please, gentlemen," said the professor; and he forthwith led the way up
a ladder which leaned against the vessel's lofty side. This conducted
them as far as the upper curve of her cylindrical bilge, at which point
they encountered a flight of light ornamental openwork steps permanently
attached to the ship's side, up which they passed to the gangway in the
stout metal railing which served instead of bulwark, and so reached the
spacious promenade deck. Looking down into the yard from this coign of
vantage, they seemed to be an enormous height from the ground; and the
baronet shrugged his shoulders more expressively than ever as he glanced
first below and then around him, realising more fully than ever, as he
did so, the immense proportions of his new possession. He said nothing,
however, but turned inquiringly to the professor.
"This way, gentlemen, if you please," said the German, in answer to the
look; and he led them aft to what may be styled the quarter-deck.
"You spoke about the weight of a coat of paint on the hull just now, but
I see you have planked the deck. The weight of all this planking must
be something considerable," remarked Mildmay.
"A mere trifle; it is only a thin veneering just to give a secure and
comfortable foothold," remarked the professor. He paused at what looked
like a trap-door in the deck and said:
"We shall not be always soaring in the air nor groping about at the
bottom of the sea; we shall sometimes be riding on the surface; and I
have therefore thought it advisable to provide a couple of boats. Here
is one of them."
He stooped down, seized hold of and turned a ring in the flap, and
raised the trap-door, disclosing a dark pit-like recess of considerable
dimensions. Letting the flap fold back flat on the deck, the professor
then stooped down and grasped the handle of a horizontal lever which lay
just below the level of the deck, and drew it up into a perpendicular
position, and, as he did so, a pair of davits, the upper portions of
which had been plainly visible, rose through the aperture close to the
protecting railing, bringing with them a handsomely modelled boat
hanging from the tackles. The professor deftly turned the davits
outward, and there hung the boat at the quarter in the exact position
she would have occupied in an ordinary ship.
"Bravo, professor; very clever indeed!" exclaimed Mildmay. "But what is
the object of those four curved tubes projecting through the boat's
bottom?"
"Those tubes," answered the professor, "are the boat's means of
propulsion. You see," he explained, "being built of aethereum, the boat
is extremely light, and draws so little water that a screw propeller
would be quite useless to her. So I have substituted those tubes
instead. One pair, you will observe, points toward the stern, and one
pair toward the bow. The boat's engine is a powerful three-cylinder
pump, and it sucks the water strongly in through the tubes which point
forward, discharging it as powerfully out through those which point
astern; thus drawing and driving the boat along at a speed of about
twelve knots per hour, which is as fast, I fancy, as we shall ever want
her to go. If you want to go astern the movement of a single lever
reverses the whole process. There is a similar boat on the other side."
The boat having been returned to her hiding-place, the professor next
led his friends to the structure which occupied the centre of the deck.
It was a perfectly plain erection, with curved sides meeting in a kind
of stem and stern-post at its forward and after ends, with a curved
dome-like roof, several small circular windows all round its sides, and
no apparent means of entry.
"Why, how is this, professor? You have actually built your pilot-
house--for such I suppose it is--without a door," exclaimed the baronet
with returning good-humour as he perceived that, even in the event of
the _Flying Fish_ failing to fly, he would still have a very wonderful
ship for his money.
"As you have rightly supposed, this _is_ the pilot-house," answered the
professor, with one hand pressing lightly against the gleaming wall of
the structure. "But as to its being without a door, you are mistaken,
for there it is."
And as he spoke a door, hitherto unnoticed in the side of the building,
flew open.
"Why, you are a veritable magician, professor! How on earth did you
manage that?" exclaimed the colonel.
"Easily enough," answered the professor. "Just look here, all of you.
This is a secret door which it is necessary you should all know how to
open. Now, there are four of us, are there not? Very well; find the
fourth rivet from the bottom in the fourth row from the after end of the
building--here it is--push it to your left--_not_ press it; pressing is
no good--and open flies the door. Push the rivet to the _right_ when
the door is open, and you shut it--so," suiting the action to the word.
"Now, Sir Reginald, let me see if you can open that door."
The baronet opened and closed the door without difficulty; and then the
other two essayed the attempt with similarly successful results.
"That is all right," commented the professor. "Now step inside, please;
and close the door--so: when you want to open it from the inside you
simply turn this handle--so, and open it comes."
The quartette now found themselves inside the pilothouse, which proved
to be two stories in height. On their right hand they beheld the
companion-way leading to the interior of the ship, with a wide flight of
stairs of delightfully easy descent, handsomely carpeted, and a
magnificent massive handrail and balusters of gleaming aethereum. The
square opening to the companion-way was also protected by a similar
handrail and balusters, producing an exceedingly rich effect and seeming
to promise a corresponding sumptuousness of fitting in the saloons
below.
Just clear of the head of the companion staircase and leading up one
side of the pilot-house was another light staircase of open grid-work
leading to the floor above, which, at a height of seven feet, spanned
the building from side to side. This floor was also of light open
gridwork, affording easy verbal communication between persons occupying
the different stories in the pilot-house. Through this open grid-floor
could be seen various apparatus, the objects of which the new-comers
were naturally anxious to learn; and to this floor the professor
accordingly led his companions up the staircase.
The first object to which he directed attention was a long straight bar
of aethereum handsomely moulded into the form of a thick cable, and
finished off at the outer end with the semblance of a "Matthew Walker"
knot. This bar issued at its inner end from a handsomely panelled and
moulded casing which extended down through both floors of the pilot-
house, presumably covering in and protecting the mechanism with which
the bar was obviously connected.
"This," said the professor, laying his hand on the bar, "is the steering
apparatus--the tiller as you call it--of the ship. It moves, as you
see, in all directions, and communicates a corresponding movement to the
propeller--as you may see, if you will take the trouble to look out
through one of those windows."
The trio immediately did so, and saw, as the professor had stated, that
with every movement of the tiller, right or left, up or down, the
propeller inclined itself at a corresponding angle. A handsome binnacle
compass stood immediately in front of the tiller, but the professor did
not call attention to it, rightly assuming that his companions were
fully acquainted with its use and purpose.
On the professor's right, as he stood at the tiller, was an upright
lever working in a quadrant, and communicating, like the tiller--and
indeed all the other apparatus--with the interior of the ship.
"This," said the professor, directing attention to the lever, "is the
lever which controls the valves of the main engines. I have fashioned
and arranged it exactly like the corresponding lever in a locomotive.
Placed vertically, thus, the engines remain motionless. Thrown forward,
thus, the engines will turn ahead. And thrown backward, thus, they will
turn astern. That is simple enough. And so is this," directing
attention to a dial on his left hand which stood facing him. The dial
had a single hand which was obviously intended to travel over a
carefully graduated arc of ninety degrees painted on the dial-face, and
which, in addition to the graduations, was marked in the proper
positions with the words "Stop;" "Quarter speed;" "Half speed;" "Full
speed;" and also with two arrows pointing in opposite directions marked
"On" and "Off" respectively. Just beneath the dial was a small wheel
with a crank-handle projecting from one of its spokes, and on this
crank-handle the professor now laid his hand.
"This," he said, "regulates the valve which admits vapour into the
engine; and the dial-hand shows the extent to which the valve is opened.
Turn the wheel in the direction of the arrow marked `On'--thus, and you
admit vapour into the engine. You will observe that, as I turn the
wheel, the hand on the dial travels over the arc and indicates the
extent to which the valve is open. There; now it is fully open, and the
cylinders are full of vapour." Then he quickly reversed the wheel and
sent the index hand back to "Stop," keeping a wary eye on his companions
as he did so.
"These are dangerous things to meddle with," he remarked apologetically.
"The engines are of one hundred thousand horse-power; and, full as the
ship now is of air at the atmospheric pressure, they would drive her
irresistibly along the ground and through all obstacles. I must beg
that none of you will meddle with the machinery until you are fully
acquainted with its tremendous power."
"What is this pendulum-looking affair, professor?" asked the colonel,
pointing to a pendulum the point of which hung in a shallow basin-like
depression thickly studded with needle-points which the pendulum just
cleared by a hair's-breadth.
"That," explained the professor, "is a device for automatically
regulating the balance, or `trim' as you call it, of the ship when she
is floating in the air. You will readily understand that when freed of
air, and thus deprived of weight, as it were, the most trifling matter
will suffice to derange her equilibrium; one of us, walking from side to
side, or from one end of the deck to the other, would very seriously
incline her from the horizontal, and thus alter the direction of her
flight, possibly with disastrous results; so I have devised this little
apparatus to prevent all that. This pendulum, as you see, is so
delicately poised that it will instantly respond to the slightest
deviation from a horizontal position, and, swaying over one of these
needle-points, will send an electric current to the air-pump, causing it
to promptly inject a sufficient quantity of air into the proper chamber
to restore the equilibrium. But, as we may desire occasionally to
direct the flight of the ship in an upward or a downward direction, I
have so arranged matters that the apparatus shall be thrown out of gear
when the tiller is sloped in either direction out of the horizontal; and
as we shall not require it when the ship is on or below the surface of
the ocean, I have here provided a small knob by pressing which inwards
the apparatus can also be thrown out of gear until it is again wanted."
"Excellent!" exclaimed the baronet. "I must again congratulate you,
professor, on your truly wonderful forethought. And what is this,
pray?"
"That," said the German, "is the controlling lever of the air-pump.
When we want to sink into the depths of the ocean, I thrust this lever
over--so; and the pump at once begins to pump air into the air-
chambers."
"_Out_ of them, I suppose you mean," interrupted the baronet.
"_Into_ them, I mean," insisted the professor. "You must understand,"
he continued, noting the baronet's look of astonishment, "that air, like
everything else, has _weight_. Feathers are light; but you may pack
them so tightly into a receptacle as to make them very weighty; and so
is it with air: the more air you force into a receptacle of given size
the heavier you make that receptacle; and, provided that both your
forcing apparatus and your receptacle are strong enough to endure the
tremendous pressure, you may at last force enough air into the
receptacle to sink it. And that is precisely what we shall do; we shall
force air into our air-chambers until the ship is on the point of
sinking, and we shall then close the valves, stop the air-pump, and,
opening the sea-cocks of the water-chambers, admit water enough into the
ship to send her to the bottom like a stone."
"Well! you astonish me, I freely admit," gasped the baronet. "This is
the first time I ever heard of a ship being sunk by filling her with
air. And then the cool way in which you talk of our `sinking to the
bottom like a stone!' I undertook this enterprise because I wanted to
experience a new sensation; and it appears to me that there are a good
many of them in store for me. However, it is all right; go on with your
explanations, my dear sir."
"These," said the professor, indicating several levers marked with
distinguishing labels ranged all along one side of the pilot-house, "are
the levers opening and closing the valves of the air and water chambers,
and need no further description. This," he continued, pointing to a
small box with a little knob projecting out of the top of it, "is the
apparatus for firing our torpedo shells."
The baronet glanced mutely round at his companions, and shrugged his
shoulders expressively, as who should say, "What next?"
The colonel and the lieutenant nodded approvingly, however, and the
latter said:
"That is capital, professor; we ought to have the means of fighting the
ship, if necessary; but I was beginning to fear you had overlooked that
matter, having seen no provision for anything of the kind. But where is
your torpedo port? you omitted to point that out to us when we were
under the ship's bottom."
"There was nothing to show," replied the professor; "and I can explain
the matter just as well up here as I could have done when we were down
below. The conical point which forms the extreme forward end of the
ship is solid and movable. Under ordinary circumstances it remains
firmly fixed in position; but when it becomes necessary to fire a
torpedo-shell the solid point is made to slide in along a grooved tube
for a certain distance; the shell is then placed in the tube and fired,
when the solid point follows it out and becomes again securely fixed in
its former position. In addition to this arrangement, I have two large
guns which can be worked through ports in the dining-saloon, and six
wonderful magazine rifles invented by a Mr Maxim, a friend of mine.
They are perhaps the most wonderful pieces of mechanism in the ship, for
when the first shot has been fired they will go on firing themselves at
the marvellous rate of six hundred shots per minute so long as you keep
them supplied with cartridges. Then I have also provided an ample
supply of ordinary guns and rifles, swords, pikes, pistols, and in fact
everything we are likely to require for the purposes of sport or
defence. These small knobs afford the means of lighting the electric
lamp in the lantern on the top of the pilot-house and those in the bow
and stern of the ship. And that is all to which I think I need direct
your attention here at present. Now, if you please, we will go down and
look at the machinery."
The party accordingly left the pilot-house and directed their steps
below by way of the grand staircase. At the bottom of this they found
themselves upon a spacious landing magnificently carpeted, and lighted
at each end by a circular window in the side of the ship. In front of
them as they descended the staircase, and at a distance of about twelve
feet from its base, a partition stretched from side to side of the ship,
evidently forming one of the saloon bulkheads. Along the face of this a
series of Corinthian pilasters, supporting a noble cornice at the
junction of wall and ceiling, divided up the partition into a
corresponding number of panels, which were enriched with elegant
mouldings of fanciful scroll-work and painted in creamy white and gold.
In two instances, however, at points which divided the partition into
three equal parts, the panels were replaced by handsome massively
moulded doors of unpainted aethereum, imparting a very rich and handsome
effect. These doors were, however, closed, and the curiosity of the
new-comers as to what was to be seen on the other side of them had to
remain for a short time ungratified.
Passing round to the back of the grand staircase (in which direction lay
the sleeping apartments, bath-rooms, and domestic offices) they found
themselves at the head of another staircase much narrower than the
former. The one now before them was only about four feet wide, winding
cork-screw fashion round the tube which encased the communications
between the pilot-house and the engine-room, etcetera, and it was in its
turn encased in a cylindrical bulk-head, in which, on their way below,
they passed several doors giving access, as the professor explained, to
the different decks.
Winding their way downward for a considerable distance they at length
reached the foot of the staircase and passed at once through a doorway
marked "Engine Room." The first sensation of those who now visited this
apartment for the first time was disappointment. The room, though full
of machinery, was small, absurdly so, it seemed to them. So also with
the machinery itself. The main engines, consisting of a pair of three-
cylinder compound engines, though made throughout of aethereum, and
consequently presenting an exceedingly handsome appearance, suggested
more the idea of an exquisite model in silver than anything else, the
pair occupying very little more space than those of one of the larger
Thames river steamers. The impression of diminutiveness and inadequacy
of power passed away, however, when the professor informed his
companions that the vapour would enter the high-pressure cylinder at the
astounding pressure of five thousand pounds to the square inch, and
that, though the engines themselves would only make fifty revolutions
per minute, the propeller, would be made, by means of speed-multiplying
gear, to revolve at the rate of one thousand times per minute in air of
ordinary atmospheric pressure.
"But how on earth do you manage to get your vapour up to that tremendous
pressure?" asked the colonel.
"Oh!" answered the professor, "that is a mere matter of mixing.
According to the proportions in which the crystals and the acid are
mingled together, so is the pressure of the vapour."
"And how do you mingle them together?" asked the lieutenant.
"This," said the professor, leading them up to a small boiler-like
vessel, "is the generator. The crystals are placed in a hopper at one
end, and the acid in that small tank at the other, from whence they are
respectively conducted along tubes into a small well in the bottom of
the generator, where, their proportions being regulated by the size of
the tubes through which they pass, they mingle and generate a vapour
having a pressure of five thousand pounds on the square inch. See,
there is the gauge, and it is now registering a pressure of five
thousand pounds."
"Good Heavens, man!" exclaimed the baronet, starting back; "you don't
mean to say that your generator is _now_, at this moment, subjected to
that enormous pressure of more than two tons per square inch? Supposing
it exploded, what would become of us?"
"We should be consumed in an instant by the fierce heat of the liberated
vapour," replied the professor calmly. "But," he continued, "you need
have no apprehension of an explosion. When that generator was being
made I had a second one constructed at the same time, precisely similar
in every respect, and this second one I tested to destruction, with the
satisfactory result that it endured without distress a pressure of
thirty-five tons per square inch, showed the first signs of weakness
when it became subjected to a pressure of thirty-eight tons, and burst
at a joint when under a pressure of forty-three tons per square inch.
You may therefore feel quite satisfied that the generator is fully equal
to a continuous pressure of at least fifteen tons, instead of the trifle
over two which it will have to sustain."
The remainder of the machinery possessing no very startling or novel
features, it was passed by with merely an admiring glance at its
exquisite finish; and the quartette, leaving the engine-room, passed
round on the other side of the spiral staircase to a room marked "Diving
Room."
Entering this they found themselves in an apartment about twenty feet
square, one side of which was wholly occupied by four cupboards labelled
respectively "Sir Reginald Elphinstone," "Colonel Lethbridge,"
"Lieutenant Mildmay," and "Von Schalckenberg."
"This," explained the professor, "is the room wherein we shall equip
ourselves for our submarine rambles; and here," opening one of the
cupboards, "are the costumes which we shall wear upon such occasions."
The opened cupboard contained an ordinary indiarubber diving-dress, a
sort of double knapsack, a number of heterogeneous articles, and,
lastly, a suit of armour.
"Why, professor, what, in the name of all that is comical, is the
meaning of this? Are we to walk forth among the fishes equipped like
the knights of old?" asked the baronet, pointing to the armour.
"I will explain," said the professor. "In an ordinary diving-dress a
man can only descend to a depth of something like fifteen fathoms.
Instances have certainly occurred where this depth has been exceeded, a
Liverpool diver named Hooper having descended as far as thirty-four
fathoms, if my information is correct; but this was quite an exceptional
circumstance; and, as I have said, fifteen fathoms may be taken as the
average depth at which a man can move about and work in comfort. The
reason for this limit is that beyond it the pressure of the water on the
exposed hands is so great as to drive the blood to the head and bring on
a fainting fit, if nothing worse; besides which, the volume of air
inside the dress necessary to counteract the outside pressure of the
water would be so great as to speedily result in suffocation. Now, if
our explorations were limited to a depth of fifteen fathoms only they
would hardly be worth the undertaking; so I have devised these suits of
armour, in which we may safely explore the profoundest depths of the
ocean to which the _Flying Fish_ can penetrate. The armour is, as you
see, composed of a number of small scales or plates of aethereum, and is
so constructed that, whilst it is perfectly flexible, permitting the
utmost freedom of movement to the wearer, it is also absolutely water-
tight and incompressible, no matter how great the exterior pressure to
which it is subjected. The wearer of it will consequently be perfectly
protected at all points from the enormous water pressure; and he will be
able to breathe in comfort, his air being supplied to him at the normal
atmospheric pressure. In equipping himself the diver will first don the
india-rubber diving-dress in the usual way. Then he will assume this
double-haversack, the larger chamber of which, worn on the back, will
contain a supply of air, whilst the smaller of the two, worn on the
chest, is charged with a supply of chemicals for the purification of the
air after it has been breathed. The two are connected together by a
pair of flexible tubes, as you may perceive, and the mere expansion and
contraction of the chest, in the act of breathing, sets in motion the
simple apparatus which produces the necessary circulation of air between
the two chambers. Having secured this haversack in position the diver
next dons his body armour, and straps about his waist this belt, with
its electric lamp and its dagger. The dagger, as you see, is double-
bladed; it has a haft of insulating material, and the blades have
connected to them this insulated wire at the point where the blades and
the handle unite. You thus have a weapon which, on being plunged into
the body of a foe, not only inflicts a severe wound, but also
administers an electric shock of such terrible intensity as must result
in instant death. The last portion of the armour to be assumed is the
helmet, on the top of which is securely fixed an electric lamp, which,
with the aid of the one at the belt, will give us, I imagine, as much
light as we are likely to need.
"Having donned our armour we pass out of this chamber into the next,
which I call the chamber of egress, carefully closing the door behind
us."