Over the course of two days, they gradually increased their length of time on each dive by fifteen minutes. Each time learning to better coordinate with their respective partners as a team.
By the third day, the divers were in sync enough to make it all look routine. And during that time they all became a unit. Playing cards in the evening, listening to music at dinner, building on friendships with idle chatter.
A week flew by before Jackson announced he’d found the most likely spot. The crew gathered around a digital screen in the command center while he pinpointed the area on his chart. “I’m going to suggest we alter course and turn three degrees eastward. Here.”
“That’s minor, but could be critical to homing in on the exact spot,” Mitch said, punching in the change to coordinates. “No problem.”
“This has to be it,” Jackson went on. “You guys have been diving all around it, maybe even got within forty yards a couple of times. But because visibility is so poor, you didn’t see this man-made variance sitting at a forty-five-degree angle. This is where we should explore first.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Mitch stated. “Raine and I will go in for the first three hours. Anniston and Garret after that, Prentiss and Blaine next when they come off watch. Walsh and Jackson will remain on board at all times, unless we encounter a problem in the water, and then they’re our backups.”
Mitch grabbed Raine around the waist. “Ready to dive where it counts?”
“You bet. That’s what I came for.”
After making the course adjustment, Mitch and Raine donned wetsuits and stood on the dive platform shouldering their tanks.
Mitch eased off the side first, dropping into the cold ocean waters before Raine plunged after him.
They began their descent into the dark depths of the sea as several curious fish swam by.
Raine tapped his arm, pointed to a small blue shark that took a couple of laps around them, not quite sure what they were. But after its third lap it spotted a squid and took off after its lunch.
Raine watched the scene play out and thought how calm and lovely the sea could be one minute and exceedingly dangerous the next.
This past week had been sheer bliss. In her heart she knew she’d found what she was meant to do. Nothing before this had ever called to her quite as strong as being on the open sea.
Without thinking, she reached out and touched Mitch’s arm just for the contact. This wasn’t a dream world, but rather one where she might actually experience adventure for the first time in her life. The icing on the cake was the person swimming next to her. The one person in her life she’d truly loved. Since that first day she’d spotted him standing in the hallway in kindergarten, practically sucking his thumb, he’d been her best friend.
Beside her, Mitch noticed the joy on her face even with the mask. He’d never seen her look as beautiful as she did now, so at peace with her surroundings.
It struck him that he could never leave her again.
When he glanced up he couldn’t believe his eyes. Ten yards ahead was U-492, listing at a forty-five-degree angle on her side, partly covered in several layers of sand. Mitch took out his underwater camera, snapping pictures while Raine swam around the hull, filming the damage and looking for a safe way to enter.
After getting enough footage, they headed back to the top, completing their dive stops along the way to decompress.
Back on the boat, Mitch had everyone gather in the command center to pour over the stills, one by one, and then watch the video from start to finish.
“It’s obvious the sub suffered from an internal explosion. See the damage toward the rear. The impact was in the engine room. It goes outward, not inward,” Mitch noted. “And all the hatches, except for two, were open. We could see inside one of the forward torpedo tube doors. We found two floating Torpedo mines known as TM mines, entangled outside on the bow. I’m sure someone pushed the TMs out of the tube so the crew could escape that way before the boat went down. At least that’s my take. We’ll have to give these mines a wide berth for now until we figure out how to either disarm them or somehow safely detonate them.”
Jackson studied the photos and the layout of a similar class U-boat he’d found online. “I’d say the safest entry point is through the conning tower hatch. It looks to be clear of any obstructions.”
Mitch agreed. “Then I think the next step is to do a test run dive with the ROV to ensure that we’re safely able to enter the sub.”
“One of the dive teams will have to get close enough to launch the smaller ROV through the conning tower hatch,” Jackson suggested.
Mitch glanced at Raine, who lifted a shoulder. “It’s okay with me if you volunteer us for the job. I can handle it.”
“There you go,” Mitch told the crew. “We’ll take it down and scout the interior of the sub for any hidden dangers. Plus, once it’s inside, it’ll provide you guys with a live feed, so you’ll know what’s happening down there every step of the way.”
That afternoon Garret and Walsh lowered two underwater scooters, harnessed together and equipped with an emergency drive switch in case anything went wrong with the remote drive.
They also dropped in a sled that could be attached to the scooters. It would act as a trailer, which would allow hauling anything back they found useful on their first trip, or subsequent trips.
The scooters had a range of six miles on cruise speed and could run more than three hours before shutting down. They added reserve air tanks on the sled as a precaution in case they needed extra.
After going through their dive preparations, everyone stood on deck and watched as Mitch and Raine disappeared below the waves.
They reached the sandy bottom without any problems and carefully made their way around the wreck until they were in a position to launch the remote into the sub.
Back on board the boat, the live feed kicked in. Jackson watched as the ROV slowly made its way through the hatch and down into the conning tower. He recognized the control room with its wall of gauges and valves. The little remote operating vehicle cruised past the navigator’s table and the periscope.
All of a sudden a small tiger shark swam by and bumped the ROV, causing it to hit the controls belonging to the electrical engines.
Mitch pressed his com button. “Don’t worry, I’ll put it back on course to head into the main walkway toward the officers’ quarters.”
“Roger that,” Jackson said from above.
Swimming behind him, Raine watched as her dive partner used the controller to steer the remote back on track. Through her com she reported back to the ship. “The ROV easily made it through the watertight hatch into the main walkway. It’s passing into the small radio room. Very cramped space in here. I don’t know how those guys did this. Garret, you definitely wouldn’t like these close quarters.”
“I’m getting claustrophobic just thinking about it,” he joked.
She watched as small fish darted in and out of the dark corners. The light and movement from the ROV sent small sea creatures diving for cover.
The ROV sent back feed from the sonar room and beyond, passing through the officers’ mess. Raine saw broken cups and dishes still lying in a heap on the floor. Of course it was all covered in a fine layer of seaweed and silt.
She kicked past a gallery of pictures on the wall. Watery blurred images of 492’s crew and its officers, even one of Hitler.
From the officers’ mess she followed Mitch and the ROV into the junior officers’ quarters with bunks on both sides of a wall where a small two door closet still contained personal items.
Mitch had to stop the ROV as its light revealed a watertight compartment door locked shut and still sealed that led to the crew’s quarters and the forward torpedo room.
Mitch pressed his com button. “Did anyone spot anything we need to take a closer look at because we’ve hit a dead end?”
“We’ll review the tape,” Jackson said. “But I didn’t catch anything tha
t looked like what we’re looking for.”
Mitch worked the controls to turn the remote device around and head back the other way. “Okay, we’re going back to the control room to explore the rear part of the boat.”
The ROV retraced its path back through the control room, stopping twice to explore the dark compartments it hadn’t captured on the way in.
“Are we clear to enter?” Mitch asked.
Jackson studied the images. “I don’t see a problem. You’re all clear.”
Mitch and Raine moved through the opening and into the cramped control room.
“I wouldn’t have lasted a day in here without going crazy,” Raine stated. Everywhere she looked there were gauges with broken glass and damaged panels.
She hoped they didn’t come across any bodies. She already knew from the log there had been men who hadn’t made it out.
Mitch checked the ROV before sending it through the aft watertight hatch and toward the engine room. The ROV passed a small one-man galley with what look like a Coleman stove you would use for a camping trip. It had a compact refrigerator crammed into the small space.
He spotted a large overhead valve for the air supply that ran on a line to the diesel room. Curious, he checked the gauges and found them turned to the off position. Had there been a fire in the engine room?
The ROV moved on to where more bunks hung on the walls. She spotted the first remains of a crewman. All that was left of the unlucky man was a skeleton with a few tattered shreds of clothing clinging to the bones along with his uninflated escape vest.
Raine had a hard time getting the skull—with its haunting eye sockets—out of her head. She wondered how old he’d been. What had been his last thoughts as he died in the dark depths of the ocean so far away from home?
“There’s still no sign of anything that looks like it could hold boxes of gold coins or bars,” Mitch reported.
Raine pointed to the aft torpedo room.
He shook his head and thumbed a sign they needed to start back up. “We’ve been down a long time. We still need to decompress before returning to the surface.”
He turned the remote and sent it back through to the conning tower.
They took their time surfacing.
Once they were back on the boat again, Anniston handed them cups of freshly brewed hot coffee.
Raine sipped the hot liquid, hoping she could get warm again. “We’ll need to see what’s inside those sealed sections fore and aft. Anyone have any ideas?”
Garret spoke up. “We could use an underwater cutting torch to punch a small hole in the bulkhead and slide a rope with a camera into the hole, maybe put some clay or some kind of filler around it to keep it watertight.”
Mitch held his cup of coffee in both hands as he studied the layout again. “That should work, we brought several torches with us. We might be able to improvise something to work underwater.”
He set his cup down and ran his finger along the diagram of the U-boat, stopping at the engine compartment. “We know for sure the engine room is flooded because of the hull damage here. But these two aft compartments and the forward torpedo room are big question marks. We can’t enter the engine room through the blown out hole in the bulkhead because it’s too small and there are several jagged pieces of metal around the edges. So we’ll either have to make the hole bigger or force it open to get at the aft compartments.”
Jackson’s jaw tightened. “Either way we have a lot of work to do before we can see what’s behind door number one or door number two.”
“Bingo.” Mitch went back to studying the forward part of the diagram. “I think we should look here first in the forward compartment. It looks to have additional room for storage here under the bunks where the crew slept.”
Raine chimed in, “I noticed it looked exceptionally messy, almost like someone had rummaged through the cabin looking for…something.”
“And that’s why we’re starting there.”
At dawn the next day, Mitch and Raine were getting ready to dive again when Garret and Anniston joined them on deck already wearing their dive suits.
“What are you guys doing?”
“I’m a fairly good hand with a hot torch and I thought I could widen the hole in the engine room while Anniston gets a closer look at those TM mines.”
Anniston spoke up. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tell if the mines are live or not, by checking the arming device on them.”
Mitch looked over at Raine.
She cut her eyes toward Garret. “I’m just worried those cramped quarters will get to you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Raine glanced back at Mitch. “Then it’s really up to them. Even if you did try to put up an argument, I don’t think you’d win. Besides, we could use the help and another pair of eyes.”
Mitch angled his gaze toward Anniston. “Are you sure you want to take this kind of risk? Those mines could blow at the least little touch.”
“I’m in. I promise I won’t fiddle with anything, just look. I’ll give you a thumbs up sign, if, and only if, I’m a hundred percent certain the devices haven’t been armed.”
Mitch turned to his brother. “You’ll stay back until Anniston gives us a thumbs up then, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then let’s go.”
Once they were on the sandy bottom it was just as Mitch feared. Garret stayed right at Anniston’s side as she picked her way to where each mine was located. At each stop, she took a picture of the arming device, then inspected each mine on its own merit, being extra careful not to touch or move anything around the device.
After a tense thirty minutes, she gave the thumbs up sign to Mitch and Raine.
From there, Garret and Anniston disappeared toward the rear of the sub where the engine room was located and to start work on the jagged hole. Before long Garret’s torch turned the sharp irregular pieces of damaged hull white hot, enlarging the hole so they could get to the torpedo room.
On the opposite end of the sub, Mitch and Raine slowly lowered the torch through the forward escape hatch to use to punch the hole through the bulkhead wall, big enough to insert a rope camera. Once they got the equipment in place, they’d get a good idea of what was inside the forward crew quarters and the forward torpedo room.
After getting the camera in place, they pulled the watertight plug and widened the hole to let the seawater seep into the room.
Mitch hit his com button. “At this rate it’ll take several hours for the pressure to even out.”
Raine tilted her head, pressed the com link. “Let the flooding go overnight then?”
He nodded. “In order to pop that door safely, it’s the only way. What do you say we get out of here? Go take a look at the engine room hole, inspect Garret’s work.”
“You just want to bug your brother.”
“There is that.”
Later that day, everyone crowded into the galley to review the day’s work.
Anniston laid out the photos she’d enlarged and printed that showed the arming devices up close. She pointed to what looked like a round knob on the first mine. “I did a little research on this type of torpedo mine after we got back. If I’ve ID’d them correctly, these are known as floating mines and they were not armed. If they had been, an additional mark would be located on the knob. I inspected them as best I could for any sign of weakness in the outer casing and for anything that looked like it was leaking. In my opinion they look sound enough for the amount of time they’ve been underwater. Just keep in mind when working around them they could still be very unstable. For now, I’d strongly suggest that no one touch them or try to move them. In other words, when you’re near them, keep your hands off.”
“I think I’ve got the hole in the engine room hull large enough to enter,” Garret added. “But it’ll be a tight fit.”
Raine attached the projector to her laptop and opened the video file she’d taken earlier from the rope camera, showing th
e inside of the forward compartments.
Mitch stood by the wall to point things out as the video played. “Here you can see the boxes under the bunks on both sides. As we continued down the passageway, Raine and I counted close to fifty boxes. The boxes appear to be the watertight kind used for storing ammo, radio equipment, that sort of thing. They look to be in good shape. They should hold up once we start letting the water in to flood the compartments. Once the pressure is equalized, we should be able to open the hatch and enter the forward crew quarters and get the boxes out of there. We’ll bring them up through the forward escape hatch located directly above to the surface. It should make transporting them a lot easier than dragging them to the conning tower.”
He paused, looking around the room. What he had to say next might not go over too well. “According to Maritime Law we are what is known as a salvor, and the law of salvage says we’re entitled to anywhere from ten to twenty-five percent of the value of the find. However, since we know this is looted property, legally, I’m not sure where we stand. That’s the truth of it.”
Again, he hesitated before going on. “I’m for doing this by the book. I told you that going in. If there’s anything of value in those boxes, here’s what I propose we do. We turn what we find over to the United States Marshal’s office out of Miami, specifically to a man there I think Anniston knows well, and trusts.”
Anniston picked it up from there. “My dad has a personal friend named Rick Johansen. He’s a very ‘by the book guy’ and I have no problem involving him in this. He’ll make sure everything’s done legally and correctly. Once we see what we’ve got, I’ll make contact and begin the process of setting up a meeting. You’re all welcome to show up.”
Mitch nodded. “We’ll need to retain the best Maritime lawyer in Florida. Then we file a lien for our finder’s fee, making sure they know we haven’t disturbed any human remains. Because U-492 is considered a wartime tomb. Of that I’m certain. From there, we let the courts decide. Are we in agreement then?”
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy Boxed Set Page 93