by Landon Beach
Nate concentrated his light forward and lined up behind. Hutch kicked a few yards in front, aiming his light in a tight arc from side to side. They traced the bottom for twenty yards. Then, Hutch stopped and Nate drew even with him. They were looking at a wreck, but not the one they expected.
43
In front of them lay the forward part of a modern sailboat. Hutch thought about letting go of the Styrofoam cup so Mickey could come down, but instead stuffed it inside his wetsuit. The bow was ten yards away and pointed at them as if on a collision course. There was no trace of the mast in the immediate vicinity. Hutch signaled to Nate that they would circle the boat first. They swam to the right and as soon as they came parallel with the bow, saw that the entire stern of the boat was missing. A few kicks further and Hutch drew Nate’s attention away from the boat and to the sea floor. No more than ten yards past the boat, the bottom disappeared.
They stopped short of the edge and Nate looked right and then left, seeing the cliff extend indefinitely in either direction. Hutch had shown him on the laptop screen that this larger cliff’s edge was around two hundred yards in length and the crater was more of a trapezoid shape like a flattened coffee filter. From edge to edge the crater spanned approximately one hundred yards.
Nate swung his light around and aimed it into the deep. It was nothing but a penlight of yellow that barely penetrated the black chasm. He turned and followed Hutch to where the stern of the sailboat should have been. The bottom was deeper than where the bow lay and as he followed it back, he saw that the cliff edge was caved in toward the crater. It was as if someone had taken the stern in one hand and the bow in the other and snapped the sailboat in two. Hutch pointed at a dark shape protruding from the sand and gave Nate his light. Nate held both beams steady on the object and Hutch dug until he had uncovered enough to pull out a piece of wood that was an arm’s length long and several inches thick. It definitely didn’t belong to the sailboat and seemed to puzzle Hutch. He set it down and they swam toward what remained of the sailboat.
There was no real danger of getting caught or snagged on the inside of the wreck because there wasn’t much there. However, Hutch continued to take every precaution. They stopped at the opening and Hutch shined his light into a hatch that led to the boat’s v-berth, which was the only compartment left. From what they could see, the inside had been done in all wood and brass fittings. Hutch aimed his light away and got Nate’s attention. He signaled that it was okay to look around but that penetrating the hull into the v-berth was off-limits, and to stay within sight. Nate signaled back that he understood and they broke eye contact.
Hutch disappeared from view, and Nate shined his light on the inside of the wreck again. He assumed that this was where the galley had been, but there were no traces of plates, cups, or silverware on what remained of the deck or on the sand in front of him. He checked his pressure gauge and saw that they had a half hour left before they would need to start heading back. A few fish were swimming in and out of the top hatch, and Nate could now see Hutch’s bubbles up forward. He swam over the deck and estimated that the boat had been broken in two just forward of where the mast was. But where were the mast and the stern? Had it broken in two on the surface, and the stern and mast were closer to where Queen was? No, it would have shown up on the sidescan. The rest of the sailboat must have slipped over the cliff edge and was most likely in over three hundred feet of water. It would explain why the bottom was carved out aft of the wreck and why the cliff edge was indented. But where did the piece of wood they found come from?
Nate swam to the port side of the boat and continued forward. The boat’s lines were beautiful on what was left of the white hull. A two inch thick navy stripe ran back from the bow and an inch underneath it was a thick golden stripe. He kicked another two strokes and found Hutch directing his light where the bow met the sand. Hutch was moving sand away and as Nate looked closer he could see something attached to the hull. Hutch continued to uncover the black object and then froze. Coming out from the bottom of the object were two wires.
Hutch squeezed Nate’s arm. The older man’s eyes were on fire and said: Don’t touch it, follow me now. He pointed in the direction of the safety light, and they kicked toward Queen.
At the light, Hutch signaled for Nate to wait there. Then, he pointed at himself and to his watch. He held up one finger and then all five. He pointed back toward the wreck, to himself, and then to the light attached to the anchor. Nate nodded. Hutch pointed at his watch again and held up two fingers and then made a zero. He pointed at himself and gave the sign for trouble. He pointed to Nate and motioned for him to surface and get help. Nate’s eyes widened behind his mask, but Hutch gave him the okay sign, turned on his light, and took off toward the wreck.
✽✽✽
Hutch swam past the wreck, clearing the side by twenty or so feet. He circled around back and picked up the piece of wood he had examined earlier. Then he moved back toward the edge and chose a random area to dig with his hands. He would occasionally look up at the sailboat, as if playing peekaboo with the devil, and then look back down at the place he was digging. He found nothing. He moved closer to the edge and was now looking up at the sailboat from a thirty degree angle. If the sailboat slipped back now, it would carry him with it over the edge and into the deep. He started digging again.
This time he felt wood and continued to clear. The piece was much larger and Hutch couldn’t pull it out. He looked at his watch. He had five minutes left before he had to head back to the light. He swam to the edge of the cliff that had been caved in and shined his beam straight down. As he examined the cliff face it got darker around him. He glanced up and guessed that the sun must have gone behind another cloud. Hutch held the light out in front of him and disappeared over the cliff.
44
He followed the cliff face down and observed that the wall had been torn apart. The aft section of the sailboat must have exploded and—at least some of it—slid down the cliff-side. But where did the wood he had found come from?
He had never dived around the drop-off before but knew that on one of the sides of the crater there was a shelf at a depth of around sixty feet. He had thought it was this side, but wasn’t sure. Other than the pass with Nate a few days ago, he hadn’t been out here since the first summer he’d spent in Hampstead. During that summer, he’d been a passenger on Lucille Hawthorne’s son’s boat. After a tour of some of the family’s favorite fishing spots, he’d taken Hutch to the crater and told him that the fishing there was terrible and the scuba diving dangerous. The only thing worth going down for was a shelf that ran approximately two hundred feet along the cliff-side and extended forty or fifty feet out into the cavern before dropping straight down to three hundred feet. Hutch had never bothered to see it.
His depth gauge read forty feet...fifty feet...fifty-five feet. His feet hit bottom, and he shot the light down at his flippers. He’d reached the shelf; his depth gauge read sixty-two feet. If there was anything left of the sailboat some of it might have landed here instead of going into the deep. He began to kick along the wall, aiming his light out onto the shelf. The beam hit an object sticking up from the sand and leaning against the wall. The light reflected off the object and soon Hutch was touching a portion of the sailboat’s mast. The section was about ten feet long. He attempted to pry it loose from the rock and sand, but it was no good. He decided to move out onto the shelf and search.
He kicked fifteen feet out and then swam parallel to the cliff face. His beam was pointed at the sand and after a few kicks he saw something glittering up ahead. A metal fixture from the sailboat?
It was not metal. It was gold—a gold coin to be exact. He read the inscription on both sides and, after placing it in a pocket in his wetsuit, kicked further. He was surprised when he flew past the shelf edge and was surrounded in darkness. If it had been on land, he would have been dropping to his death right now into the chasm below. However, he just floated in space with over two h
undred feet of water beneath him and the shelf edge a few kicks away. It sure didn’t seem like it was as big as Lucille Hawthorne’s son had described it. He thought about it a minute, and started to trace the edge of the shelf. There was an eerily similar pattern starting to form, and as he swam backwards out into the open water while shining his light on the edge, it became apparent that there must have been a secondary explosion when the stern of the sailboat landed on the shelf.
Satisfied, he began to head toward the place where he had found the coin, but two lights descending down the cliff face grabbed his attention. He looked at his watch. It had been twenty-two minutes.
He swam toward the lights and was soon in the company of Nate and Mickey. He signaled that he was okay and saw that they had brought him a new air tank. He still had fifteen minutes left on his tank but switched over to the fresh one. He motioned for Mickey and Nate to gather around. He pulled the coin out and opened his hand, watching the men’s expression go from concern to jubilation. He got their attention again and signaled his search plan. The men got into formation abreast, with Nate hugging the wall, Mickey in the middle, and Hutch the furthest out onto the shelf. They aimed their lights at the floor and kicked together. After no more than ten seconds of kicking, Nate turned into the cliff face and vanished. Hutch went after him and then almost dropped the regulator out of his mouth. Nate had discovered a cave under the cliff face, and, rising up from the cave floor was the hull of a wooden ship lying on its side. The cave was enormous, and the keel, which was closest to the shelf floor, was still under the cliff face. Rocks ripped off from the explosion littered the shelf. Nate’s light was dancing all around and then it became focused on one point. Hutch arrived to see what he was pointing at.
At first, he didn’t see it. Nate swiveled him into position and then it was unmistakable. The carved figure on the bow had a lion’s body with the head and wings of an eagle: it was the Griffon.
Mickey arrived, and seeing the carved figure, high-fived Nate. Hutch calmed them down and signaled for no one to penetrate the wreck. He proposed they all swim the length of the wreck to see how much was down there. Nate and Mickey signaled back to him that they understood. Mickey swam above, between the starboard side of the ship and the top of the cave, while Nate and Hutch followed either side of the keel.
Most of the hull was intact, preserved by the chilly fresh water of Lake Huron. During the secondary explosion, some of the cliff that had been camouflaging the wreck must have slid off the shelf into the deep; the rest was strewn on the shelf like a shattered glass ball.
As they approached what Hutch considered the middle of the ship, they saw the hull had come apart and provided an opening large enough for someone to enter. Hutch stopped to look at the wood. There were axe marks at various points, showing that the wood had been hand-crafted. He continued along and saw one more point where he might be able to enter the wreck, but it was tighter than the first. The keel began to curve deeper into the cave as Hutch reached the stern. He waited for Nate and Mickey so all three could search for the second griffin seal that was believed to be mounted there. They found nothing. The stern was more heavily damaged and it was difficult to make anything out from the scraps. Either the seal was amongst the rubble, had been broken off, or had never been a fixture on the stern.
They regrouped, and Mickey signaled that there was also no sign of the masts. He focused his beam into the cave showing a maze of wood, rock, sand, and debris. If that was where the masts and the rest of the wreck were, there was no way that someone was going to try and swim in there. Hutch motioned the other two to follow him, and he led them back to the smaller of the two openings in the hull.
There, he stationed Nate. Hutch switched lights with him, giving Nate the more powerful light for steady illumination and taking Nate’s smaller light. Mickey then followed Hutch to the larger opening where Hutch signaled for him to do the same thing as Nate. Mickey signaled back and went inside the opening and backed up to give Hutch room.
✽✽✽
Hutch entered the wreck. Aided by Mickey’s light, he could see about fifteen feet. There were collapsed bulkheads and broken decks, but he was able to move along the keel. Then he found an opening further into the middle and took a left. The beam from Mickey’s light was still visible, but Hutch could no longer see him. He navigated around a collapsed deck and found another opening to the right. Now he could see the beam from Nate’s light. He was in a space big enough to take a break and he settled onto the bottom. He aimed his light at the sand and moved it around the space. In a corner he saw something light colored and moved toward it. He reached down and picked it up. It was a skull. Beside it was a large bone which looked like a femur. He decided to move on.
He entered a narrow passageway between decks where Nate’s beam was stronger. He maneuvered away from the light and found himself in a space that was twice as large as the room with the bones. He put his beam to the floor and his eyes almost burst out of his mask.
✽✽✽
Nate felt relieved as he saw Hutch’s light get closer and closer to him. Hutch exited the narrow opening and they swam back to get Mickey. When they reached the large opening, Mickey saw their lights and was half-way out of the wreck when the regulator popped out of his mouth. He seemed to shout in pain and was dragged back in.
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Hutch lurched inside and seized Mickey’s arm. Together, he and Nate pulled Mickey almost all the way out before they saw what had him. A barracuda-like fish at least six feet long had a hold on Mickey’s calf and was shaking its head back and forth. Blood oozed from Mickey’s leg. Hutch pulled out his knife and got behind the fish. Clamping the body in-between his thighs, he stabbed it and sawed its head off. Then, another one shot out at Nate from inside the wreck and went for his elbow with its needlelike teeth. Nate dodged and caught the fish by its large tail. The fish jerked and Nate held on with both hands. Hutch plunged his knife into the side and dragged it along the body as far as he could. The fish’s motion slowed and he withdrew his knife and motioned for Nate to let it go. The fish swam away trailing a stream of blood in its wake.
The three men were outside the wreck and Mickey gave a sign that he was okay and that he could still kick with his other leg. Hutch took Mickey’s weight belt off and left it on the bottom. Then, he positioned Mickey between Nate and himself and Mickey grabbed hold of their weightbelts. Nate and Hutch held their lights in front of them and pulled Mickey to the surface.
✽✽✽
“What in the hell were those things?” Nate said as they climbed aboard.
“Two very large and very pissed off Muskies,” Hutch said.
“Muskies?” Nate said.
“Muskellonges,” said Hutch. “A rare game fish. I’ve heard that they can get to be six feet and around ninety pounds. I’d say both of those were that, and then some.”
“I’ve never seen them get that big before,” Mickey said.
Hutch started to treat Mickey’s wound with the first aid kit he had on board.
“We found ourselves a ship, gents,” Mickey said.
“Not just a ship, the ship,” Nate said. “We found the Griffon.”
“Wanna know what else we found?” Hutch said.
“What?” Mickey said.
Hutch made fists with both of his hands and raised them in front of his chest. The men’s eyes followed. He opened his hands and showed nine fingers. “Nine chests, gentleman. Nine chests,” said Hutch and he lowered his hands.
“What shape are they in?” Nate said.
“Seemed intact,” Hutch said. “You might be retiring.” He lifted Mickey’s leg. “I’m just glad you had your knife on your leg, Mick. Or I’m afraid that set of teeth would have done a lot more damage than that,” Hutch said, finishing with the dressing. “Might need stitches though.”
“Feels better already,” said Mickey.
“If she’s been on that shelf all this time, why hasn’t anyone discovered her yet?” Nate s
aid.
“Could be a variety of things,” said Hutch. “Thinking off the top of my head, a cave—a covered cave before the ass end of the sailboat explosion opened her up—tucked underneath the cliff is the perfect place for a wreck to be concealed. If the drop-off is like a blue hole, then the whole thing could have been a cave complex. Who knows when the original part collapsed? Mrs. Hawthorne’s son dove on that shelf and never noticed the cave—not that he was looking for it. Plus, I’ve been down on a wreck before during the day, had a storm blow over that night, and dive the next day and have it look completely different. The cave and Griffon have had over three hundred years of storms to work on them. At least some of Griffon broke off just aft of what’s left of the sailboat.”
“The wood that you dug up,” Nate said.
“Yes, sir,” Hutch said. “I only saw nine of the eleven chests that are supposed to be aboard. I’ll bet one of those missing spilled all over the bottom, which could account for why that coin showed up on your beach, Nate. It’s like any wreck that someone finds. As soon as it’s located everyone can’t believe that they didn’t search there. I wish I could say what the cliff face looked like before today, but I can’t. It could have completely hidden the wreck, or there might have been openings large enough for a diver to enter, but even if there were, cave diving is a dangerous business—especially for amateurs. Lotta wannabes have permanently left the building messing around in places they shouldn’t have.”
“Like you almost did when you first discovered the room in Diamond Crag?” Mickey joked.
Nate tried to hide his smile.