Underwater Adventure by Willard Price

Author:Willard Price [Price, Willard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The mystery of the sunken ship

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.

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