ON THE GOLDEN TRAIL
Imagine the surprise of the boys the next morning when they appeared
at the Emerson wharf to report to Captain Austin to find a trim little
submarine craft hugging the quay, her hatches open forward and aft to
admit her crew, the exhaust of her gasoline engines fluttering from the
rear.
"Must be some mistake here; I never knew they explored the bottom of
the sea from a submarine," exclaimed Dick in some surprise.
The boys had expected to find some craft of an altogether different
nature. The submarine was a new one on them.
"It's the _Nemo_, all right," said Jay, pointing out the name of the
vessel on the prow.
Captain Austin was standing near the conning tower directing various
members of the crew as they prepared to cast off and head out of the
harbor.
"Good morning, boys, come right aboard," he called out, noting the
arrival of the new members of his crew.
Jay and Dick were soon on deck chatting with their captain, noting that
Larry Seymour had already arrived. The three boys were assigned to the
diving work exclusively and so had nothing to do with the navigation of
the craft. In turn Captain Austin introduced the new arrivals to other
divers aboard.
"This is Mr. Weddigen--Carl Weddigen--also a new man," said the captain
as a huge hulk of a fellow lurched forward when his turn came.
Jay was almost too dumbfounded to speak. The fellow facing him was none
other than the big bully he had knocked down the previous afternoon in
the corridor of Superintendent Brown's office.
Weddigen backed away, refusing to extend his hand.
Jay smiled. "I guess we have met before," he remarked dryly.
Dick and Larry were on the point of bursting into a hearty guffaw, but
restrained themselves.
"What's the idea?" asked the amazed ship captain, noting how Weddigen
was reddening.
"I guess Mr. Weddigen can speak for himself," was Jay's only answer,
not wishing to create a scene right at the outset of the new adventure.
"Well, that's rather extraordinary," began the captain.
"Just a little unpleasantness that we had yesterday," added Jay, "But
we'll forget it now for the good of the cause."
"I hope things will be all right, for he is a very fine diver,
according to my information, and can stand a lot with his big physique,
so I am told," explained the captain.
"The matter's a closed incident so far as I am concerned," offered Jay.
And so the incident was closed, except for knowing glances exchanged
among the newest additions to the ship's personnel.
Soon the _Nemo_ had backed away from her moorings and was headed out
into Long Island Sound, the most of the divers and those members of the
crew not actually engaged in the ship's navigation standing out on deck
in enjoyment of the balmy spring morning.
"I guess you would not be averse to knowing something about this
craft," began Captain Austin after a half hour's run. He had strolled
forward to where Jay, Dick and Larry were watching the backwash of
the water as the steel prow of the _Nemo_ sliced its way forward with
knife-like precision.
Indeed they would! The three veterans of the war, two of whom had
quite a fund of submarine knowledge from their own experiences abroad,
were wondering what the _Nemo_ was like. Was it possible that the
submersible was a diving bell from which divers could make their exit
while it lay on the ocean bed? Were trap doors opened and the pressure
of sea water held in abeyance by dense volumes of compressed air?
Or did divers go down from the deck of the submarine just as from
any other craft? If so, why the submarine, with its narrow, cramped
quarters, in preference to any other type of vessel?
These were some of the questions flitting through their minds as they
embarked on their first treasure-hunting voyage.
The whole thing was soon to be unfolded by Captain Austin.
"With this craft we do most of our locating," he began. "By that I
mean that we are here equipped with special apparatus for finding the
lost ships. Many a salvaging company has found that it is one thing
to explore a sunken ship or even raise it, but quite another thing
to actually locate the submerged ship. It is one thing to know the
approximate position where a ship has been sunk, but another thing to
know the exact spot. Some charts may give you the exact spot where a
ship has foundered, but this spot may measure five miles or more, and
if the ship is located in any channel or such parts of the ocean where
there is an undertow or heavy undercurrents, the ship will soon be
covered with sand, moss or barnacles, and hard for divers to locate."
Plainly, this new salvage company must have some new method of finding
ships all their own. The boys were keenly interested and awaiting
eagerly the explanation.
"There are several ways to locate lost ships," resumed Captain Austin.
"Divers can be sent down with powerful flashlights, but this is a
lengthy procedure, and very often takes weeks of patient search. Then
again, grappling irons or anchors may be dragged from the salvage
ship. This is even less satisfactory than sending down divers. But the
Bridgeford Company has a new scheme all its own. And now you shall see."
The _Nemo's_ captain climbed into the turret and motioned the boys to
follow him below deck. Dropping straight down into the heart of the
ship the boys followed the captain into a small compartment that he was
pleased to style "the listening post."
"In here we listen for lost ships just as you listen for the voice of a
friend over the telephone. How does that strike you?"
While in the Navy Jay and Dick had come to know only too well how
the microphone was used to hear other vessels, and how it had been a
powerful means in the overthrow of the U-boats and the safeguarding of
American troops bound for Europe. The microphone listened for moving
vessels and was acquainted with their movements because the swish of
the propeller blades was borne into the listening device of the Yankee
craft.
But how could a salvage ship "listen" for a helpless wreck lying
foundered on the bottom of the sea? They were soon to know. Captain
Austin conducted them first into the forward hold and showed them
another compartment with a massive winch used to raise or lower an
object in the water under the keel. Taking them aft he showed another
compartment equipped as was the one forward.
"We use the so-called Hughes balance," explained the skipper as the
boys gathered close to him in order to hear above the whirr of the
throbbing engines. "They are two massive rings suspended by cables and
raised or lowered at will by the winches. These rings or cups are
wound with copper wire. The lower windings connect with an ordinary
telephone receiver while other spools are in series with a microphone
and three dry cells. This makes a sensitive instrument."
Dick, who was somewhat of a mechanic, was beginning to see light.
"When these induction coils are trailed through the water from
underneath the _Nemo_ the telephone receiver in the control station
gives no sound as long as the two balances move through the water,"
continued the captain. "But the minute one of them comes within the
vicinity of a wreck, the electrical balance will be disturbed and
the telephone will sound its warning to the operator. The nearer the
balances come to the wreck the louder the sound. All you have to do is
cruise back and forth near the spot where the sunken vessel is supposed
to lie, and sooner or later the faithful induction balance will find
the wreck."
"How do you judge for the depth?" asked Dick.
"The depth of the ocean naturally varies more or less," the captain
explained further. "If a deeper strata is encountered the induction
balances must be lowered further in the water than in cruising in
shallow water. Not only will the induction balance give the exact spot
where the ship is located, but it will give the precise location even
though the lost ship is covered with sand or silt."
"But how do you determine the depth? Do you drop a plumb line, or
have you a new method of depth sounding?" persisted Dick, who was
taking an engineering course at Brighton preparatory to studying
electrical engineering at college. Naturally he was interested in every
engineering problem.
Captain Austin smiled whimsically.
"That is another of our new processes," he added after a moment's
reflection. "Echo--that's the answer in a nutshell."
The captain led the way to the ship's marimeter, a cylindrical
contrivance that looked as though it might house a compass or a
binnacle lamp.
"The marimeter works on the principle of electricity controlled by
sound vibration," the captain expounded in his competent fashion. "A
sound wave is sent out from the bottom of the vessel by mechanical
means and the instant this sound is started it is picked up
electrically and relayed to the recording instrument and the dial of
the latter begins to register. The sound wave travels to the bottom
of the ocean and returns in the form of an echo, and this echo is
also picked up by the diaphragm in the bottom of the boat and is also
relayed by electricity to the recording instrument, causing the pointer
to stop immediately. Sound travels at practically a uniform rate in the
water, at about 4000 feet a second. The depth is measured by accurately
taking and recording mechanically the time for sound to travel down and
back. The depth is shown on the dial in fathoms, and four soundings may
be made per minute."
It all sounded so simple, and yet what a wonderful contrivance as
against the old-fashioned method of taking deep-sea soundings. To
demonstrate Captain Austin took an electrical sounding for his new
protegées and in a few seconds the "echo" had returned from the bottom
of the Sound, showing a depth of ten fathoms.
For some hours, under the guidance of the ship's skipper, the trio
of newcomers thoroughly inspected the _Nemo_. This plainly was the
"prospecting" boat of the salvage company's fleet. It went out and
staked the claim and then called on the full facilities of the fleet
for completion of the job.
Captain Austin, completely won by the honesty and candor of his new
friends, and acting under instructions of superintendent Brown, took
the boys entirely into his confidence.
"I do not mind telling you that we are after high stakes this trip," he
told them. "An English steamship, the _Dominion_, was sunk off Martha's
Vineyard late in 1916. She had among her cargo a quantity of gold
bullion and South African diamonds. She took fire after being shelled
by a German submarine and was making a run for the coast when she went
down. She is between two and three hundred feet down and it is our job
to look her over for the next few days and report back to Bridgeford on
our findings."
The news of impending action was joyously received by Jay and Dick, who
declared they were ready on a moment's notice to take their first dip
into the blue for their new employers. What! thirty dollars a day, and
the chance to win a percentage on any treasure actually reclaimed! It
was a wonderful opportunity, to their minds.
"Better take a look over your diving equipment and see that everything
is all right," suggested the ship's captain. Jay and Dick accordingly
went thoroughly over their outfits during the next few hours, finding
suits, shoes, helmets and air-line connections quite up to the standard
of the latest improved diving equipment.
It was a lively crew that spent the warm spring evening above decks on
the _Nemo_ as she worked her way steadily on her course toward Martha's
Vineyard, off the New England coast. By morning they would have arrived
at their destination--ready for the adventure!
A sense of eager expectancy pervaded the snug little "sub." Although
Captain Austin had not shared his confidences broadcast as he had with
his new divers the men seemed to divine that they were out for real
business this time. They were for the most part singing merrily and
glad to be in on the big game of treasure hunting.
"Tomorrow morning we'll be back at the old stunt again," mused Dick.
"Rocked in the cradle of the deep."
"Hope we get the first peep at the poor old _Dominion_," said Jay.
Although this was a dangerous calling the two navy veterans had come to
look upon it by now as any other ordinary duty.
"Only thing I don't like about this outfit is that fellow Weddigen,"
reflected Jay.
"You mean the fellow you punched on the jaw?" Jay nodded.
"Well, just let him start something and we'll show him where he's at,"
snapped Larry Seymour, who had just strolled up.
"Yes, I reckon we can take care of that gent if he is inclined to
get frisky," remarked Dick meaningly, convinced in his own mind that
Weddigen was some kind of a tough customer who was playing his own
little game in this adventure.