03 Underwater Adventure (12 page)

‘It’s the Santa Cruz!’

There’s no doubt about it,’ Blake said as he climbed on board. ‘It’s the ship we’re looking for. Sunk three hundred years ago and still in beautiful condition!’

It was too good to believe. Roger said doubtfully, ‘I should think a wooden ship sunk three hundred years ago would be rotted away by this time.’

‘Not at all/ Blake said. ‘You have to remember that the wood has been sealed away from the air all this time. If you bring some of it up into the air it will shrink and begin to decay rapidly. But so long as it is protected by the sea it will last not merely three hundred years but a couple of thousand. You know the book, The Silent World,1 by Captain Cousteau, the man who invented the aqualung. He tells of finding at the bottom of the Mediterranean the Galley of Mahdia which sailed from Greece in 80 b.c. The wooden decks and hull were still tight enough to hold together all the ship’s art treasures which have since been transferred to the Museum Alaoui in Tunis. There were so many of them that they filled five’ rooms in that museum. Among them are some of the ship’s ribs made of Lebanon cedar and covered with the original yellow varnish.’

‘Does cedar stand salt water better than any other wood?’ Hal inquired.

‘Not necessarily. You probably saw in the papers a few months ago the story of the National Geographic expedition to bring up the treasures of a Greek ship that sank around 230 b.c. They found the wood rubbery and tunnelled by shipworms but reasonably sound after nearly twenty-two hundred years at the bottom of the sea. The ship was built of Aleppo pine, Lebanon cedar, and oak. The Santa Cruz is built of teak, another fine wood. So it’s no wonder that she’s still in pretty fair shape.’

Upon Blake’s orders, Captain Ike sailed the ship the half mile or so to the point where the little red flag bobbed up and down on the waves. There he dropped anchor.

Blake, Hal, Roger, and Skink strapped on their aqualungs. It took longer than usual, for their fingers were crazy with excitement. Beneath them lay a ship loaded with treasure worth perhaps half a million. It was enough to make your fingers fumble over the buckles.

Captain Die drew Blake to one side.

‘Are you going to let Inkham go poking around that wreck?’

Blake was surprised. ‘Why not?’

‘l don’t trust him.’

‘I don’t either. But I fail to see what harm he can do.’

‘Don’t you remember what he said - that if you found any treasure he would take it for himself?’

Blake laughed. ‘Now be sensible, Captain. How can he make off with any treasure? You don’t suppose he’s going to swim away with it? And he has no ship. What can he do?’

‘I don’t know,’ the captain admitted. ‘But I bet he knows. He’s a sly one. I don’t trust him. He’s threatened to grab the treasure and kill you. I don’t think he was fooling. If I had my way I’d keep him locked up in the storeroom until we can put him on the plane.’

‘I think his bark is worse than his bite,’ Blake said. ‘Don’t worry, Captain. We’ll keep an eye on him. We won’t let him walk off with the Santa Cruz.’ He grinned and hoped to see a responsive smile on the face of the kindly old sea dog. But Captain Ike only grunted and went off shaking his head.

The four explorers, with waterproof electric torches hooked to their belts, swam down, following the buoy line. At first they could see nothing below. Then the stumps of three masts appeared. They were bare, the rigging and sails having long since crumbled away. Then two strange towers could be seen and, last of all, the deck that connected them.

On their previous descent Blake and Hal had landed on the bottom beside the ship and had gone around it. Now Blake made straight for the deck and the others followed. In a moment they were standing on planks that had known no foot for three centuries.

The deck was covered with algae, sponges, hydrozoa, and gorgonias. Swarms of fish drifted about, for water

creatures of all kinds seem to have a passionate affection for old wrecks. The bulwarks were high and a full three feet thick and pierced with holes for cannon. The cannon themselves lay on the deck, heavily upholstered in seaweed and coral.

Roger stooped to look into the mouth of one of the cannon but was drawn away by Hal who knew that cavities of this sort were exactly the kind of home preferred by the octopus.

What made Hal doubly suspicious of these cannon was the pile of stones and coral blocks in front of the mouth of each, almost closing the entrance. Those piles could not have fallen in place so neatly - they must have been put there by someone or something. And he knew that it was the habit of the octopus to retreat into a hole, then draw stones up to cover the opening, all except a gap just large enough for a tentacle to shoot out and seize its prey. Then the octopus would emerge to do battle, tumbling the stones out of its way.

With a quick movement of his hand Hal caught one of the pipefish that swam lazily around him. Holding one end of the long slender body, no bigger than a walking-stick, he dangled the other end in front of a canyon mouth. For a moment nothing happened. Then a tentacle shot out, seized the fish, and attempted to draw it into the hole. Hal hung on. After futile efforts to bring the fish to it, the octopus came to the fish, darting out of the cannon’s mouth and flinging all eight tentacles around is victim. Hal thought it was time to let go and step out of the way.

He watched the octopus consume its prey, then slink back into the cannon and draw the stones up to the entrance.

Hal found himself alone. While he had been studying this little drama the others had moved aft. He wondered how he could spend time over a couple of animals when there was half a million dollars in treasure under his feet. Perhaps after all he was more of a scientist than a treasure hunter.

He followed the others. They were approaching one of the two towers that loomed up at either end of the ship. These the old mariners called castles, and they did indeed look like castles. The one at the bow was three stories high with many windows and rich ornament. The stern castle was even finer, broader and taller, rising to four stories. The forward castle, probably used by the crew, was plain as compared with the magnificent stern castle where the officers and passengers had been quartered. On either side of the stern castle rose a splendid bronze lantern that any museum would value as a priceless relic.

The door from the stern castle to the gun deck had fallen away. The aqualungers entered the dark interior and turned on their torches. There was a scraping, swishing sound as dozens of small octopuses retreated into the corners, their angry eyes fixed on the intruders.

Staying close together to defend each other in case of attack, the men moved farther into the large room. In its centre stood a long heavy table securely bolted to the floor. The walls were lined with cabinets with leaded glass doors. With some effort Blake pulled open a door and would have gasped, if he could have done so without losing his mouthpiece, when he saw the silver and gold and ceramic platters, plates, goblets, cups, beakers, pitchers, and bowls. Even if they found nothing else in the ship, here was fabulous treasure.

Dr Blake took out one of the platters and, having no polishing rag, rubbed it on the seat of his bathing trunks. Instead of the grey film that had covered the dish there now appeared a magnificent design of knights on horseback done in what appeared to be yellow gold, white gold and gunmetal.

Skink pressed forward and ran his fingers over the design. His hand was cramped in a curious way so that it looked like the claw of a bird. But he did not object when Dr Blake replaced the platter in the cabinet.

They climbed an ancient stairway, pausing now and then to give the frightened octopus population time to move out of the way.

Some of the beasts walked off daintily on the tips of their tentacles, while others shot away by jet propulsion.

The second floor and third floor seemed to be given over to individual cabins. The doors were closed and the explorers did not try to wrench them open but left them for later attention. They went on up to the fourth story.

Here they came out into a single large room, magnificent in its proportions and decoration, and surrounded by small, cunningly designed windows clouded on the outside by marine growth. This may have been the captain’s cabin or, when the governor was on board, was doubtless assigned to him.

Skink suddenly started back in terror. The others turned their torches in his direction and found him staring at - could they believe their eyes? - a man in full armour seated in a great chafe..

He sat at ease and seemed to be very much alive although one could not see his face behind the visor of his helmet. He did not rise to greet his visitors but seemed to be studying them with sardonic humour. Perhaps he was enjoying their surprise at finding him there, a Spanish Rip Van Winkle three hundred years old, and to all appearances as healthy and happy as when he had last seen the light.

Skink, who was a bundle of superstitions, began to shake and had to sit down on a chest. The others tried to put on a bold front - but even they started back in fear when the old don began to smoke his pipe. What else but a pipe or cigar inside that helmet could cause the fine column of black smoke that was coming out through the visor!

All that was needed now to terrify the beholders was for the man to move. And this he presently did.

A smile broke over the face of the helmet; one corner of the mouth went up in a one-sided grin. On up it went until the appearance was fantastic. Now it was like one prong of a moustache poking its way out of the helmet.

Hal started forward and brought his beam to play full upon it. It was the tentacle of a small octopus that had made the helmet its home. Doubtless the black smoke had come from the same creature.

The tentacle waved about languidly as if it were the tip of a long moustache being stroked by invisible fingers. Then it slowly retreated again inside the helmet.

Hal’s foot struck something on the floor. He turned his light downward and discovered two more mailed figures lying on the deck. One of them was cramped as if he had died in agony. Beside each figure lay a sword, its outline clearly defined through a film of slime.

Men did not ordinarily wear armour on shipboard -except in war, or an attack by pirates. Or to fight a duel. That seemed to be the explanation in this case.

But why did the man in the chair also wear armour? Perhaps he was to fight the winner. The ship had sunk just in time to save him the trouble.

Whatever the solution of this mystery, one thing was clear - these three magnificent suits of ancient armour would be prized possessions of the Metropolitan Museum. At least this was clear to three of the onlookers. The fourth, Skink, may have had other thoughts.

Finding that the three apparitions were neither living men nor ghosts, he crept forward to run his covetous fingers over the gold inlay in the steel helmet of one of the fallen warriors, over the neck guard and shoulder pauldrons, the handsomely engraved breastplate, the bulging elbow cops, the rich embossed gauntlets, the greaves that had encased the legs and the footgear made of narrow plates of flexible steel.

With the back of his sheath knife, Dr Blake prised open one of the several chests in the room. It was full of marble and porcelain statuettes of great beauty. Another contained two gold peacocks set with jewels. Another contained nothing at all but a little deposit on the bottom, all that remained of fine fabrics, perhaps tapestries, perhaps clothing.

At one side of the room was a large bed and at its foot was - of all things! - a silver bathtub.

Dr Blake was startled to see an almost naked man stretched out in it until he noticed who the man was. It was mischievous Roger who hopped up, laughing so hard that he almost lost his air.

What a task it must have been to fill this tub! It was quite innocent of plumbing and must have been supplied by means of buckets laboriously carried up three flights of stairs. Then the ship had found a way to avoid all this bother. She had only to sink to the bottom of the sea and the silver bathtub would remain full for ever without trouble to anyone.

Blake led the way down to the gun deck and found a companionway descending into the hold. Here there were larger members of the octopus family, but so long as they were not trapped or cornered or otherwise annoyed they did nothing but glare at the intruders. There were also many big fish that had come in through broken hatches.

The hold was filled with household goods and treasures of fine design and workmanship. Some were Philippine in origin, some Chinese, some Indian, but most of them had evidently been imported from Spain to outfit the governor’s mansion in Manila and had, after his resignation, been on their way back to Spain when the ship sank. There were bronze and stone lanterns, crystal chandeliers, marble statues, large golden vases, a bronze sundial, more efficient timepieces in the form of highly ornamented clocks and bulky watches of the old style with hour hand only, their dials being covered with enamel. There were chests and chests and chests of miscellaneous articles, swords, rings, buckles, chains, necklaces, unset jewels, slugs of pieces of eight, golden doubloons, gold and silver bullion and coins.

At one place the hull beneath their feet was wrenched open and the sand of the sea bottom pushed through. That told the story of the sinking of the Santa Cruz. Unwieldy because of her heavy castles, she had been twisted by the storm until the strakes of her hull parted and let in the sea. A chest had broken and tumbled its load of gold pieces into the hole.

Skink moved to pick up some of it but Blake gestured that it should be left as it was.

Skink was puffing so hard with excitement that he exhausted his main air supply and had to press the lever that gave him his last five-minute reserve. Blake,-realizing that all the tanks must be nearly empty, signalled the ascent. The four masked figures soared up through an open hatch, rose to the broken tops of the masts, hung there for a few minutes to adjust to the change in pressure, then continued to the surface and climbed on board the Lively Lady.