The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2

by Christopher Cartwright

  “Got it. We’ll keep an eye out on the surface for you. I’ll also get that survey of the water in the area you wanted.”

  “Thanks.”

  Elise handed him a sealed dive bag. “Make certain you place one on the top of each stone at both ends of the Bimini Road if you want an accurate reading of the water speed and weight. The weight is more useful to us than speed. As you know, rogue waves are rarely any faster than normal waves. ” But large waves mean greater mass. If you have a hundred-foot wave forming here, these depth gauges are going to suddenly read a massive increase.”

  Sam nodded his head. Opening the bag, he examined the small cylindrical patches she had given him. “Sure.” He then squeezed his feet into fins and looked up at Tom. “You ready to find some answers?”

  Tom smiled. “I’m just happy to go for a nice dive on a day like today. But if we find what you’re looking for that will be good too.”

  Sam fitted his dive mask and then placed the air regulator into his mouth. He then leaned backwards, falling off the side of the moon pool and into the azure sea below.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Sam marked his position using GPS and confirmed they were at the most south-western stone in the Bimini Road. He then checked his watch. The time was 0920. They would be done before 1030. Catching Tom’s attention, he pointed his thumb down – signaling he was going to commence the dive.

  It was a shallow dive in warm water. Sam simply wore board shorts and his diving equipment. He was happy. It made for a very free dive. More like skin diving. As soon as he looked downward he imagined the large rectangular limestone blocks as being the start of the yellow brick road in Oz. He wondered if this road would lead to an even stranger place once its hidden answers were revealed. A minute later, he was kneeling on top of the most southwestern rectangular block.

  He placed the first of the data dots in the middle of the stone. A single red light flashed intermittently, showing that the information being gathered was transmitting. Veyron was already in the process of laying a new relay buoy to receive and transmit the collective information via satellites.

  There were seven similar stones that formed the southwestern end of the Bimini Road. It didn’t take long to place all the data dots and confirm they had been set correctly. Sam then ascended to a depth of five feet and met up with Tom.

  In front of his friend rested a neutrally buoyant machine shaped round like a ball on one side, with a computer monitor on the other. Tom casually held onto a side handle with his left hand studying the screen.

  The device was called a Kongsberg EM3003D Multibeam Echosounder. It was a portable shallow water, multibeam system with 508 beams providing very high resolution surveying. Multibeam echo sounders emit a fan of sound beams to the seafloor to scan a wide swath of the seabed in great detail. Compared with conventional echo sounders – which direct a single beam of sound to the seabed directly below a ship, multibeams show more detail and greatly reduce survey time.

  By surveying the area at a depth of five feet Sam hoped to develop an accurate 3D analysis of the Bimini Road without the surface swell interrupting the process. Once the area was surveyed, his computer whiz, Elise, was going to run it through an ocean hydrology computer program and determine what sort of water movement over the structures of the Bimini Road, could cause a rogue wave.

  Tom pressed his thumb to his finger to form the signal for “okay.”

  Sam nodded his head in reply and then gestured that he was ready to start the survey process. Tom flicked a switch and silent waves swept over the monitor screen. The two of them began their half mile journey along the unique stone formation in a northeastern direction. The Bimini Road was approximately 300 feet wide and 1600 feet long.

  The pristine waters allowed the area to be easily surveyed during the first swim through. At the northeastern side of the strange stone formations Sam dived to fifteen feet and laid out another series of data dots on each of the limestone rocks. After confirming that he had covered each block on the northeastern side, he returned to the surface where Tom was already waiting.

  Tom took the regulator out of his mouth and breathed the warm air from the surface. “I don’t know if you found any of the answers you were looking for Sam, but I must thank you for finding a reason for us to come diving here again on the company’s dime.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  In the distance the Maria Helena turned to move towards them. Tom grinned. “Here comes our ride.”

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  A couple minutes later their ship came to a stop right next to them. Sam handed his fins to Matthew and began climbing the aft boarding ladder. “Did you find anything of interest for me in your survey of the outer harbor?”

  Matthew handed the fins back as Sam reached the deck. “No. There wasn’t one single shipwreck or any other evidence of destroyed vessels from previous rogue waves.”

  “Of course not. Why would there be?”

  “I thought you told me this morning to search the area. Didn’t you want to find other shipwrecks so that you could prove your theory?”

  Sam dumped his dive gear and began drying himself with a towel. “No, I already know where the rogue wave reaches its zenith. It’s at that point we will find a graveyard of shipwrecks.”

  Matthew looked surprised. “Where?”

  “Here,” Sam said pulling out the Admiralty charts. “Where all four vessels have recently been struck. I thought that was obvious.”

  “So then what were you looking for here?”

  Sam looked along the several simple images from the sonar report and then pointed to what he was after. “One upturned rowboat and a weather buoy.”

  Matthew looked as though his boss might have truly gone mad this time. “You were after the upturned rowboat?”

  “Well. No, technically, I was more interested in the weather buoy. It’s not one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s. And that means it’s one of theirs.”

  “One of who’s exactly?” Matthew persisted.

  “I’m not sure, but if we’re accepting at face value that someone’s been artificially creating these monster waves, then it makes sense that they would need a means of communicating exactly when a rogue wave passed through this section.”

  Tom hung his towel over the railing after resurfacing after making two dives. “Okay, I didn’t see anything to suggest that was man made.”

  “I never said I thought it was man made,” Sam replied. “No, the Bimini Road has been extensively studied by archeologists and recreational divers alike. There’s no doubt in my mind it was a natural, albeit strange rock formation.”

  “But you still think it was used to create rogue waves?”

  “I believe the ancient people who used this area to steal from shipswrecks noticed long ago the naturally unusual occurrence of waves as they passed through it.”

  “But we’ve been here for several hours now. I haven’t seen any rogue waves forming.”

  “No, but have a think about the kind of conditions might just do so.”

  “It would need larger swell. And coming from the north.”

  “And if that were the case, very few divers, either recreational or professional, would want to be anywhere near that wall. Even if it wasn’t creating rogue waves.”

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  The GPS course plotter placed the Maria Helena twenty miles due west of the Bimini Road. Superimposed on the digital map were three markings which represented the precise location of each of the cargo ships when they were struck by the rogue wave.

  Sam put his left hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “This is the place. Take us to a crawl and prepare to commence a circular search of the seabed.”

  Matthew carefully eased off the twin throttles. “Copy that.”

  The engine vibrations, felt through the steel flooring beneath their feet, ceased and the high pitched roar of the twin diesel engines settled to a dull murmur. Through the large
windows on the bridge Sam could see the dark blue water reached the horizon in every direction. The swell was almost entirely flat.

  “It’s hard to believe that a place like this has recently sunk two massive cargo ships, caused another one enough damage to render her useful only as scrap metal, and obliterate the Mirabelle – a winner of the Roaring Forties Extreme Circumnavigation!” Sam said.

  Next to him, Matthew studied the long range radar and weather reports. The man was meticulous when it came to safety. His eyes then darted from one horizon to the next as though he were expecting a rogue wave to reach them at any moment.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  “Sure,” Matthew replied. “I don’t believe all this rubbish about a rogue wave killing people, but there’s no denying the evidence that something caused these vessels to sink. Whatever was responsible may still be around – and I don’t want to take chances with the Maria Helena and my crew.”

  “I understand.” Sam knew that his skipper wasn’t prone to superstition. He was merely being careful. More importantly, Sam realized that Matthew was giving him a warning. “First sign of trouble and we’re out of here.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  The portside door to the bridge opened. It was Veyron. “The Multibeam Echo Sounder has been deployed. We’re ready to begin the search.”

  Sam took two steps to the right where Elise studied the computer aided Digital Terrain Model, which had started to take the first waves of images to build a 3D model of the seabed. “Thank you Veyron.”

  The multibeam echo sounders, like other sonar systems, transmit sound energy and analyze the return signal that has bounced off the seafloor or other objects. Multibeam sonars emit sound waves from directly beneath a ship's hull to produce fan-shaped coverage of the seafloor. These systems measure and record the time for the acoustic signal to travel from the transmitter to the seafloor and back to the receiver. Multibeam sonars produce a “swath” of soundings to ensure full coverage of an area. The coverage area on the seafloor is dependent on the depth of the water, typically two to four times the water depth.

  “Okay Matthew, let’s commence the circular search.” Sam looked at Elise.

  Matthew slowly pushed the twin throttles forward. “Setting the GPS plotted center and commencing circular runs. Are you happy with five knots?”

  “Yes.”

  Sam studied the 3D imaging of the seabed. It was a new addition to their advanced system of underwater surveying equipment. He was impressed at the quality of the images of over a hundred and twenty feet below the surface.

  The seabed was mostly flat and sandy. The shipwreck graveyard that Sam had hoped for certainly wasn’t beneath their keel. If his theory was correct regarding the Antiqui Nautae, this area of seafloor should be riddled with sunken vessels.

  The science of discovery beneath the sea was as much an art as it was a testament to a person’s patience. The tedious prospect of working hours upon hours for days and days, staring at nothing but a blank seabed threatened Sam.

  It was nearly two hours before they found their first shipwreck.

  The monster rose from the seafloor in two, almost identical one hundred and forty-foot-long sections of the hull, in a grotesque image of destruction. Superimposed on the otherwise barren sandy ocean floor the image of the vessel could be seen with such clarity that the ship’s name could be read, indented into the side of the hull – The Argonaut.

  Sam took a deep breath. “She was a cargo ship, mostly carrying small digital imports from China. Lost three weeks ago. There was no call for assistance by its crew. She simply disappeared. There was a search, but no one had heard from her since leaving China.”

  Tom stared at the hull. It looked more like it had been hit by a torpedo. “Now we know what happened.”

  “All right, let’s GPS mark the final location of the Argonaut. Her owners will want to know what happened to her,” Sam said.

  “Do you want me to make another circuit so you can get a better look at her?” Matthew asked.

  “No thank you.” Sam made a note on his navigational chart of the precise location of the Argonaut. “Let’s continue with the search grid. If I’m right, we should find some much older ships down here.”

  Matthew pushed the throttle halfway forward again. The Maria Helena picked up speed. “Copy that Sam.”

  By the end of daylight, the other two cargo vessels – the Tahila and the Arkansas – had been found, but no sign of any older shipwrecks were spotted.

  “That’s the end of the sunlight,” Matthew said. “We’ve covered a five-mile radius from the known location where the Tahila was struck. What do you want to do?”

  Sam studied the circular grid of area they’d surveyed. It was extensive. They’d covered a lot of ground. He then looked at the 3D mapping that Elise was working on. “We’ll continue through the night. Break into four hour shifts with teams of two. Right now all we have is my theory and the fact that something keeps sinking large cargo ships in the area. If we don’t work out what that is and stop it, shipping in the region is going to grind to a halt.”

  Tom looked at the navigational charts. “Where do you want to search? We’ve already covered any reasonable area close to the site of the rogue waves. What makes you so certain that we’ll find these 17th century shipwrecks?”

  “Because I just realized my calculations were so far off. The cargo ships were nearly three hundred feet long!”

  “Of course!” Veyron was the next to understand it. “At that size the ships would be dragged much further than the 17th century schooners and Man o’Wars.”

  “Meaning?” Tom asked.

  “The 17th century vessels will be further back towards the Bimini Road.”

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  The Maria Helena headed east again. The ground below became empty and the seabed devoid of all but natural sea life. It never ceased to amaze Sam that below the vast ocean laid an empty and monotonous world. Few changes in the sandy bottom were seen over a number of miles.

  And then the Swath began to highlight a manmade object. It was much smaller than the previous ones, almost as though most of it was already buried. Perhaps by four centuries of sand and debris.

  Then another one came into view.

  Followed by a third and fourth.

  “My God!” Matthew said reverently.

  “Gentlemen, I think we’ve just come across the hunting ground of the Antiqui Nautae.”

  A fifth shipwreck came into view. This one appeared much larger than the previous ships in the area. “Veyron, can we increase the clarity of that image?” Sam asked.

  Veyron ran tapped the keyboard and a grey wave crossed the monitor screen, increasing its clarity. By the third attempt the image became clear. “What do you think about that?”

  Tom sighed as the image came into clear view.

  In front of him stood the perfect outline of a British Man-O-War.

  “We’re going to need evidence of their age. If they were before the 17th century, then my theory holds true. If they’re more recent than that, then we’re back to believing in some sort of natural phenomena.” Sam grinned. “Do you guys want to keep watching the video, or shall we go dive the real thing?”

  Chapter Thirty

  The Maria Helena dropped her anchor in a hundred and forty feet of water. Now ten miles to the west of the Bimini Road she settled in the calm water and her anchor chain became lax in the still water. Below her keel were the watery graves of as many as a two dozen 17th century sailing ships.

  Today, the swell appeared almost nonexistent. The barometer read high. There was almost no wind whatsoever. Sam studied a series of synoptic charts. “It hardly seems like the sort of place where one expects to get killed by a rogue wave.”

  “No one ever expects to be killed by a rogue wave,” Matthew was quick to point out. “On that matter, if you are so certain that the Bimini Road is somehow inexplicably causing these events, is It wise that I anchor
the Maria Helena here?”

  “I’ve left a series of data dots along the Bimini Road. If something happens and a rogue wave begins to form it will send an urgent message. Elise is currently keeping track of the data coming in and will notify you immediately.”

  “A lot of good that will do for us. We’re at anchor now. How long do you expect it to take me to up anchor and escape?” Matthew paused. Swallowed. “On that matter, where do you expect me to escape to?”

  “It’s likely to take as much as four minutes for the wave to reach us here,” Sam replied. “And my recommendation would be to head due south. It’s the fastest direction out of harm’s way.”

  Chapter Thirty One

  Sam stood at the side of the moon pool examining his full face dive mask. Built into the Maria Helena’s hull the moon pool looked more like something out of an old James Bond movie. Aside from looking cool, it served a much more useful purpose. It allowed their two submarines to be housed in a protective location, while having easy access to launch. A hyperbaric chamber stood in the aft section of the room – a solemn and constant reminder of the risks faced with deep sea diving.

  Veyron entered the room. His notepad at his side with dive calculations. “The seabed is approximately 140 feet below us. With twin tanks you should have a bottom time of forty minutes. I've left a pair of single tanks on the guideline at ten feet.” His eyes darted between both men. “But don’t let me catch you overstaying your visit. They’re there for safety, not so you can have those extra few minutes to enjoy the dive.”

  “Understood.” Both Sam and Tom murmured together. They were professional divers. Each one knew their own limit down to the last breath of air. Sometimes they had pushed that limit out of necessity, but neither would intentionally plan to do so.

  With twin dive tanks connected by a titanium manifold in front of him, Tom returned to setting up for the dive. “I bet I’ll find evidence of their age before you do.”