the cable stowed,
that the last tests taken before the vessel sailed on Saturday
showed each section to be in a higher condition of insulation
than any submarine cable ever exhibited before. On board
each of the ships go a certain portion of the staff which is
hereafter to work the line from station to station along the Gulf.
At each station will be a superintendent and deputy-super-
intendent, with six clerks—the latter the best instrument hands
that could be procured ; the former all gentlemen of from ten to
twelve years' experience at the large stations in England. At
some of the stations the staff will have but a dull time : at
Khasab, the lonely point of rock off the Arabian coast, for
instance, where the hostility of the Arabs may possibly oblige
all to live on board a hulk moored at some little distance from
the rocky desolate shore. 1 A well-chosen library of about 2,000
volumes goes out with the expedition, and these will be
divided between the five Gulf stations. The Amber Witch,
which will ply between the stations, will bring letters and
papers, and none ot the staff will be kept more than two or
three months at a time at one station, so that there will at least
be constant change, if there is not much variety. The five
stations will be from Karachi to Gwadar, a distance of 250
miles, from Gwadar across the Gulf to the peninsula of Khaaab,
from Khasab to Bushahr, and from Bushahr to a place called
iao, a small eastern township on the estuary at the mouth of
the Euphrates, where the submarine wire meets the land lines
which carry it to Baghdad, thence to Mosul (the ancient
See sketch at the head of this chapter. Khasab never was used as a
cable station.