04 Volcano Adventure (9 page)

‘What are they going to do?’ asked Roger.

‘Make a survey. You see, that ship belongs to the Hydrographic Office in Tokyo. You understand what that means?’

‘Not quite,’ admitted Roger.

‘ ‘Hydro’ means water and ‘graphic’ means to write. It’s the business of a hydrographic office to write down information concerning the waters - oceans, lakes, rivers. The charts Captain Ike is using were made by the U.S. Hydrographic Office. The Japanese make similar charts and when a new island appears they have to send out scientists to measure it. They find out how long it is, how wide it is, how high it is, how deep the sea is around it and so forth. All this information will appear on the next chart that is printed. Ships’ captains wouldn’t dare sail without these charts - so you see how important the work of the hydrographers is.’

‘I don’t see any new island.’

It’s hard to see because of the smoke. Take these binoculars and look Just at the foot of the cloud. Now can you make it out?’

‘Oh, that big black thing! I thought that was a cloud. Why, it must be a mile or two long. And a couple hundred feet high.’

‘And growing every minute,’ put in Dr Dan. ‘And a week ago there wasn’t anything there but water. Captain, suppose we sail around the island.’

‘Okay,’ said Captain Ike, ‘provided we keep at a respectable distance. I’m not hankerin’ to lose my ship.’

It was a strange passage as the Lively Lady sailed through a sea of floating fish and the clouds of screaming birds.

Most spectacular were the leaps of the makos. The mako is the greatest jumper of all sharks. Catching sight of fish on the surface, they would come up from the deeps at terrific speed, snatch their food and, unable to stop, would shoot ten or fifteen feet into the air. Then they would come down with a heavy splash and disappear.

One shot up so close to the ship that when he fell he nearly struck Roger who was standing at the rail. Roger jumped back just in time. The big shark smashed the rail to smithereens, then fell into the sea.

Hundreds of birds, too full to swallow anything more, perched on the masts and rigging and on the upper edges of the sails and whined mournfully at the sight of so much food that they were unable to eat.

A changing wind made the gigantic column lean over the ship. Ashes and cinders began to shower down upon

the deck. Many of them were burning hot and started small fires which the men quickly put out.

Captain Ike came back to speak to Dr Dan. The captain’s face was drawn and anxious.

‘Doc, how soon can we get out of here? I don’t like this a bit.’

Dr Dan looked up from his instruments and notes. ‘I’d like to watch this a while longer. It’s very interesting.’

‘Interesting my hat!’ grumbled Captain Ike as he went forward. He could not understand the scientific man’s passion for acquiring knowledge about the strange forces of nature.

The wind carried the smoke over the ship and the sun was obscured. It grew as dark as evening although it was not yet noon. The gases that were mixed in with the smoke and steam made the men choke and cough. The birds flying above were overcome by the gas and began to fall in showers upon the deck.

Through the half-dark could be seen the Kaiyo Maru sailing close to the volcanic island. Then a cloud of steam and smoke hid it from view.

Suddenly the sea began to shake violently and the ship trembled and bounced.

‘Earthquake,’ said Dr Dan. There was a rumbling sound that steadily grew louder. It was like the roll of drums in a great orchestra. It became deafening and Roger clapped his hands over his ears.

Up it seemed to come from the centre of the earth, up, up, rolling louder and louder, until it ended in a gigantic crash that seemed as if it must be enough to blow the world apart.

A monstrous fountain of fire burst up out of the sea and climbed up into the cloud. A blast of hot air struck the ship and heeled her so far over that her starboard rail was under water. The men clung like monkeys to the rigging. The ship righted herself with difficulty.

‘Point her up!’ Dr Dan shouted to the captain. ‘Tidal wave coming.’

Such an eruption was bound to start a tremendous wave. It would have to be faced head-on. The Kaiyo Maru, closer to the volcano, would feel it first.

Dr Dan strained his eyes to catch sight of the other ship. Billows of steam rolled aside and he saw it, wallowing in a bad sea. The ship was broadside to the volcano. She was evidently trying to come around to point in, but would she have time to make it before the big wave arrived?

‘I’m afraid that ship is in for trouble,’ Dr Dan said. ‘There comes the wave.’

Even without binoculars Hal and Roger could see it -a towering bank of solid water rushing from the eruption towards the Kaiyo Maru. It buried the ship completely out of sight, then came tearing on to do the same for the Lively Lady.

But by the time it arrived it had lost part of its power and the little ship had turned and was ready to take it head-on. The men had lashed themselves fast. They took a long breath as the water thundered down upon them, for it was the last breathing they would be able to do for awhile. They were under twenty feet of water. This was deep-sea diving without any of its pleasures. They felt the water tearing past them, trying to wrench them from their fastenings.

Dead birds that had been lying on the deck were picked up by the flood and flung in their faces.

It was the longest sixty seconds they had ever known before the little ship came up like a submarine and rode on the surface once more.

Dr Dan’s first thought was for the Kaiyo Maru.

‘There she is!’ he cried. ‘Bottom up. Captain…’

But Captain Ike did not need to be told to go to the rescue. He had already had the Lively Lady moving towards the wreck. Only the upside-down keel of the Kaiyo Maru could be seen. As they came nearer they could see bits of wreckage floating in the water with a few men clinging to them.

But only a few. Where were all the rest? There had been a crew of twenty-two, and nine in the scientific staff. Most of them must be imprisoned inside the ship.

Another big wave, smaller than the first, rolled in. When it had gone by there were still fewer men clinging to wreckage. Would the Lively Lady be in time to save anyone?

The great blast of fire had started hurricane winds. They came straight for the Lively Lady as if determined to prevent her work of rescue.

The Japanese ship was settling lower and lower. Finally it disappeared beneath the waves carrying its prisoners with it.

Now only one man could be seen, clinging to a spar.

The tumbling waves dashed him here and there, but he hung on. The Lively Lady hauled in close to him. A line was flung, but failed to reach.

Before it could be thrown again, the wind picked up the Lively Lady and tossed her back on her haunches, then spun her round and carried her swiftly out to sea. So lightly did it spin her along that she might have been a chip instead of a ship. In vain did Captain Ike try to bring the helm around. Nothing that man could do was equal to the strength of the hurricane.

Not till they were far out to sea did the wind suddenly drop; then a dead calm succeeded it.

‘Shall we go back after that man?’ Hal asked.

‘No use,’ said Dr Dan. ‘I saw him go under just as the wind struck.’

The tragedy weighed heavily upon their hearts. How sadly the news would be received in Tokyo. But a message must be sent, and Dr Dan sent it.

From Tokyo it was relayed to the hydrographic offices of other nations. So it happened that some weeks later the following notice appeared in the U.S. Hydrographic Bulletin:

KAIYO MARU

The Hydrographer notes with deep regret the sinking of the Japanese Hydrographic Office survey vessel Kaiyo Maru, with the loss of all on board.

The Kaiyo Maru had been dispatched to survey the newly-discovered Myojin Reef which had appeared as a result of a volcanic explosion. In addition to her regular complement of twenty-two,

under the command of Capt Harukichi, she carried nine scientists, including Dr Risaburo Tayama, Chief of the Surveying Section; Mr Terutoshi Nak-amiya, Chief of the Oceanographic Section; Mr Minoru Tsuchiya, Assistant Chief of the Surveying Section; and Dr Kiyosuke Kawada, Assistant Professor of Tokyo Education University. Aside from a few pieces of wreckage, no trace of the vessel has been found. It is presumed that volcanic action contributed to the loss of the ship.

The Hydrographer expresses the condolence of the United States Navy Hydrographic Office to the Japanese Hydrographic Office and the families of the men who gave their lives in the advancement of science and marine safety. In this disaster, the maritime world has suffered a severe loss.

The notice was boxed within a heavy black line. That black border meant sympathy, the sympathy one man has for another, no matter whether they be of the same nationality or the same race. For men of science the world around know only one race - the race to learn the facts of the universe, and they will let no danger stop them in their quest for truth.

‘Who would have thought there could be so many volcanoes under the ocean?’

Hal was perched in the crow’s-nest with Dr Dan. From this point high up the foremast of the Lively Lady they could see spurts of steam rising from the sea. They looked like the spoutings of whales but really came from underwater craters. There was a constant rumbling sound and the smell of sulphur. Rocky islands dotted the ocean.

They are called the Volcano Islands,’ Dr Dan said. ‘You can’t see some of them because they are under the surface. We are sailing over an island right now.’

‘Sailing over an island!’

‘Yes. It poked its head above the waves in November 1904. It was a rocky island with a circumference of two miles and had a fine pumice-stone beach. These islands were Japanese at that time and Japan was very proud of her new island. But it lasted for only two years, then

sank out of sight.’

‘See that smoke on the horizon ahead? Perhaps it’s a steamer.’

‘No, I think it’s another volcano. Its name is Uracas. While some islands are sinking, that one is rising. It’s already more than a thousand feet high and still growing.’

They did not reach Uracas until late at night. The boys tumbled out of their bunks and came on deck to look at it.

Ashes were showering down on the deck. The ship was trembling from the shock of the explosions. Uracas was a thousand feet of fire, topped by a column of smoke that went up several thousand feet more.

The mountain wore a white-hot coat of flowing lava that sizzled and roared as it struck the sea. The illuminated mountain lit up the sea for miles.

The volcano was shaped just as one would imagine a volcano should be, tapering steeply up to the crater. Its perfect toboggan-slopes were kept smooth and straight by the frequent flow of lava and ashes.

Roger was puzzled. ‘What’s that at the top - snow?’

It did look as if the volcano were wearing a cap of snow. ‘White sulphur,’ said Dr Dan.

The streams of blazing lava ran down over the white cap and then over the coal-black cinder slopes to the sea. The steam that rose when the lava struck the water glowed with the light from the blazing stream so that the whole volcano seemed to be floating on a bed of fire.

The glowing column of smoke turned and twisted like the tongue of a great dragon licking the night sky. Every few minutes another explosion came, throwing up fiery gobs of lava and burning ashes into the cloud.

‘Sea captains call it the lighthouse of the Pacific,’ Dr Dan said. ‘They use it to check their bearings. It can be seen more than a hundred miles away - its column of smoke by day and its pillar of fire by night. Have you ever heard of Stromboli? It’s called the lighthouse of the Mediterranean. It stands in the sea near Naples and throws up blazing lava every ten minutes. Ships find it very useful to guide them to the port of Naples. Uracas is just like it.’

Again, a few days later, Dr Dan announced that the ship was sailing over a sunken island.

‘it was called Victoria Island,’ he said, ‘in honour of Queen Victoria. It became part of the British Empire. A man named Marsters landed on the island with a gang of men to gather guano, bird droppings, valuable as fertilizer. They went away with a heavily loaded ship. A year later they came back but they couldn’t find their island. They sailed right over the position of the island as we are doing now. They thought something must be the matter with their reckoning, so they searched the sea in

every direction for a hundred miles. It was no use. Mr Marsters was very sad about it because the guano on that island was worth thousands of pounds. Perhaps some day it will come up again and the first man to get there may make a fortune.’

‘I’d like to go down and take a look at a sunken island,’ said Hal.

‘Well, that’s just what we’re going to do tomorrow morning, when we get to Jack-in-the-Box.’

‘Why do they call it Jack-in-the-Box?’

‘Because it pops up and down. Its proper name is Falcon Island because it was discovered by the British warship Falcon in 1865. A lively volcano kept spouting lava and rocks until it had formed an island three miles long. Since it was near the Tonga Islands the King of Tonga claimed it and the Tongans danced all night in honour of the new island that the god of the sea had given them. Soon after that it disappeared.’

‘That must have made the Tongans pretty sore.’

‘It did. They held a scolding party and they all scolded the sea god. That didn’t bring back their island. So they made a doll to look like the sea god and they poked it with spears and burned its fingers and toes. They thought if they tortured the sea god enough he would give them back their island. It didn’t work. Then they decided to be nice to the sea god and perhaps he would be nice to them. They went to the shore and sang songs telling the sea god what a good fellow he was. They threw their best food into the sea for the god.

‘Perhaps the way to a god’s heart is through his stomach. Anyway in 1928 the submarine volcano began to spout and up came the island again. Once more the Queen claimed it and the Tongans celebrated. The sea god was generous this time and kept piling up the island until it was six hundred feet high.