Back on shore, we hit the ground running. Our major NSF and Navy inspections are in a week, and there are a lot of loose ends to tie up before we are ready.
Earlier in the month, we unspooled and respooled nearly 40,000 metres of wire. Some had become too damaged and rusty and needed to be replaced. The rest that was in decent shape still needed maintenance, which meant that all wires came off the boat, foot by foot, and were lubed on their way back on board. From each spool, we cut a ten meter sample, which usually gets shipped out to the wire pool headquarters for a break test. Coincidentally, we happen to be on the same dock. So we deliver our wire samples by hand.
Barbara greets us, I recognize her name from our wire records. The wire pool lab houses two machines that are able to inflict up to 100,000 lbs of tension on a section of wire. Which is pretty amazing, but in the history of break tests, no wire has been able to withstand more than 50,000 lbs. She shows us the termination casts, which takes her hours to attach to either end of the wire. They were designed in-house, specifically for withstanding extreme tension. For a long time, the terminations were the first to break during the wire test, but with the new design, higher tensions can be reached and the true strength of the wire can be measured.
A few days later, Barbara invites us over to view a break test of our .680 cable, which is supposedly one of the more spectacular breaks. Our cable is all hooked up when we arrive, pulled tight across the break machine. A cage closes over the wire and the stretching begins. We can watch the tension increase on the monitor, and Barbara warns us once we reach 30,000 lbs to prepare for a break. I can hear the wire snap, even though im wearing earplugs, and a huge cloud of dust and rust rises from the cage. The wire has broken close to the termination, causing it to snap towards the other end of the cage, bending and warping the wire into a beautiful twist. We made it to 36,000 lbs. We pass the test.
