Towering high in the air, and almost filling the glade from end to end
with her enormous length, was an object measuring no fewer than six
hundred feet long, of cylindrical shape, sixty feet in diameter at her
so-called "midship" section, and tapering away fore and aft by a series
of finely curved lines, to the pointed extremities of the bow and stern.
The bow portion of the structure was considerably longer and more
sharply pointed than the after extremity, to which was attached, by a
very ingeniously devised universal joint, in such a manner as to render
a rudder unnecessary, a huge propeller having four tremendously broad
sickle-shaped blades, the palms of which were so cunningly shaped and
hollowed as to gather in and concentrate the air--or water, as the case
might be--about the boss and powerfully project it thence in a direct
line with the longitudinal axis of the ship. To give this cigar-shaped
curvilinear hull perfect stability when resting upon the ground, it was
fitted with a pair of deep and broad bilge-keels, one on either side of
the ship, extending fore and aft for just a third of her length. These
bilge-keels contained four grip-anchors--one at either extremity of each
keel--by means of which the ship could, when necessary, be firmly
secured to the ground, as she now was, in fact; and they also formed
chambers for the reception of water-ballast, when such was required.
Immediately over the "midship" section of the hull, and extending one
hundred and fifty feet in either direction fore and aft from this point,
placed upon the "back," so to speak, of the hull, was a superstructure
shaped somewhat like the above-water portion of a double-ended Thames
steamboat, with a deck, thirty feet in width at its broadest part,
protected by an open railing in place of the usual bulwarks. And in the
exact centre of this deck stood a two-storey pilot-house, the lower
storey of which permitted ingress and egress between the promenade deck
and the interior of the ship, while the upper storey--completely
surrounded by large circular scuttles, or windows, which afforded an
unobstructed view all round--constituted the navigating platform from
which the ship was worked.
The whole of this enormous fabric, with the exception of the planking of
the promenade deck, was built of the wonderful metal called aethereum,
discovered by Professor von Schalckenberg, which, being unpainted, shone
in the sunlight like burnished silver. There was only one exception to
the rule which appeared to have forbidden the use of paint on the
exterior of this wonderful ship, and that was in the case of the
superstructure supporting the promenade deck and the pilot-house. This
portion of the hull was painted a light, delicate, blue-grey tint, which
was relieved by an ornamental scroll-work of gold and colours at each
end of the ship enclosing the name _Flying Fish_ on each bow and
quarter, the whole connected by a massive gold cable moulding running
fore and aft along the sheer strake of that portion of the ship. The
painting and gilding had all been done when the ship was built, nearly
seven years ago, and it had then been coated with a transparent,
protective varnish of the professor's own concoction, which had proved
so absolutely water-tight and imperishable that, although the _Flying
Fish_ had lain submerged at the bottom of the Hurd Deep for more than
six years, the paint and gilding now looked as fresh and clean and
brilliant as though it had been newly applied. It may be as well to
mention here that all the interior decks, bulkheads, doors, staircases,
machinery, and furniture of every kind, even to the boats, and the guns,
firearms, and weapons of every description with which the ship was
liberally provided, were, like her hull, constructed of aethereum, the
most striking properties of which metal were its extraordinary
lightness, toughness, hardness, strength, and its stubborn resistance to
all tarnishing or oxidising influences.
There were two modes of ingress to the interior of the ship, one, as has
already been mentioned, from the deck, by way of the pilot-house, and
the other by way of a trap-door in the bottom of the ship, behind the
starboard bilge-keel. This latter was used when it was desired to enter
or leave the ship when she was resting upon the solid ground, either
above or under water, and it was the means of entrance which the party
used upon the present occasion. The professor, to whose genius was due
the entire design of the wonderful ship, undertook, at Sir Reginald's
request, to point out to Lady Elphinstone a few of the most remarkable
characteristics of the structure; and accordingly, when her ladyship had
exhausted her wonder at the enormous proportions of the _Flying Fish_,
Herr von Schalckenberg conducted his hostess forward and into the space
between the starboard bilge-keel and the bottom of the ship, where there
was just sufficient room for a tall man to stand upright close to the
inner face of the bilge-keel. At a certain point in the tunnel-like
passage the professor came to a halt, and remarked--
"Now, Lady Olivia, kindly favour me with your attention. Although you
cannot distinguish it, there is a trap-door here, giving ingress to the
interior of the ship, and as it is possible that you may at some time or
other wish to make use of it when none of us are at hand to help you, I
should like to show you how the door is to be opened or closed. Now, in
the first place, you will observe that there is a vertical and also a
horizontal joint in the plating, meeting just here--it is the only
junction of the kind in this passage-way, so you cannot possibly mistake
it. Now, kindly take notice of these vertical and horizontal rows of
rivet-heads, and especially of this particular rivet that is common to
both rows. There is nothing whatever to distinguish it from the others,
is there? No. But if you will place your finger upon it, thus, and
push firmly to the left, thus, you will see what happens."
And, as the professor spoke, a section of the polished silver-like
plating of the ship's bottom folded gently out until its outer edge
rested upon the ground, forming a kind of sloping gangway, by means of
which it was easy to enter the yawning aperture that now appeared in the
ship's bottom.
"Supposing, however," continued the professor, "that you are leaving the
ship, and wish to close the trap-door behind you, all that you have to
do is to push the rivet back into its original position, and the
mechanism operating the door at once responds, closing the flap, thus,
and leaving no indication whatever of its existence. Now, Lady Olivia,
let me see whether you can open the flap."
Thus invited, Lady Elphinstone laid her finger upon the rivet-head and
gave it a vigorous push to the left, upon which the flap folded out as
before, and von Schalckenberg, taking her ladyship's hand, led her with
old-fashioned gallantry up the gangway, the others following.
As well as the party could discern in the obscurity, they now found
themselves standing in an apartment some ten feet square by seven feet
in height, with no other perceptible means of egress from it than the
trap-door by which they had entered; but upon the professor stretching
forth his arm and groping for a moment about the wall, the room became
suddenly illumined by the radiance of an electric light set in a very
thick and strong glass globe let into the ceiling, and it now became
apparent that there was a door in the bulkhead opposite them as they
entered.
"This small room," said the professor, "is known as the chamber of
egress, because, as is quite obvious, it is from here that one leaves
the ship for the outer world. But it has also another purpose besides
the mere furnishing of access to the trap-door, as I will endeavour to
explain to your ladyship. You are, of course, aware that one of the
objects with which the _Flying Fish_ was constructed was to enable her
crew to explore the ocean depths, and to examine and, if necessary,
operate upon the ocean's bed. Now, in order to leave the ship and walk
out upon the sea floor, an aperture of some kind in the hull is clearly
necessary, through which we may pass; and that aperture you see before
you in the shape of the trap-door. But you will readily understand
that, with the ship sunk to the bottom, the water will pour violently
through that trap, if it is opened without the observance of proper
precautions; and unless some special means are adopted to prevent such a
catastrophe, the water will quickly invade and fill the entire hull.
Hence this room. Its use, in actual practice, is this: having donned
our diving-suits in the diving-room, we pass into this small chamber by
means of the door of communication, which you see in that partition,
close the door carefully behind us, and turn on this tap, which admits a
small stream of water into the room from outside. The pressure of water
being considerable, the room quickly fills; but the partition, with its
water-tight door, effectually prevents the water from penetrating any
farther into the hull of the ship--and we then throw open the trap-door,
and walk forth on to the sea floor. Upon our return we close the
trap-door behind us, thus, turn on this air tap, and immediately a
stream of densely compressed air rushes into the chamber, expelling the
water through this valve in the floor. And when the water is all out,
we turn off the stream of compressed air, and open this valve, which
allows the compressed air to pass into the habitable portion of the
ship, quickly reducing the air-pressure in this room to what it is in
the other habitable portion of the ship; then we open this door, and
pass into the diving-room."
The professor then threw open the door and, with a profound bow, stood
aside to allow Lady Elphinstone to pass through.
The room in which the party presently found themselves was an apartment
about twenty feet square, one side of which was wholly occupied by four
cupboards labelled respectively "Sir Reginald Elphinstone", "Colonel
Lethbridge", "Captain Mildmay," and "Von Schalckenberg."
"This," explained the professor, "is the room wherein we shall equip
ourselves for our submarine rambles; and," throwing open the door of one
of the cupboards and disclosing certain articles neatly arranged upon
hooks fastened to the walls, "here is a suit of the clothing and armour
that we shall wear upon such occasions."
"Oh yes," responded Lady Olivia, "I remember having heard Sir Reginald
speak of his `diving-armour'; what a very handsome suit it is,"--as she
touched and thoughtfully opened the folds of a surcoat of scale armour
that looked as though made of silver; "but it seems a queer idea to don
armour for the purpose of walking about at the bottom of the sea. Yet,
what a man of foresight you must be, Professor! My husband has often
told Ida the story of your terrible fight with the conger eels, the
first time that the party ever sallied forth from the _Flying Fish_.
You appear to have foreseen and provided against every possible danger."
"No, no!" exclaimed von Schalckenberg, laughingly disclaiming any such
prescience; "I am not nearly as clever as that. For instance: the
armour was not provided as a protection against the attacks of savage
animals or fish, but for quite a different purpose."
"Indeed!" exclaimed her ladyship; "for what purpose, then, was it
provided?"
"For the purpose of protecting the wearer against the enormous pressure
of the water to which he would be subjected when moving about on the bed
of the ocean at a great depth below the surface," answered the
professor. "You must understand," he continued, "that water exerts a
pressure upon everything immersed in it; and the deeper the water, the
greater is the pressure upon the immersed body. So rapidly does this
pressure increase, that divers attired in an ordinary diving-dress are
only able to descend to a depth of about fifteen fathoms, or ninety
feet; there are a few cases where this depth has been exceeded, but they
are few and far between. Now I have always held the opinion that to
descend into the sea to merely such a trifling depth as this, for the
purpose of scientific investigation, is scarcely worth the trouble; so
when Sir Reginald was good enough to furnish me with the means to
materialise, as it were, in this ship, the fancies and longings that had
haunted me, day and night, for years, I determined that it should not be
my fault if we did not, all of us, completely eclipse all previous
achievements in diving. The great difficulty that I had to contend with
was the enormous water-pressure of which I had spoken. Could I but
contrive to encase our bodies in some garment that would receive and
successfully resist this terrible pressure, and yet be flexible enough
to permit of free movement to the wearer, the problem would be solved.
And these diving-suits are the outcome of my efforts; they sustain and
resist to perfection, without permitting them to be transmitted to the
body, the most severe pressures to which we have ever exposed them,
while at the same time they afford complete protection in other respects
to the wearers--as when, for example, we were attacked by the conger
eels."
Lady Olivia thanked the professor for his explanation, and murmured an
additional word or two of admiration for the wonderful armour; whereupon
von Schalckenberg--perceiving perhaps that her ladyship's interest in
what was really one of his masterpieces of ingenuity was not, after all,
particularly keen--opened a door opposite the one by which they had
entered the diving-room, disclosing a small vestibule from which sprang
a spiral staircase made of the same beautiful white metal that was
everywhere to be met with on board this marvellous ship.
Leading the way round past the foot of the staircase, the professor
halted before a door inscribed with the words "Engine-Room." This door
he threw open, and, as before, with a profound bow, motioned Lady
Elphinstone to enter. The first emotion of those who entered this
important compartment for the first time was invariably one of
disappointment; for the room, although full of machinery, was small--
disproportionately so, it appeared, compared with the bulk of the ship
and the power required to drive it at the enormous speeds that had been
indisputably attained by the _Flying Fish_. And this emotion was
further increased by contemplation of the machinery by means of which
these high speeds had been attained. The main engines, consisting of a
set of three-cylinder compound engines, constructed throughout of
polished aethereum, and consequently presenting an exceedingly handsome
appearance, suggested rather the idea of an exquisite large-sized model
in silver than anything else, the set occupying very little more space
than those of one of the larger Thames river steamers. But the
impression of diminutiveness and inadequacy of power merged into one of
astonishment nearly approaching incredulity when the professor casually
mentioned that the vapour by which the engines were driven entered the
high-pressure cylinder at the astounding pressure of five thousand
pounds to the square inch, and that, although the engines themselves
made only fifty revolutions per minute, the main shaft, to which the
propeller was attached, made, by means of speed-multiplying gear, no
fewer than one thousand revolutions per minute in air of ordinary
atmospheric pressure!
From the engine-room the professor led the way up the spiral staircase
for a considerable distance, passing landings here and there, with doors
in the bulkheads, giving access, as von Schalckenberg explained, to the
several decks of the vessel. Arrived at length at the top of the spiral
staircase, the party found themselves in a spacious vestibule extending
the whole width of the ship, and lighted on each side by a large,
circular port. The vestibule floor was covered--with the exception of a
margin about three feet wide all round--with a magnificent carpet, the
margin of floor beyond the edge of the carpet being occupied by a number
of beautiful flowering plants and shrubs in spacious and ornamental pots
and boxes. From the centre of the vestibule floor sprang the grand
staircase--a magnificent example of sculptured aethereum--leading to the
pilot-house and promenade deck above; and immediately opposite the foot
of the staircase, forming, in fact, one side of the vestibule, was a
bulkhead of aethereum decorated with a series of Corinthian pilasters
surmounted by a noble cornice, from which sprang the coved ceiling of
the apartment. The panels formed by the pilaster were enriched with
elegant mouldings of scroll-work and painted in creamy white picked out
with gold. Two of the panels were occupied by massive, handsomely
mounted doors of frosted aethereum, the panels of which were decorated
with fanciful scroll-work of the polished metal, imparting a very rich
and handsome effect. These doors, the professor reminded Lady Olivia,
gave admission to the dining and drawing-rooms.
Behind the grand staircase was another bulkhead, similar to the one
already described, but having one door only--and that in its centre--
instead of two, as in the case of the other bulkhead. This single door
gave access to a long corridor, on either side of which were to be found
the staterooms, or sleeping apartments, the bathrooms, and the domestic
offices generally of the ship. Lady Elphinstone was tolerably familiar
with this part of the ship already; and as she wished to peep into the
room which she and her husband were to occupy, she now took the lead
and, opening the door leading into the corridor, passed through it,
while the men turned in the other direction and entered the dining-room.
Passing along the corridor, Lady Elphinstone presently reached the
stateroom which she was desirous to inspect, and, turning the handle of
the door, entered. The room in which she now found herself was an
apartment about twenty feet square, lighted at one end by two very large
circular ports, or scuttles, let into the side of the ship, affording
ample illumination during the daytime, while the hours of darkness were
provided for by half a dozen electric lights disposed about the cabin,
mounted on handsome aethereum brackets, and furnished with opal shades,
shaped and tinted to represent flowers. The bulkheads were of frosted
aethereum, divided up into panels by fluted Corinthian pilasters of the
same metal, supporting a massive cornice and a coved ceiling, the wall
panels being enriched with graceful designs in polished aethereum
surrounding choice paintings in water-colour, while the ceiling was
painted to represent a cloud-dappled sky, with cupids flitting hither
and thither among the clouds. Handsome wardrobes, chests of drawers,
wash-stands, toilet tables, couches, and chairs of most exquisite
workmanship in frosted aethereum, upholstered in richest silk and
velvet, were conveniently grouped about the apartment; and in the
centre, automatically balanced on gimbals, hung a spacious and
beautifully carved and chiselled bedstead of aethereum, upon which the
occupant would find luxurious repose. The deck, or floor, of the
apartment was covered with a thick, rich Turkey carpet, the colouring of
which matched the upholstery of the furniture; and the ports were draped
with costly silk and lace curtains of the finest texture, to soften or
exclude the light when desired.
Finding everything here to her liking, her ladyship joined the rest of
the party in the dining-room, and intimated that her inspection of the
ship was ended, whereupon the spiral staircase was descended, and in a
few minutes the little group once more found themselves outside the ship
and wending their way back to the house.