For ten minutes brother and sister swam steadily along. It was plainly obvious that there was no shipwreck in this area as the coral ended abruptly and with no canyons or gullies in it. To their left the sandy sea bed sloped off as before but at an ever decreasing angle so that it became a very gentle slope dotted with small coral outcrops. Looking at that got Andrew anxious again.
‘I hope we don’t have to swim way out there away from the reef,’ he thought, deciding that any shipwreck in this area would be hundreds of metres out from the coral.
Quite abruptly the pattern changed. They began to encounter strong currents which stirred up the silt and lowered visibility. The currents were coming from their right and the main reef curved that way into a very obvious and deep gully.
‘This might be it!’ Andrew thought hopefully as he followed Carmen into the gully. It had a sandy bottom and was bigger than he at first suspected, with large outcrops of coral in it. The depth to the bottom was at least another ten or fifteen metres below the ten they were swimming at. Larger fish appeared, including a school of coral trout so big that Andrew became alarmed in case one bit him.
The pair swam South East along the deep gutter for five minutes before Carmen shook her head and signalled to turn back. Andrew understood why. The current was being funnelled through the narrower sections and was just too strong. ‘We need to explore this at slack water or on the ebb,’ he reasoned.
Carmen crossed to the far side of the gully, a good fifty metres away and continued on North East. They again encountered large outcrops and several times they scared stingrays or large fish. As the pair swam slowly along Carmen angled up towards the surface. When they neared the top she made porpoising motions with her hands, by which Andrew thought she meant she was going to surface but only briefly, then dive again.
That was indeed her intention. As they broke surface Andrew looked around. About a hundred metres off to his left front he saw the white launch riding at anchor. What looked a very long way to his left was the Moa Mermaid, rolling at anchor. Of the dinghy there was no sign. Before Andrew could remove his face mask Carmen pulled out her regulator and called, “Dive! We don’t want those people to see us.”
He was ready for that and immediately began to deflate his BCD. As he slipped back under he looked towards the white launch, his anxiety level going unreasonably up. This time he sank to the bottom with barely a thought for the things in the sea. Carmen made him check his air and the time. They had been in the water for nearly half an hour by then and this time his air was only down to 150psi so she signalled OK and started off swimming to the North East.
They kept on for another five minutes, rounding the northern tip of the reef and starting to swim south along the outside. By then the nature of the reef had changed again. Now it was steep-sided coral in layers which went down deeply to a barely visible, steep, rocky bottom.
As he strained his eyes to see down into the gloom Andrew shook his head. ‘If the Merinda is down there we will never be able to dive on her.’
There was no sign of any wreck and the water became so deep they could not even see the bottom. The current also grew stronger and the waves overhead could be seen breaking on the edge of the reef above their heads. Even at ten metres depth Andrew felt the suck and surge of the waves so he moved further away from the coral so as not to get accidentally dragged onto it. Carmen shook her head, pointed to her watch, and turned back.
At that moment Andrew saw the shark.
CHAPTER 33
WHERE?
Andrew felt his heart stand still. Fear surged and he seemed to freeze up. There it was- his worst nightmare- and heading directly towards him! He wanted to warn Carmen, to cry out, to flee- but all he could do was stare as though paralysed. The shark had appeared from out in the open ocean, swimming directly towards the reef. To Andrew it looked huge and he stared at the grey-white shape as though mesmerized.
Abruptly, when about 25 metres away, the shark changed direction and headed the same way that Carmen was now swimming. Andrew clearly saw its left eye- a black, evil looking eye, he thought. He was sure it was measuring him up for a meal. With his heart rate and breathing both rapidly increasing he managed to turn to face it.
He thought it was a grey nurse, but wasn’t sure. ‘They are man-eaters,’ his anxious mind told him. As it swam closer Andrew could clearly see its gills and the fins which were the blood-chilling trademark of the creatures. Bracing himself to fend it off he wished that he had some sort of weapon, even a knife. He also wished he had not swum out so far from the protecting edge of the coral.
A glance behind to see just how far he was from the coral did not reassure him. It was at least 10 metres and he was sure the shark could cover that in a flash. Hastily he looked back, to be astonished again. The thing was nowhere in sight!
Now he did panic, swivelling his head in all directions to try to detect where it had gone, all the while cringing in anticipation of its bone and gristle-tearing rush. A flicker in the blue off to his left caught his eye and he turned to look that way.
It was the shark. To Andrew’s intense relief and surprise he saw that it was swimming away, following the edge of the reef around. ‘That is the way we want to go,’ he thought with dismay. A moment’s consideration told him that they could not possibly swim right around the other side of the reef to get back to their boat. Nor could they safely swim across the top of the reef.
Only now did he look at Carmen to see if she was aware of the shark. She was and was pointing and appeared to be smiling. Smiling! Andrew shook with relief and amazement. But the thing was gone, vanished from view around the curve of the reef. Carmen resumed swimming in that direction and Andrew had no option but to follow. Now, more than ever, he kept moving his head continually to look back over his shoulder, to look beneath him and to look ahead.
He found it a real relief to swim back around the northern corner of the reef into shallower water. At least he didn’t now have that gloomy blue abyss beneath him! Of the shark there was no sign, but Andrew kept a very sharp lookout. Even when they entered the area studded with big coral outcrops in the northern end of the large gully he kept anxious watch.
Thus it was that he spotted the movement. For a second he stared, thinking it was the shark. Then he saw that there were two dark things moving and realized they were divers.
‘Divers! What are they doing?’ he wondered. For no reason he could have articulated he knew he did not want those divers to see him or Carmen. Luckily he was close to her and was able to reach across and tap her. As she looked at him he pointed at the divers, then tugged at her BCD and pointed down.
Carmen understood at once. Both began to descend. Andrew led the way, finning down behind a large coral outcrop which had a series of wide, flat overhangs. After a quick check that nothing with teeth, claws or sharp spines was lurking in under the coral overhang he moved right into its shadow. Carmen joined him. Hoping they had not been spotted Andrew peered out at the other divers.
They were about 50 metres off and were swimming side on to them. They appeared to be heading south along the deep gully that he and Carmen had explored earlier.
‘They must have come from the white launch,’ Andrew surmised. But were they just recreational divers or spearfishermen- or were they also searching for the wreck?
Andrew was very conscious of the stream of bubbles that swirled up every time he or Carmen breathed out but there was nothing much he could do about it, other than hope that the other divers did not notice them. He could clearly see their bubbles, even at that distance. But the two divers kept on swimming and did not appear to look in his direction.
To his relief they vanished into the silty gloom of the deep gully. As soon as they were no longer visible Carmen tapped him, pointed to her air pressure gauge and then resumed swimming. Andrew looked at his own gauge and was shocked. It was down to 70 psi and he remembered being warned on the course not to let it get below about 80, so as to have a mar
gin for safety.
‘We can always surface and inflate out BCDs by mouth,’ he told himself as he finned out of cover in Carmen’s wake.
He did not need to do that but was down to 50 psi by the time he and Carmen surfaced beside the Moa Mermaid. The dinghy was back and they were able to pass up heavy items into it before being helped up over the side of the launch.
A very anxious father met them. “I was getting really worried about you kids. What took you so long?” he asked.
Carmen described their dive while Andrew slumped down and towelled himself vigorously. The men listened with interest, especially to the story of the shark and to the incident with the two divers.
Moses nodded. “Yeah, we seen them getting’ ready. So I take it you didn’t find anythin’?”
Carmen and Andrew both shook their heads. “Did you?”
“Nah!” Moses replied disgustedly. “We went right up that big gully till it got too rough near the far side. Then we come back and went driftin’ past that white launch. Silver Stingray she’s called. Registered in Sydney.”
“Did you speak to them?” Andrew asked.
“Nah. Just waved to a guy as we drifted by. He waved back and went on fishin’ too. We went right out to the North West for a few hundred metres. Shallow for a long way that way. All white sand with a few outcrops of coral. But no big shipwreck.”
“So where is it?” asked Andrew in exasperation. “We’ve looked all along this side of the reef and around both ends.”
Carmen made a face and added, “Which means that it must be in the deep water on the other side of the reef.”
Andrew felt quite depressed at that idea, remembering the gloomy dark blue depths and strong currents. “If it is we may never find it, and even if we do it will probably be too deep for us to dive on,” he commented.
“We still have to look though,” Carmen answered.
“We need to search off to the North West too, to the edge of this shallow flat area,” Jordan put in.
“It is more likely to be there isn’t it,” Mr Collins asked. “I mean, that is the sheltered side of the reef and a ship in trouble would head for shelter.”
That jogged something in Andrew’s brain and he shook his head. “Not necessarily,” he replied. “If it was taking shelter from a cyclone it would depend on the wind direction at the time. That wouldn’t be the normal prevailing wind direction.”
“By jelly beans! You might be right,” Moses cried.
Andrew thought for a moment, dredging up knowledge of cyclones from Geography lessons he now wished he had paid closer attention to. Then he said, “If the cyclone passed to the south of here then the wind would have mostly have come from the south and even the west. If the cyclone went by to the north of here then the main strength of the wind would have changed from southerly to easterly, then to northerly after the eye had passed onto land.”
Carmen suddenly clicked her fingers. “It went to the north. I read that in one of the old newspaper accounts. The cyclone’s eye crossed the coast near the mouth of the Burdekin.”
“So by then the Merinda might have been sheltering around on the south side of the reef,” Andrew suggested. “That might explain how those survivors got blown past Holbourne Island.”
“Maybe,” Moses agreed, adding, “But I doubt if those fellas on the ship had any idea where they was. Not back in them days, not after a day or so of really bad weather.”
Jordan chuckled and said, “I know fellas what don’t have much idea where they are even now, even with satellite navigation stuff.”
Moses laughed out loud and replied, “You better not be talkin’ about me brother, or you’se gunna have a long swim home.”
“Just thinkin’ of that time off Carson Reef,” Jordan answered with an innocent smile. “Weren’t even a cyclone,” he added, winking at Andrew and Carmen as he did.
Andrew tensed with anxiety lest the two T.Is be about to have an unpleasant argument. To his relief Moses laughed too and then said, “We was only a little bit off course. But them fellas in the Merinda, they were certainly a long way off course, like fifty nautical miles off course.”
“If a cyclone went on for a day or two, like they do, that is only a few miles off course each hour,” Jordan said. “They would have been changing course as the wind direction veered, to try to keep her head into the wind.”
“Sure,” Moses agreed. “But it might give us an indication of the ship’s heading when she struck. I don’t think them fellas was sheltering in the lee of the reef. I bet they didn’ even know it was here till they hit it.”
Andrew felt a surge of excitement. “I think you are right,” he said. “Which means that the most likely location is on the south side of the reef. That is where we should look next.”
“OK, we will,” Moses agreed. “But you kids is gunna have lunch and then a good rest for two or three hours before you go divin’ again. An’ this time you stay close to the dinghy. It ain’t gunna be no picnic around there.”
“Could you search with your ‘Fishfinder’ echo sounder?” Carmen asked.
At that Moses looked both thoughtful and worried. “Could, but I don’ wanna. If we stack this boat on the reef we lose our business eh?”
Carmen nodded. “Sorry. Don’t take any risks with the launch just to satisfy our curiosity. Now come on Andrew. Let’s work out our residual nitrogen and plan the next dive,” she said.
For the next fifteen minutes brother and sister did their calculations. They then joined the adults for lunch. Andrew was feeling quite worn out and had no appetite but his father insisted that he eat to get his energy up. Hot, sweet Milo helped. For half an hour they sat and studied the plans of the Merinda. Then he and Carmen went below to lie down and rest.
Andrew did not sleep but he dozed. While he lay on his bunk staring out of the porthole at the tossing wave tops he agonized over whether he would be brave enough to go back into the water. The shark incident had frightened him more than he was game to admit to the others and now he kept replaying the scene in his mind. Each time he pictured the speed at which the sleek, grey shape had approached; how suddenly it had appeared, he broke into a cold sweat.
‘It could have attacked before I even knew it was there,’ he told himself.
But stubbornly his sense of curiosity got him thinking about where the wreck might be. He tried to picture what it might be like to be on a ship in a cyclone and could only shudder as he imagined the sick feelings of despair and helplessness the people must have felt during those terrifying minutes when it must have been obvious that the ship was in dire peril.
‘I hope I’m never in a cyclone at sea,’ he thought. Other images crowded in, mostly from an account he had read of American warships in World War 2. As a result of some blunders in the Chain of Command a fleet (The 3rd he thought?) had steamed into a typhoon. Ships as large and powerful as fleet destroyers had been overwhelmed and capsized by the storm. For a few minutes Andrew pictured himself as one of the crew members, locked below and scared stiff. Thinking of what it must have been like as the ship’s deck rose and fell beneath his feet caused him to shudder. The effort of imagining what it might have been like after the destroyer rolled over and went under brought him out in a cold sweat. The idea of being trapped inside a sinking ship, knowing that even if no water made its way into the compartment he was in he was doomed, was more than he could face.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t be a sailor?’ he wondered. ‘Or maybe not in the navy?’ He knew that in warships they closed all the watertight doors when at ‘Action Stations’. Now he fretted about whether he was good enough to cope with such a claustrophobic situation. ‘I would hate to be locked in and trapped, knowing I was going to die and having time to think about it,’ he thought.
He found it a relief to be called on deck to help weigh anchor. Moses explained. “The wind is veering more to the north. It is blowing almost from the east now. That suits us as we can now anchor closer to where you want to exp
lore, except the bottom slopes away more steeply from the reef and the anchor may not hold.”
“Is the weather getting worse?” Andrew asked, worried that they might have to give up the search.
Moses nodded his head. “Yep. Sorry, but the radio reckons the wind is going to increase a lot more and swing round to more of a northerly.”
Now that he looked Andrew noted that the launch was rolling more and had swung round to lie parallel to the reef. The launch was now much closer to the reef and if the wind veered even more northerly she would be in danger of being pushed onto the coral.
It took them half an hour to up anchor and motor very slowly around to the south side of the reef. As Moses had feared the seabed dropped away much more steeply but by nosing in close to the edge of the coral they were able to get the anchor down and holding, without snagging or damaging any of the coral. That left them again riding safely in the lee of the reef, with the launch being blown away from the danger.
It was a more precarious anchorage though and Moses stayed up on the foredeck watching anxiously for any sign of the wind changing direction again. As they studied the situation Jordan grunted and pointed. “That white launch, she movin’ too.”
“Sensible,” Moses commented. “She be feelin’ it worse than us over there.”
Andrew resented the presence of that other vessel and he wished it would go away but had to admit it was prudent seamanship to move to a more sheltered anchorage as the wind shifted. Feeling vaguely annoyed and anxious he watched the white launch motor slowly towards them, heaving to and anchoring only about a hundred metres to port.
Jordan shook his head. “She should have come closer to us. She is barely in the lee even now.”
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