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UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE
Or
The Strange Cruise of the Submarine Wonder
BY
ROY ROCKWOOD
AUTHOR OF "THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE," "THE
RIVAL OCEAN DIVERS," "A SCHOOLBOY'S
PLUCK," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK CUPPLES & LEON CO.
GOOD BOOKS FOR BOYS
BY ROY ROCKWOOD
* * * * *
=THE GREAT MARVEL SERIES=
THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE
Or The Wonderful Cruise of the Electric Monarch
UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE
Or The Strange Cruise of the Submarine Wonder
Cloth. Illustrated
Copyright, 1907, by
CUPPLES & LEON CO.
* * * * *
UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. WILL THE SHIP WORK? 1
II. A LAND OF ICE 10
III. RUNNING DOWN A WAR SHIP 19
IV. IN THE MIDST OF FIRE 27
V. A GRAVE ACCUSATION 35
VI. ON A RUNAWAY TROLLEY 43
VII. OFF FOR THE SOUTH POLE 52
VIII. ASHORE IN THE DARK 60
IX. A PRICE ON THEIR HEADS 68
X. ATTACKED BY A MONSTER 75
XI. CAUGHT IN A SEA OF GRASS 84
XII. FIRE ON BOARD 92
XIII. THE GHOST OF THE SUBMARINE 100
XIV. DIGGING OUT THE SHIP 108
XV. THE STRANGE SHIPWRECK 117
XVI. THE GHOST AGAIN 126
XVII. ATTACKED BY SAVAGES 134
XVIII. ON LAND 143
XIX. REGAINING THE SHIP 152
XX. ON A VOLCANIC ISLAND 160
XXI. CAUGHT IN A WHIRLPOOL 169
XXII. UNDER FIRE 177
XXIII. CAUGHT IN AN ICE FLOE 185
XXIV. THE SHIP GRAVEYARD 193
XXV. CAUGHT BY SEA SUCKERS 201
XXVI. LAND UNDER ICE 211
XXVII. ATTACKED BY AN OCTUPUS 220
XXVIII. OUT OF THE ICE 228
XXIX. THE BOILING WATER 235
XXX. THE SOUTH POLE--CONCLUSION 240
UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE
CHAPTER I
WILL THE SHIP WORK?
"Hand me that wrench, Mark," called Professor Amos Henderson to a boy
who stood near some complicated machinery over which the old man was
working. The lad passed the tool over.
"Do you think the ship will work, Professor?" he asked.
"I hope so, Mark, I hope so," muttered the scientist as he tightened
some bolts on what was perhaps the strangest combination of apparatus
that had ever been put together. "There is no reason why she should not,
and yet--"
The old man paused. Perhaps he feared that, after all, the submarine
boat on which he had labored continuously for more than a year would be
a failure.
"Is there anything more I can do now?" asked Mark.
"Not right away," replied the professor, without looking up from the
work he was doing. "But I wish you and Jack would be around in about an
hour. I am going to start the engine then, and I'll need you. If you see
Washington outside send him to me."
Mark left the big room where the submarine boat had been in process of
construction so long. Outside he met a boy about his own age, who was
cleaning a rifle.
"How's it going, Mark?" asked this second youth, who was rather fat,
and, if one could judge by his face, of a jolly disposition.
"The professor is going to try the engine in about an hour," replied
Mark. "We must be on hand."
"I'll be there all right. But if there isn't anything else to do, let's
shoot at a target. I'll bet I can beat you."
"Bet you can't. Wait 'till I get my gun."
"Now don't yo' boys go to disportin' yo'seves in any disproportionable
anticipation ob transposin' dem molecules of lead in a contigious
direction to yo' humble servant!" exclaimed a colored man, coming from
behind the big shed at that moment, and seeing Mark and Jack with their
rifles.
"I s'pose you mean to say, Washington," remarked Jack, "that you don't
care to be shot at. Is that it?"
"Neber said nuffin truer in all yo' born days!" exclaimed Washington
earnestly. "De infliction ob distress to de exterior portion ob--"
"The professor wants you," interrupted Mark, cutting off the colored
man's flow of language.
"Yo' mind what I tole yo'," Washington muttered as he hurried into the
work room.
Soon the reports of rifles indicated that the boys were trying to
discover who was the best shot, a contest that waged with friendly
interest for some time.
The big shed, where the submarine ship was being built, was located at a
lonely spot on the coast of Maine. The nearest town was Easton, about
ten miles away, and Professor Henderson had fixed on this location as
one best suited to give him a chance to work secretly and unobserved on
his wonderful invention.
The professor was a man about sixty-five years old, and, while of simple
and kindly nature in many ways, yet, on the subjects of airships and
submarines, he possessed a fund of knowledge. He was somewhat queer, as
many persons may be who devote all their thoughts to one object, yet he
was a man of fine character.
Some time before this story opens he had invented an electric airship in
which he, with Mark Sampson, Jack Darrow and the colored man,
Washington White, had made a trip to the frozen north.
Their adventures on that journey are told of in the first volume of this
series, entitled, "Through the Air to the North Pole, or, The Wonderful
Cruise of the _Electric Monarch_."
The two boys, Mark then being fifteen and Jack a year older, had met the
professor under peculiar circumstances. They were orphans, and, after
knocking about the world a bit, had chanced to meet each other. They
agreed to seek together such fortune as might chance to come to them.
While in the town of Freeport, N. Y., they were driven away by a
constable, who said tramps were not allowed in the village. The boys
jumped on a freight train, which broke in two and ran away down the
mountain, and the lads were knocked senseless in the wreck that
followed.
As it chanced Professor Henderson had erected nearby a big shop, where
he was building his airship. He and Washington were on hand when the
wreck occurred and they took the senseless boys to the airship shed.
The boys, after their recovery, accepted the invitation of the professor
to go on a search for the north pole. As the airship was about to start
Andy Sudds, an old hunter, and two men, Tom Smith and Bill Jones, who
had been called in to assist at the flight, held on too long and were
carried aloft.
Somewhat against their will the three latter made the trip, for the
professor did not want to return to earth with them.
The party had many adventures on the voyage, having to fight savage
animals and more savage Esquimaux. They reached the north pole, but in
the midst of such a violent storm that the ship was overturned, and the
discovery of the long-sought goal availed little. After many hardships,
and a fierce fight to recover the possession of the ship, which had been
seized by natives, the adventurers reached home.
Since then a little over a year had passed. The professor, having found
he could successfully navigate the air, turned his attention to the
water, and began to plan a craft that would sail beneath the ocean.
To this end he had moved his machine shop to this lonely spot on the
Maine coast. The two boys, who had grown no less fond of the old man
than he of them, went with him, as did Washington White, the negro, who
was a genius in his way, though somewhat inclined to use big words, of
the meaning of which he knew little and cared less.
Andy Sudds, the old hunter, had also been induced to accompany the
professor.
"I hunted game up north and in the air," said Andy, "and if there's a
chance to shoot something under the water I'm the one to do it."
Needing more assistance than either the boys, Andy or Washington could
give, the professor had engaged two young machinists, who, under a
strict promise never to divulge any of the secrets of the submarine, had
labored in its building.
Now the queer craft was almost finished. As it rested on the ways in the
shed, it looked exactly like a big cigar, excepting that the top part
was level, forming a platform.
The ship, which had been named the _Porpoise_, was eighty feet long, and
twenty feet in diameter at the largest part. From that it tapered
gradually, until the ends were reached. These consisted of flattened
plates about three feet in diameter, with a hole in the center one foot
in size.
Weary months of labor had been spent on the _Porpoise_, until now it was
almost ready for a trial. The professor had discovered a new method of
propulsion. Instead of propellers or paddle-wheels, he intended to send
his craft ahead or to the rear, by means of a water cable.
Through the entire length of the ship ran a round hole or shaft, one
foot in diameter. Within this was an endless screw worked by powerful
engines. With a working model the professor had demonstrated that when
the endless screw was revolved it acted on the water just as another
sort of screw does in wood. The water coming in through the shaft served
as a rope, so to speak, and the screw, acting on it, pulled the craft
ahead or to the rear, according to the direction in which the screw was
revolved.
The submarine was a wonderful craft. It contained a powerful engine,
electric motors and dynamos, and machinery of all kinds. The engine was
a turbine, and steam was generated from heat furnished by the burning of
a powerful gas, manufactured from sea water and chemicals. So there was
no need to carry a supply of coal on the ship.
The interior of the vessel was divided into an engine-room, a kitchen,
combination dining-room and parlor, bunk rooms, and a conning tower, or
place for the steersman.
While the boys had been shooting at the target the professor and
Washington had been putting the finishing touches to the engine,
tightening nuts here and screwed up bolts there.
"I guess that will do," remarked the old inventor. "Call the boys,
Washington."
The colored man went to the door and gave three blasts on a battered
horn that hung from a string.
"Coming!" called Mark, as he and Jack ceased their marksmanship contest
and approached the shed.
"Now boys, we'll see if she works so far," said the professor. "If she
does, we'll give her a trial under water."
At the inventor's directions the boys started the gas to generating from
the chemicals. Soon the hissing of steam told them that there was power
in the boiler.
The professor entered the engine-room of the submarine. He looked over
the various wheels, levers, handles, gages and attachments, satisfying
himself that all were in proper shape and position.
"Three hundred pounds pressure," he muttered, glancing at the steam
indicator. "That ought to be enough. Are you all ready, boys?"
"All ready!" cried Jack.
Of course the test was only one to see if the engine worked, for the
boat could not move until in the water.
The professor opened a valve. The steam filled the turbine with a hiss
and throb. The _Porpoise_ trembled. Then, with a cough and splutter of
the exhaust pipes, the engine started. Slowly it went at first, but, as
the professor admitted more steam, it revolved the long screw until it
fairly hummed in the shaft.
"Hurrah! It works!" cried Mark.
"It does!" chimed in Jack.
"Gollyation! She suttinly am goin'!" yelled Washington.
"I think we may say it is a success," said the professor calmly, yet
there was a note of exultation in his voice.
"Now that you've got her started, when are you goin' to put her in the
water an' scoot along under the waves?" asked Andy Sudds.
"In about a week," replied the professor.
"And where are you goin' to head for?" went on the hunter.
"We're going under the ocean to the south pole!" exclaimed the inventor,
as he shut off the engine.