Explore the bottom of the ocean in the vicinity of the island with my
submarine boat. Discover pearl-oysters, and invent a great improvement
to my boat.
I arose early the next day, and started in my canoe, accompanied by my
two goats, to the mouth of Stillwater Cove. It was a beautiful day, and
one just suited for my purpose. I had made up my mind to make my way
out of the cove into the open ocean, and along the coast line of the
breakwater, taking care, if possible, not to get too near in, so as
to be troubled with the undertow. To enable me to do this I was first
obliged to land on the breakwater, and with my compass to lay out some
of the bearings and directions of the land and shore line--so as to be
able to make a kind of chart--upon a piece of birch bark that I had
brought for that purpose, to enable me to find my way back into the
cove, or, missing that, at least to bring up somewhere on the shores
of Perseverance Bay. Having gotten everything arranged, I went on
board of my boat, which I found floating and in perfect order, having
first recovered my anchor in the stream and taken that also on board.
Once in the interior I shipped the hanging shelves and distributed the
weights in their usual places. My goats evidently took everything as
a matter of course, and quietly remained where I had fastened them,
near the treadmill. I put my movable deck in good order, saw that my
fresh water, provisions, and candles were all right, with a bundle of
hay for the goats also. I then carefully examined all the stopcocks,
the steering apparatus, and spray-wheel, and finding everything in
order, and a fine, sunshiny day overhead, I made fast the "Fairy" to
a ringbolt on the outside of the boat, and paid out a long scope of
rawhide rope, so that I could sink at least forty fathoms without
drawing her after me. Then, giving one more look at everything, and
lighting a candle in case I should need one in any emergency, I shipped
my propeller, attached the band to the treadmill, cast off my moorings,
started the goats, and got under way, standing out in a westerly
direction into the ocean.
As soon as I was clear of Point Deliverance, and when about a hundred
fathoms seaward to the eastward, I changed my course to the northward,
all this time moving along with the manhole wide open, out of which
I often looked to see how I was proceeding, and in what direction to
steer. But I had scarcely got the head of the boat to the eastward
before a heavy sea broke all over me, and came dashing down the
manhole, but did me no harm, falling back, as it did, in the interior,
into its own element. The inside deck was rather spattered, to be sure,
and the goats evidently began to be surprised, if not frightened, at
the motion of the boat, and I saw that the time had come to submerge
it; but I kept on, for I was determined to keep above the surface, if
possible, till I found myself opposite the place on the breakwater at
which I had first been cast on shore, and which I well knew; for it was
there that I determined to make my first descent, and see if I could
not find some remains of the articles that were in the whaleboat when I
was cast away. So to keep out the water I closed the manhole cover, but
once in a while ran up the ladder, opened it and looked about me, till
I at last found myself opposite the spot, and not more than a quarter
of a mile distant.
I then, by a word, stopped the goats, and shut down the cover of the
manhole, and screwed up the set-screws, opened the water-pipe, and
placed my hand upon the air-tank stopcock and allowed some of the air
to escape. In one instant the boat that had before been buffeting about
upon the billows was as quiet and steady as a rock. I did not descend
far before I shut off the escape of air, and sat down to think. In the
first place I saw that by a series of experiments I could easily, in
the future, tell just how far I was descending by the rise of the water
inside of the boat upon the sides of the tanks; for, as I descended,
the pressure upon the air was of course increased, and therefore
compressed, so that the water rose higher within, and nearer to the
movable deck.
Having examined my compass I started the goats again, and made for
the outside of the breakwater, hoping to strike the very place where
the whaleboat had formerly been destroyed. As I advanced towards the
shore I found that I was not deep enough down to see the bottom, so
I again descended till I could plainly see it below me, not ten feet
distant. I spoke to my goats and had them relax their speed, and moved
slowly forward. The bottom laid out to my view was composed of sand,
rocks, and an infinite variety of sea plants. How can I expect to
convey to anyone the beauties of this submarine view. The water--by its
transparency and the light that I obtained by reflection--could not
have been more than six fathoms deep, and in fact I knew that it was
in that neighborhood, for I had often, in my canoe, been outside of
the breakwater before, fishing and for other purposes, and I knew very
nearly what water I ought to have.
Although anxious to explore I could not resist the temptation to stop
and gaze upon the beauties that lay before me, in all their marvellous
freshness, unseen before by the eyes of mortal man since their creation
by the Almighty. Many of the plants before me, that seemed like
sparkling gems, I knew well would look so only as they now stood, in
their native garden, surrounded by water, and that, taken from the
element or cast on shore, would fade ten times quicker than any land
plant. Fishes of various sizes darted in every direction, and simply to
please my own conceit I deliberately dropped a line amongst them and
captured several, which I again allowed to escape. But even in my own
solitude I could not help smiling at the idea of a mortal man sailing
along at the bottom of the ocean and capturing its denizens at his
leisure,--the thing was too comical.
Although I had stopped the goats, my boat still had a motion, or rather
I should say that I could see that the tide was drifting it sideways
to the northwest, but very slowly, not more than a knot an hour. I
think that I could have sat hours and looked upon this scene. It was
like a new world opening up before me. Everything was plain, for no
ripple blurred the surface of the water in the interior of my boat, and
no wind of heaven rushed over it to destroy, for a moment even, its
transparency. It was as still and motionless as death, and as quite
large rocks and new objects seemed to pass by below me, I was sometimes
startled at their beauty and grandeur. It was a panorama. I seemed to
be stationary, fixed, as immovable as the foundations of the earth; and
these objects passed in review before me exactly as if moving along in
space. It was difficult to disabuse my mind of the fact that I was not
stationary, but that the objects upon which I was gazing were. This
feeling was increased in a marked degree by the absolute stillness and
want of motion, in itself, of my submarine boat.
I hated to break in upon this deathlike silence by the motion of my
propeller, but I was being swept by the tide slowly away from my
destination, and it would not do to proceed too far, so as to lose the
true course by compass. Reluctantly then I spoke to my goats and put
the boat in motion, and proceeded upon my way. I had not advanced,
far when I perceived that I was entering a perfect forest of submarine
plants and kelp, the long tendrils of which, sustained by the water,
reached upwards towards the surface. I saw that I was upon dangerous
ground, and therefore stopped the treadmill and reversed my propeller,
and backed out from my position. I then rigged my pump and made the
boat ascend so as to pass over their heads, and again forced the boat
towards the breakwater, but this time I found that I was getting into
the undertow, and the forest beneath me warned me not to descend; so
I had nothing to do but to back out seaward and give up all idea of
exploring the place of my shipwreck.
When I had pushed back so as to be clear of the tangled plants that
seemed to surround the margin of the island on this side, I commenced
again to descend, and allowed the boat to rest within a few feet of the
bottom, and, rigging my spray-wheel, went to work to renew and purify
my air, which I had no difficulty in doing. I then moved about in
different directions, taking care all the time to keep a reckoning by
my compass of the courses sailed and the distances passed over, by dead
reckoning. During one of my stationary moments I had a complete view of
as large a shark as I have ever seen. He passed directly beneath me,
and took no more notice of the boat than if it had been a stationary
rock. He was at least sixteen feet in length, and would have made but a
mouthful of poor me.
[Illustration: THE SUBMARINE BOAT.--PAGE 243.]
I wish that I could describe the sights that I saw. It seemed as if I
was in another world, and had passed from this existence to one more
advanced, in which I floated in space. The extreme silence of all
about me, and the rigidness of all objects seen, was very striking. At
each moment some beautiful fish or plant struck my view, of which I
had never before had any knowledge. I moved about in all directions,
trying to find, if possible, some bank of pearl-oysters, and I had a
good idea of how they ought to look, for I had once, in my younger
days, descended with the divers in the East Indies to the pearl-oyster
beds, and knew the whole practical science of the business. At last,
at a point by compass and dead-reckoning about northeast from Point
Deliverance, and distant two miles, I came upon what I wanted,--or
rather what I hoped was what I wanted,--namely, a perfect bank of
oysters, in thousands, clustered together. My first act was, after
stopping the boat, to throw over a light anchor, to hold it in
position; the next to cast into the water a small grapnel, to which was
attached a long piece of rawhide rope, fully forty fathoms in length,
ending in a wooden buoy, shaped like a tenpin in a bowling-alley, and
of about the same size. This, after dropping the grapnel, by means of a
short boat-hook I thrust under the tank of the boat, and saw it rapidly
take up the spare line as it ascended towards the surface. And as it
was so ascending it flashed upon me that here was also a practical way
of determining at all times the depth of water; for this buoy only
took out about seven or eight fathoms of the line before it became
stationary, evidently having reached the surface. I used this buoy to
anchor the reef, so as to be able to find it in future trips, when I
had only to stand out towards it, on pleasant days, on the surface of
the water, and, when I found it, descend and find myself on the reef.
And for measurement of my depth below the surface I had only, in
future, to fasten a light, buoyant piece of wood to a small cord,
marked off into fathoms, which I could at any time thrust under the
tanks and allow to ascend to the surface, and note how many of the
fathoms of line were taken up, which would denote my depth below the
surface, and then draw my sounding-buoy back again into the boat for
further use, simply reversing the method that is used on shipboard.
That is to say, instead of throwing a lead with a marked line to the
bottom of the ocean, I threw a buoy to the surface. Nature seemed to be
capsized, and everything upside down, as used to appear in using the
inverted telescope in my first attempts to take the altitude of the
sun with a sextant. If I had not lived so solitary a life I could have
laughed at many of the things that befel me in this submarine boat.
Having gotten the boat securely anchored, and the buoy thrown out as I
have related, I went to work gathering the oysters. I had taken care
to bring with me a light pickaxe, a crowbar, and a sort of hand-rake,
similar to ones used by East Indian divers, which I proceeded to
employ upon the mass of oysters below me. I had no difficulty in
detaching all I wanted of them, and filling my decks, and particularly
the hanging shelves, which I relieved of their stones and weights,
replacing them by masses of the oysters. I made a long job of this,
and, having gotten all I desired, I drew up my anchor and got again
under way, ascending as near as possible to the surface before
advancing towards the land. During all this time, whenever necessary, I
had renewed my air by use of the spray-wheel.
Being near the surface, which I was made aware of in several ways, such
as the increased light, the disappearance of the bottom from view, and
a slight noise of the waves above me, and a little motion of the boat,
caused by their agitation, I put the goats at full speed, feeling sure
that for at least two miles nothing was in my way. After I had, as
I calculated, gone this distance, I slowed down, and proceeded more
cautiously; but after an hour's work I made no land, nor found any
great shallowing of the water. Here was a pretty scrape. By my chart I
was past Stillwater Cove, and even in the interior of the island, and
not a sign of the land or shallow water could I find. I began to be
seriously troubled, and I foresaw that unless I soon made some shallow
water I should be obliged to dive under my tanks, and look about me and
see where I was. But before I did this I descended and anchored, and
found out for the first time that I was at last in a strong current,
setting towards the westward. This frightened me still more, and I
ascended at once, stripped off the little clothing that I had on, and
plunged into the water and came up buoyant as a cork on the surface,
and pulled the canoe towards me and got into it without much effort.
One glance showed me what the trouble was. I had gradually, during the
whole day, drifted to the westward, and had passed West Signal Point,
and was, in the direction I was pursuing, leaving the island on the
port hand, behind me. One glance in the open air cleared my brain, and
gave me a true idea of where I was, for I confess that the many courses
that I had sailed beneath the surface had rather confused me.
Taking one more good look about me, I plunged into the sea under my
tanks, and was again inside my boat, which I speedily started in the
right direction, and in less than two hours made shallow water, when I
once more had to dive out of the boat and look about me, when I found
that I had made a pretty good landfall, as I was in Perseverance Bay,
not more than a quarter of a mile from the mouth of Stillwater Cove,
having overrun it; and as I was so near home I dove back again, started
the goats, and soon had the pleasure of finding myself in the cove,
some part of the bottom of which I already recognized; and I foresaw
that if I should make many trips I should be able to recognize the
bottom just as easily as one recognizes familiar objects on land.
I stranded my boat in the usual manner, and waited for the tide,
which was now at an ebb, to leave the top exposed, for the buoyancy
of the boat was not very great from my frequent use of the air-tank
stopcock. During this time I busied myself in casting the oysters to
the bottom, and then moving the boat, which was thus lightened, a
little to one side, so that, when the tide returned, the former would
be exposed clear of the boat. I then unshipped the movable shelves
and put everything in order in the interior, and sat down and ate a
hearty meal, after which I tried the manhole, which, by the pressure
of the tanks upon the sand, I felt confident was above the surface,
which proved to be the fact. I soon had the goats ashore, who seemed
to be glad to escape from the confinement of the boat, and gambolled
about me. I waited patiently for the tide to go down far enough for me
to get at my oysters, which I conveyed to the land, above high-water
mark, and, sitting down, commenced with my knife to open one or two of
them. I think it was the third that I was opening when my knife-blade
struck against something that made my heart beat. I laid open the
oyster, and there within it, nestled near to the upper shell, was as
beautiful and perfect a pearl as anyone could desire to see. It was not
very large,--perhaps the size of a common pea,--but of a pure cream
color, and of perfect oval form. I knew at once that it was a jewel
of value and price, and I carefully hid it away in my clothing. This
prize sufficed me. It proved to me the importance of my discovery, and
I was determined that the sun should do the remainder of the work for
me, and therefore left the oysters where they lay, to be made putrid by
exposure, when the pearls that they might contain could be very easily
washed out.
I was not wholly satisfied with my boat. I did not like the idea of
having to dive overboard to find out where I was, as I had had to
to-day, and I commenced racking my brains to overcome it; and at
last I accomplished it in theory, and it may be as well to state
here that it served me perfectly when put in practice on many future
occasions, and in fact almost took the place of the spray-wheel. It
was this. I arranged, in the first place, a sort of air-boat, in the
shape of the half shell of an English walnut, but shallower, nearly
four feet in length. This boat was made of very thin sheet-iron, but
perfectly airtight, and upon it was lashed, in a horizontal position,
a cylinder of sheet-iron, closed at one end and open at the other, a
foot in diameter, and in length the same as the shallow, airtight,
walnut-shaped boat that sustained it. At the end of this boat, just
below the mouth of the cylinder, was affixed a solid iron ring, and
to this was spliced a strong rawhide rope of great length. To utilize
this machine I made two long bars of iron, which I could arrange in
the interior of the boat, across its greatest diameter, in the form of
the letter V, pointing downwards towards the bottom of the ocean, and
at the point of contact was arranged a block through which the rope
attached to the air-boat could be rove. This inverted derrick, in the
form of a letter V, was still further braced by another bar, leading
to one of the short diameters of the boat, in the interior, forming
a tripod. To use the air-boat I had only (at any time when beneath
the surface and in need of air, either to purify that surrounding me
or obtain enough to force the boat out of water on the surface, after
having used up the air in the tanks) to reeve the rawhide rope through
the derrick, as above, and erect the same in an inverted form, pointing
towards the bottom, and then put the air-boat in the water in the
interior of the submarine boat, force it bodily down in a horizontal
manner till the cylinder was filled with water, and then start the
goats so that the rope attached to the nose of the air-boat, leading
down to the inverted apex of the tripod, through the block, and thence
to the drum of the treadmill, would be tautened, and cause it to erect
itself in a perpendicular manner, and be forced down under the water
towards the apex of the tripod. When submerged enough to clear the
bottom of the tank I slackened the rope gradually, pressing it at the
same time out and clear from the tank, and yet keeping enough strain
upon it to prevent its touching the latter; when, as soon as it was
clear, I slacked the rope wholly, to allow it to arise to the surface
outside, which it rapidly did on account of the confined air in the
air-tight shell. Of course immediately upon its arrival at the surface
it righted itself, and presented the appearance, on a small scale, of
a barrel with one head out, placed in a horizontal position upon a
small sled or vessel. In this position all the water that had been in
the cylinder was at once discharged, and, to get a measure of fresh
air exactly equal to the dimensions of this cylinder, I had only to
set the goats to work, to take the rope to the drum of the treadmill,
the first effect of which was to depress the nose and open mouth of
the cylinder on the air-boat, at the surface, and the next to drag it
down under the water in a perpendicular position, with the cylinder
charged with air, which could not escape. As soon as it appeared clear
of the outside of the tank, against which it rubbed in its descent,
and was brought down near to the inverted apex of the tripod, I
commenced slacking the same rope till it arrived at the surface of
the water within the submarine boat, when I cast off the rope and it
righted itself violently, discharging at the same time the contents of
the cylinder in the shape of new air, and I had only to repeat this
process of conveying fresh air from the surface to obtain all I needed,
taking care only, in sending the apparatus to the surface, to see
that, when the air-boat was first pointed under water ready to ascend,
it took back with it none of its precious freight, which was easily
obviated when it was held in a semi-perpendicular state, and half
submerged ready to ascend, by pushing upon the part out of water till
it was forced into a horizontal position, the air from the cylinder
discharged, and replaced by water, when, after descending towards the
connecting points of the tripod and pushed clear of the side tank, it
was allowed to ascend to the surface, discharge the water, and descend
again filled with air.
With this apparatus I found that I could even compress the air in the
interior, and in many future expeditions I had no trouble in making
my submarine boat, at any time, self-sustaining on the surface of the
water, and I could by a little labor come to the surface, open my
manhole, and look about me and see where I was.
[Illustration: THE AIR BOAT.]