- It would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly everybody
is. A testy word now and then shows the wires are strained a
little, but everyone laughs and makes his little jokes as if it
were all in fun: yet we are all as much in earnest as the most
earnest of the earnest bastard German school or demonstrative of
Frenchmen. I enjoy it very much.
'June 12.
'5.30 A.M. - Out of sight of land: about thirty nautical miles in
the hold; the wind rising a little; experiments being made for a
fault, while the engine slowly revolves to keep us hanging at the
same spot: depth supposed about a mile. The machinery has behaved
admirably. Oh! that the paying-out were over! The new machinery
there is but rough, meant for an experiment in shallow water, and
here we are in a mile of water.
'6.30. - I have made my calculations and find the new paying-out
gear cannot possibly answer at this depth, some portion would give
way. Luckily, I have brought the old things with me and am getting
them rigged up as fast as may be.
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