Still from ROV video

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Tom,  I don't think that Jeff is saying that the wire/rope/cable isn't from the Electra. More that it isn't from the V-antenna. I've been surfing the web looking for a schematic for the wiring harness and overall type of wiring used in the Electra to see what I could find. So far, nothing. My first house was built in 1928 and the wonderful wiring that was in it was all cloth and rubber wrapped copper wire contained within a metal outer conduit which protected the wires and served as a ground. The rubber didn't age well and became very brittle. I ended up rewiring the entire house. My point is, did aircraft manufacturers in the 1930's run the wiring through a similar type of flexible metal conduit? It would protect the wiring quite nicely as well as offer a ground (earth, for our friends on the eastern shore of the pond) and, more importantly, might look very much like a rope whil laying on the bottom of a coral reef. How many circuits would the aircraft have needed? Obviously the instrument panel, radio gear, interior lighting would require electricity. Then the flap motors, landing gear, etc. Lastly the engines would require starter circuits, generator circuits, ignition, etc. How much wiring was there and what would remain of it?  Does anyone have a schematic?  LTM- John

John check the pic I posted of the end of the left wire/cable/rope. It's a solid lump of black metal with hole/s and what appears to be a circular bend at the tip?

[richie conroy]

jeff if u read back couple pages some one mentioned that they thought it was vee antenna cable

me personally i don't think it is.... i was thinking more along the lines of it being a earth cable due to its length as it would start from one engine route round plane earth in, wings tail etc then to other engine i.e protection from lightning...

and if it isn't that

the Electra was carrying a life raft dingy, they have that black rope\wire that runs round top think its like a safety rope, so depending on size of raft it could be off that

also if u go back to the picture i posted showing what i thought were anchors, well the rope ends directly  in front of it...

an believe it or not were the anchor is, it is at 11 o clock when ur looking at radial engine pic i posted yesterday an rope is in front of engine

sort of makes sense but i dismissed it on the grounds it was to easy to be that  :)

anyway don't be disheartened jeff, we will find out eventually why it's there

keep up the good work  :)

[richie conroy]

what we need is someone to stitch together the video still's in a panaromanic  way, i have been doing it but i have only managed to do few still's at a time because it's harder than finding a serial number on these bits of wreckage  will post what i have managed to do so far k

also if ur a captain of a trawler fishing vessel an u see a ship wreak thats ran aground am sure u would be deterred from trawling round that area ?

[richie conroy]

right am attaching 2 images bare in mind its first time av done it so dont expect much

[John Joseph Barrett]

Jeff,  Any chance the solid chunk of metal with the holes could be a junction box where two or more of the cables fed in/out? I've seen them curved to fit snugly into a curved structure so it is possible. I would think that a juction box could be a point of failure for the cables to separate as the aircraft is torn apart. Again, I think we need to find out what type of wiring was in use in aircraft to either rule it in or out. The other object that appears to be some type of fitting along the run of the rope/cable may be a clamp to keep it from moving one way or another through a bulkhead.   LTM- John

[John Joseph Barrett]

Yeah Richie,  That panoramic sure looks like fun to string together   ;D. Not only do you have to crop and rotate, you also need to resize and play with exposure settings too. Sorry, my friend, I have neither the skills nor the computer software to even attempt that. Good luck.  LTM- John

[richie conroy]

jeff one of them rope's is tied to a metal bar underneath what i think is the nose cone

which if it is, then its fair to say who ever tied the rope onto wreckage before it went down reef could have got rope off norwhich city

[richie conroy]

jeff in this still

top arrow rope tie

bottom arrow poss nose cone

also look at debris field there is loads specially to left of nose cone

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

jeff in this still

top arrow rope tie

bottom arrow poss nose cone

also look at debris field there is loads specially to left of nose cone

I'm pretty sure we're looking at the fuselage floor where all that junk is sitting in the background and to the left of the door.

[Gary LaPook]

jeff if u read back couple pages some one mentioned that they thought it was vee antenna cable

me personally i don't think it is.... i was thinking more along the lines of it being a earth cable due to its length as it would start from one engine route round plane earth in, wings tail etc then to other engine i.e protection from lightning...

The Electra was a metal airplane and the skin acts as a "Faraday Cage" so a lightening bolt doesn't penetrate it, the charge travels on the exterior surface so planes do not have an "earthing cable."

gl

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Jeff,  Any chance the solid chunk of metal with the holes could be a junction box where two or more of the cables fed in/out? I've seen them curved to fit snugly into a curved structure so it is possible. I would think that a juction box could be a point of failure for the cables to separate as the aircraft is torn apart. Again, I think we need to find out what type of wiring was in use in aircraft to either rule it in or out. The other object that appears to be some type of fitting along the run of the rope/cable may be a clamp to keep it from moving one way or another through a bulkhead.   LTM- John

That wire/cable/rope John looks as though it was designed for work not carrying juice IMHO. It doesn't look as though it would stretch much and that weird metal fitting at the lower end, and the fixture further up. there's something in between Those 2 points that could shed more light on the purpose of this bit of wire/cable/rope.

[Harry Howe, Jr.]

Again
I think that AE/FN acrounged a long rope off the Norwich City, looped it around the Electra (prolly around the empannage) and tied it off to something stationary (the NC?, a Buka Tree?) in order th stabilize the plane against the wind, surf, tide, etc.  Rubbing against the coral wore the rope, it broke, plane went over edge with rope still looped around it   QED

[JNev]

Again
I think that AE/FN acrounged a long rope off the Norwich City, looped it around the Electra (prolly around the empannage) and tied it off to something stationary (the NC?, a Buka Tree?) in order th stabilize the plane against the wind, surf, tide, etc.  Rubbing against the coral wore the rope, it broke, plane went over edge with rope still looped around it   QED

It would surely fit the whole scene, Harry - if that 'stuff' down there is what is suggested.  I agree with Jeff Hayden that it looks more like working line (rope) than electric cable.  If that's what it is and given how it's strung out down the slope (I think that's the orientation, more or less) - it could well be as you suggest.

There were some sort of stores left behind according to the N.C. accounting, and at least one boat left - there could easily have been a bunch of mooring line left on the island among that stuff.  Wonder if we should be looking at pix of N.C. / life boat details - there's that peculiar 'bead' on the line before it splices into a 'loop' (what it looks like): I've done dozens of braided splices like that for mooring loops - but never used a 'bead' like I see there - I wonder what British working lines on tramps tended to look like in the '20's?

Fascinating.

[JNev]

Tom,  I don't think that Jeff is saying that the wire/rope/cable isn't from the Electra. More that it isn't from the V-antenna. I've been surfing the web looking for a schematic for the wiring harness and overall type of wiring used in the Electra to see what I could find. So far, nothing. My first house was built in 1928 and the wonderful wiring that was in it was all cloth and rubber wrapped copper wire contained within a metal outer conduit which protected the wires and served as a ground. The rubber didn't age well and became very brittle. I ended up rewiring the entire house. My point is, did aircraft manufacturers in the 1930's run the wiring through a similar type of flexible metal conduit? It would protect the wiring quite nicely as well as offer a ground (earth, for our friends on the eastern shore of the pond) and, more importantly, might look very much like a rope whil laying on the bottom of a coral reef. How many circuits would the aircraft have needed? Obviously the instrument panel, radio gear, interior lighting would require electricity. Then the flap motors, landing gear, etc. Lastly the engines would require starter circuits, generator circuits, ignition, etc. How much wiring was there and what would remain of it?  Does anyone have a schematic?  LTM- John

John check the pic I posted of the end of the left wire/cable/rope. It's a solid lump of black metal with hole/s and what appears to be a circular bend at the tip?

I've said before here several times - this looks like a mooring line - what the black 'bead' is I don't know (and don't know that it's metal) - and the "end of the left wire/cable/rope... solid lump of black metal with hole/s and what appears to be a circular bend at the tip" looks far more like 'stress memory' in the end of a loop on a mooring line -

Not to say 'I told you so' - I don't KNOW - but this line looks alot like what I've described to me.  The bead's a mystery.

If it is a mooring line or piece of line for any boat or shipboard use, it could have come from any number of sources - known or unknown to Kiribatic authorities.  I'm now wondering, just on a longshot - what the lines associated with the N.C.'s boats may have looked like?  The reason I wonder is Harry wondered about use of such a line, or lines, to try to secure the plane on the reef somehow - a possiblity. 

The 'bead' could be a signature item - where does stuff like that appear?  All over the Asian fishing fleet, or maybe an obscure feature found on boats on British tramps of the 1920's?  May be worth digging into.

LTM -

[Tom Swearengen]

Jeff Hayden---my most humble appologies. I completely misread, and mis understood what you said earlier. Please DO keep up the good work.
Tom