03 Underwater Adventure Read Online Free Page A

and fire as you please?’ That’s right,’ said Blake
    Skink smiled at Hal. It looked to everyone else like a friendly smile, but Hal knew what it meant. Skink intended to see to it that Hal and his brother were fired. Then there would be no one to tell tales.
    ‘Besides collecting specimens,’ went on Dr Blake, ‘we’re supposed to keep an eye out for sunken ships.’
    Roger snapped to attention. Here was something to catch a boy’s fancy. Treasure ships?’ he exclaimed. ‘Well, yes, you might call them treasure ships, although the main thing the oceanographers and historians want is not treasure, but information about how men lived and sailed in the old Spanish days. You see, from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth, all these islands were owned by Spain. So were the Philippines. Spanish ships, loaded with the gold of the Philippines, used to come by here, stopping for food and water at these islands, and sailing on to the coast of Mexico, which was also Spanish. There the cargo would be transported overland, then reshipped to Spain. Because the ships could touch at Spanish territory all along the way, it was safer than taking the other route around the world.
    ‘But these old galleons were none too seaworthy, and many of them went down - along with all the interesting things they carried in their cargo. Some people think that stories of sunken treasure are just stories, but the truth is that thousands of ships lie at the bottom of the sea, waiting to be found. A large proportion of the Spanish losses were along this route because it lies in the path of the typhoons. Few of them have been located because diving technique wasn’t good enough. But now, with all the new diving inventions, the aqualung, undersea sled, bathyscope, and the rest, we ought to be able to do a lot better.’
    They went on deck. It would not do to dive too soon after eating. So they stood by the rail and looked down to the colourful hills and valleys of the coral landscape, indistinct now because of the depth.
    ‘It’s another world,’ Blake said. ‘Nothing like it in the top world. I’ve been diving for twenty years. Sometimes I think I feel more at home down there than up above. It grows on you. At first it seems strange and perhaps a little terrifying. There are dangers, of course, but there are dangers in crossing a city street. After nearly getting knocked down by flying taxicabs, it’s a relief to sink into a world of quiet and peace. Have you ever read Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea?’
    The boys nodded. They had all read it.
    ‘Then you remember that when one of the crew of the Nautilus died, they buried him at the bottom of the sea. I’ve often thought of that. It’s just what I would want.’ Skink laughed a little but Blake went on, ‘I’m quite serious. I have no wife or children, nothing to draw me back to the land. If anything should happen to me, I could ask for nothing better than to be put away in a quiet coral garden like that one.’
    He laughed as he noticed their sober faces.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘I’m not moving down for quite a while yet. Now, let’s get out the gear and plan the day’s work.’
    The scorpion in the helmet
    It was decided that Hal should go down in a diving suit. Dr Blake considered the diving suit old-fashioned, but there were times when it must be used. The diving suit was an old story to Skink, and Roger was thought too young to risk its dangers.
    Hal admitted that he had never been in a suit and could do with a little practice.
    Dr Blake ordered Captain Ike to move the schooner to a deeper part of the lagoon.
    While this was being done, a heavy rubber diving suit, heavy copper helmet, and still heavier leaden boots were brought on deck. Then came a great coil of lifeline and a still bulkier coil of air-hose. Then a pump, and a compressor.
    A scorpion that had been hiding among the gear skittered away across the deck, its slender tail and