From Bob Acord of Buckeye, Arizona, his story and photos.
See photos at end of story.
July 31, 2005
Dear Dick:
Enclosed are the pictures of the Uncle Wes Cable Barge. I will tell you about this vessel and how it was used.
During the Christmas time of the years previous to the last time this barge was used in 1978/9. There used to be a lot of ship traffic through the bay. We could always count on a good Christmas check for the holidays.
When one of our cables got pulled in the anchor chain, (the boats used to drag their anchors and they would hook onto one of our cables or both of them). The harbor master would have a log of all the vessels that was leaving the bay on that particular day and time.
We would know the time that we had lost the cable. Western Union Supervisors would find out the information of the vessel and that shipping company would have to pay for all the time outage and all the expenses. This would knock the traffic to the Oakland office at 125 12th Street, Oakland.
We would be advised that on the following Saturday morning that we were to meet at the shop at 695 Minnesota Street San Francisco. We would get the tools that we would need, then we would head to the barge was located in Oakland at the Estuary.
We would have a welder to come board with us, as on the cable was two layers of: # 6 iron wire, one wrapped one way and the other wrapped the other way. His job was once we got the one of the ends of the cable spliced the he would then weld the first layer of: # 6 iron and the he would do the next on. This was called the armor for protection of the cable.
We would all go aboard the barge, and stow our gear. One of the tugs that worked the bay would come and tow us and we would head out to the trouble area. The tug charged twenty five dollars an hour. We would put a deep sea tone on the cable head at pier 3.
We had deep sea divers come out on the job and they had their own barge and they would dive. Each dive up to fifty feet was I think four hundred dollars, up to sixty feet was I think six hundred dollars a dive, up to ninety feet was I think eight hundred dollars a dive. These were hard hat divers with the divers suits and helmet.
They would take what we called a soap dish in his hand. That was an amplifier that he would place on the cable. He would have to hunt for the cables as ten feet into the bay was all silt, and he would sink in about fifty feet of mud.
We had communications with the diver. He would place this on one of the cables and if there was no tone then he would find the other cable and there was the tone.
We would put over the side a 4 in hawser line and the diver would tie it around the cable then he would get out of the way then we would hoist the cable aboard the barge with the capstan. This might take 48 to 76 hours of continuous work to do this. I have worked up to 76 hours without any sleep.
Once we had the cable aboard the barge came the fun part, we would cut the cable in six foot sections till we found dry cable. Water could run into the cable about five or six hundred feet. You can see this was very hard work.
Then we would seal the end of the cable and place on buoys and put over the side then we would repeat the same thing from the Oakland with the deep sea tone and again the divers would go down and find the right cable and we would again hoist the cable aboard the barge.
There were a few time when we secured the end of the cable to a buoy that the buoy sank, so we would start all over. We would be aboard the barge seven full days and nights till we got the cable back into service.
After the first twelve hours we were on double pay till the job was complete. We would break for breakfast lunch and dinner and midnight chow. Half of the crew would go aboard the tug and we would be taken to San Francisco on the Embarcadero Street to water front restaurants and we would then go back and relive the other half of the crew. Our time went straight through. We never got docked time for our meals.
We were used to walking on cement sidewalks so when we would go aboard, it was all wood and after 76 hours I would take my boots off and walk around on the barge we all did that. Our clothes would be so dirty from the mud that came aboard the barge with cable and all the sea spray. When I got home I would throw away my clothes. I couldn't expect my wife to clean those things.
This is a funny thing that happened. We were working along the side the Bay Bridge one night. We were all tired and this friend of mine was on the skiff doing some thing with one of the cables, the lights were reflecting off the bridge onto the water.
I was looking over the side giving him a bad time when this sea lion swam by. His eyes were so huge being reflected off of the water, that I yelled to the guy in the skiff, I said, "David there is a sea monster behind you." David rowed the skiff to the barge came aboard all excited till we saw what it was and he chased me for two days around the barge wanting to fight with me for scaring half to death. Yes these were the good ole days.
When we finally got both ends of the cable spliced together, now this was the most dangerous part of the job. The cable was on the deck of the barge and now we had to get the cable back into the water.
There were about 6 to 8 men on board, we would take digging bars and push the cable to the edge of the deck. You had to be ever so careful that your pants, or your boots would not get into the cable when it went over the side or you would go with it to the bottom. By the time the divers got their suits on and get to you, you would be drowned.
I hired on Western Union in November 1963 as an apprentice lineman working in Mount Shasta California. A few days later President Kennedy was shot. We were working on the main line from California to Oregon.
We were in the process of changing poles and wires all that good ole stuff. It was snowing so very hard, you could not see from one pole to the next. I was on a south pole and this other line man was on a north pole facing each other there were about fifty feet apart.
We were changing out the lines. So he would call out to me when he had the wire tied down, "Here it comes." Out of the snow you would see a hammer coming towards you that had a rope tied to it and then it was your job to catch the hammer and then tie another wire and he would pull it towards him. Where was OSHA on this job.
I then bid into San Francisco as a city lineman in the first part of 1964. Then as time went on I became a cable splicer, then I became a cable man. I was so excited about teletype. I started studying the WnR manuals to be able to pass the level five test. I spent a year of burning midnight oil to pass the test which I did.
I then became a printer maintainer in Los Angeles at the shop on San Pedro Street. Then they moved the shop to Carson California. I then became a plant tech.
I bid to Oakland, then I went to San Francisco. I then became a WnR tech in FQ. Worked there till 1979.
I did to to Pocatello Idaho to work on the Sno Tel systems that was also a very exciting job. I lost my job in Pocatello, and bumped into Reno NV. Worked there from 1982 till 1986.
This is when Western Union was starting to close offices. I lost my job then I bumped into Phoenix AZ TPF as operations tech. Were all American Express circuits went through.
I worked there 1990. Then I lost my job.
I have spent such a wonderful time working good ole Uncle Wes.
Thank you,
Robert (Bob) Acord
2000 So. Apache lot 56
Buckeye AZ 85326-9104
Launching the skiff Foreman Tony Me standing in front of cable reel
Pier 3 San Francisco Unidentified worker Bringing skiff aboard barge
Watching as cable is reeled off Unidentified man operating capstan Cable reel
Tug tied to barge Bay Bridge in background Tug tied to barge Pier 3 with cable truck parked