Davey Jones's Locker

by Christopher Cummings

  Which instantly led to the thought that possibly his Grandfather had been caught and might even now be lying nearby. A sharp stab of something close to terror shot through Andrew, sending his already rapid breathing up even higher. He swung his torch around and saw that he was in another transverse corridor. As he moved the torch beam something large moved further along the gloomy passageway. The shape flitted into the shadows and out of sight at an open doorway which he thought led down to the engine room.

  Once again his heart hammered rapidly. ‘Octopus,’ was his first thought, instantly discarded and replaced by shark, then with a shake of the head by the word groper. But there was nothing to see but a swirl of sediment. He shone the torch beam around, noting with interest how the air bubbles accumulated in tiny silver clusters in the nooks overhead.

  As Carmen lowered herself cautiously down Andrew leaned over and directed his torch beam at the deck. The first thing he noted was that there was no coral and only a small amount of slimy moss-like weed. Instead there was mud and sand. This made its presence felt in a very irritating way as his fins stirred it up and it swirled up to transform the water into a cloudy soup.

  The visibility dropped so quickly and so badly that Andrew was both astonished and alarmed. He found he could barely discern Carmen’s torch beam and she was only a dim blur, even though she was only a metre away. Suddenly he was very glad of that rope. Thoughts of the groper or octopus sneaking up in the gloom to grab him sent surges of fear, almost panic, through him. It was only Carmen’s presence close beside him that held him there.

  With an effort of willpower Andrew calmed himself. Then he shone his torch upwards, checking the escape route. That dimly lit square of sunlight at the top of the steps now looked very inviting! Claustrophobia and fears of drowning held him close to panic and he had to struggle to keep calm. His breathing sounded very loud and he was acutely aware that he was dependent on the breathing apparatus to keep him from drowning. He also noted again all the clusters of bubbles collected along the low ceiling. As he breathed out he watched another stream of shiny, silvery froth rise up to join them.

  Carmen was directing the beam of her torch onto the strong room door so Andrew turned to face it and did likewise. He saw that the door was made of steel and was of the ‘Strongback’ type with a raised sill and semi-circular top and bottom. A long steel handle held it in place. Then he noted something that made him gasp in excited surprise- the heavy padlock on a latch to one side was unlocked.

  Andrew reached forward and touched the padlock, then turned to look at Carmen. He saw her give a nod and was sure she was thinking the same thing. ‘Someone has opened this. Was it Grandad?’

  But was the gold still inside? That thought made him reach down and grasp the handle. The thing was slimy with marine growth but he rubbed this off and took a firm grip. As he did he told himself to remember to wear gloves in future. Bracing his feet and knees against the deck and bulkhead he pulled. For a moment he felt the handle move, but then it stopped. After releasing the pressure he swam closer and studied the handle. The thing was not really rusted in place and there were no coral growths jamming it. That made him try again.

  Still no movement. To try to work the handle loose Andrew pushed the other way and was rewarded by a definite but slight movement. Encouraged by that he began to push and pull at the lever, working it up and down. Then he found he was gasping for breath and feeling dizzy and light-headed.

  Carmen touched his arm and shook her head, then pointed to her pressure gauge. In the swirling sediment Andrew had trouble reading it but he thought it said 75 psi. His own read only 65 and he knew he should go up. But stubborn curiosity got him to try once more. Using all his strength he heaved. The handle suddenly scraped up.

  It did not go all the way but that got Carmen to have a go. She worked it loose several more times, then also heaved. The Andrew’s intense satisfaction the handle finally slid to the upright position, unlocking the door.

  ‘Now, let’s see what is inside,’ he thought, taking a firm hold and pulling.

  CHAPTER 35

  AN ILL WIND

  Andrew strained at the strong room door, hauling with all his strength. It was to no avail. The door did not budge. Again he tried, straining till he felt his heart and lungs might burst. But it was no good. He swam down to peer at close range at the sides and hinges. There was no indication that the door had moved at all.

  ‘This door hasn’t been opened in a very long time,’ he thought. ‘In fact, probably not since Grandad and Old Mr Murchison came here.’ Then he felt guilty at making such an accusation without real proof and added, ‘If they did.’

  Tugging at his BCD attracted his attention. It was Carmen and she was making emphatic gestures to surface. Andrew realized with a shock that he was feeling very dizzy and knew he was being silly. He turned and took the rope that Carmen placed in his free hand. She quickly tied the other end to the door handle, then pushed at him to get going.

  The rope snagged him several times and kept looping around his right leg as he kicked but he was very glad of it because the water was now so full of swirling sediment that visibility was less than a metre. As he touched the handrails of the steps Andrew experienced another spasm of terror. ‘What if the thing that is lurking in the engine room is coming to get me?’

  Driven by that thought more than by fear of his air running out Andrew went up the steps and through the hatchway into the relatively bright light of the saloon companionway. Here he again became entangled in the rope and had to stop and free himself. Carmen came up through the opening in a burst of bubbles and kept gesturing to go on up.

  Now Andrew needed no second invitation but he was still conscious enough to be aware that they had both been down to 18 metres so he stopped when he reached open water. Here he clung on against the current and waited for Carmen. With a shock he saw that his air pressure was down to 45 and he shook his head. But he was no longer really worried because he could see the surface only ten metres up. The dark silhouette of the dinghy was clearly visible. He was confident he could swim up, even if he had no air left at all.

  Carmen joined him and they both rose slowly up the line, staying below their bubbles all the way, even though the normal fears of diving in the deep ocean now began to assail Andrew. He found it a huge relief to break surface but the thought of a shark racing in to rip at his dangling legs got him anxious to get aboard.

  But even though he badly wanted to get into that dinghy he was not allowed to. Jordan shook his head and said that the waves were too big and the dinghy too small. Instead Jordan followed Carmen’s instructions and secured one of the bright orange fishing floats to the end of the rope and tossed it over as a buoy. Then the dinghy got under way and set off back towards the launch. The waves were now so big that it threw up sheets of spray and the hull was often lost to Andrew’s sight as it went into the troughs.

  Fear of sharks now took hold of Andrew as he bobbed on the tossing waves. These seemed to be much larger than they had been when he had dived. To avoid getting salt in his eyes he had to leave his facemask on and breathe through his snorkel. With Carmen swimming beside him he set off for the launch, using the current as much as possible.

  It was a 200 metre swim and, even with the help of the current, by the time he reached the launch he was exhausted. All he could do was cling to the side of the dinghy as it bobbed in the waves. The wave pattern was very confused, thrown out of any ordered pattern by the change of wind direction and the effect of the current. It was all Andrew could manage to take off and pass to Jordan his torch, fins and weight belt. The weight belt he almost lost as a wave took him under and he let slip one end. Luckily it was the buckle end otherwise all the lead weights would have slid off into the deep water. Grunting and gasping with the effort he held it up for Jordan to take.

  Climbing up the side of the launch over the old tyres was a feat almost beyond Andrew. The weight of the air cylinder seemed enormous. The effort w
as complicated by the way the launch was rolling and tossing. It was going up and down a metre or so and several times the hull slammed against him with almost numbing force. It was a sharp reminder of just how dangerous it might be and how weather dependant diving was. Moses helped by leaning over and grasping his air cylinder, then hoisting him up by that.

  Once on the launch Andrew took off his BCD and air tank, then slumped down on a seat and shivered. His father tossed him a towel and told him to rub himself vigorously. As he dried himself Andrew looked out anxiously across the tossing waves and saw the white launch bobbing at anchor only a hundred metres away. That surprised him as somehow he had thought it would have left, to be in port by sundown.

  Carmen was helped aboard and her gear eased off. She looked pale and even blue around the lips but was smiling. “We got right down inside to the strong room door,” she said, “But we couldn’t get it open. We need some tools.”

  “What sort of tools?” her father asked as he helped hoist off her air tank. The launch was bobbing so much he could only use one hand as he needed the other to hang on with.

  Carmen shrugged and looked at Andrew. He bit his lip, then replied, “A crowbar maybe? And a chisel and a hammer; something to wedge in the side of the door anyway.”

  Moses shook his head. “We ain’t got no crowbar. The hammer and a chisel we can manage, and maybe a shifter or such like. We’ll have a look in the tool box.”

  Jordan then shocked Andrew by saying, “Don’t forget there's laws about wrecks. I ain’t sure what they say but if you start doing things to one or taking things you might be in trouble.”

  “I have to know what is in that strong room,” Andrew answered. Now that he was so close he was determined, lurking octopuses and other creepy creatures notwithstanding.

  Then Carmen shocked him even more by saying, “We should be able to find out without doing any damage. Anyway, we have all night to think about it and to find out.”

  “All night?” Andrew echoed. “Why don’t we go down right away?”

  Carmen shook her head emphatically. “Because we have done three long dives today and it will take a couple of hours for our residual nitrogen to go down to a safe level. By then it will be dusk.”

  “I agree,” their father added. “You are not diving at dusk or at night. And you are certainly not going back in the water while the waves are this big. Anyway, you both look worn out and I say you have a good rest.”

  “But it is so close!” Andrew cried. He realized with dismay that he was shaking and was on the edge of tears.

  “Piffle! The wreck has been there for more than fifty years. One more night isn’t going to change anything,” his father replied.

  “But... but Dad,” Andrew expostulated, gesturing to the white launch. “Someone else might beat us to it.”

  “Rubbish!” his father replied. “They are just tourists from Sydney. Now go and get out of that wet suit and into some dry clothes. And those hands look like they need some first aid. I will make some hot Milo.”

  There was nothing for it but to obey. Andrew went to the shower and wished it had hot water. Dry and clean of salt and dressed in warm, dry clothes he felt much better. The hot drink lifted him even more. Carmen joined him and applied antiseptic lotion to the cuts in his left hand.

  “We need gloves next time,” Andrew said.

  Carmen agreed but could only shrug. Meanwhile Moses and Jordan had hoisted the dinghy aboard and lashed it tightly over the hatch cover. That done they all sat around the table in the cabin and Andrew and Carmen described what they had seen. They used the ship plans and a sketch pad to make clear what they were talking about. Andrew was very glad he had sent away for those plans as they made it all easy to understand. There was no doubt that the door they had been trying to open was the strong room door.

  As the sun began to set the wind increased and swung even more to the north. The wave pattern became even more erratic and the pitching and rolling of the launch became quite uncomfortable. Several times Moses went up on the foredeck and studied the situation. He came back looking very thoughtful, which made Andrew even more apprehensive that the weather might ruin his plans.

  Andrew had always prided himself on being a good sailor and his stomach was quite untroubled but he had a few qualms about the seaworthiness of the launch after a few waves burst into the aft deck. Only the sill across the aft end of the cabin kept it from being awash.

  As the launch rolled Jordan pointed to the white launch. “I’m glad I ain’t in that thing. Look how she rolls.”

  Andrew did. The white launch seemed to be moving with a twisting motion. The roll was very marked and rapid and each roll exposed part of her deck. “All that top hamper,” he commented, trying to sound nautical and knowledgeable.

  As he spoke a man came out onto the aft deck of the white launch. He stared at them for a minute, then moved to the stern and reached down. Andrew saw him help a black clad figure up over the transom.

  “They have been diving!” he cried in dismay.

  They all looked and Moses levelled binoculars. “Two divers,” he said as a second one came aboard. It was obvious even at that distance that it had been difficult getting those divers safely back into their launch. Even as Andrew watched he saw the second diver and the man both stagger and fall out of sight.

  “She’s got a special dive platform at the stern,” Jordan added. “Much easier for a diver to get aboard her than into this old lugger.”

  Feeling very anxious Andrew watched the second diver get up and then look towards them, still with facemask on. “I wonder if they have been diving on the wreck?” he speculated.

  “Not likely. They wouldn’t even know it existed and normal divers wouldn’t swim around into that strong current and deep water,” Carmen answered.

  The two divers vanished into the cabin of the white launch and Moses then said, “Never mind them. I think we should up anchor and get out of here.”

  A wave of disappointment bordering on dismay swept through Andrew. “But we are so close!” he cried. “If we don’t dive now it might be months before we can get back here.”

  Moses looked worried and ran his fingers through his crinkly grey hair. “The weather forecast on the radio, she say the winds along this part of the coast might increase tomorrow to twenty five knots, maybe even with squalls of thirty knots. That means waves up to two or three metres. That is serious weather.”

  “That other boat is still here,” Andrew argued. He was scared, but he was also determined.

  Moses was obviously not happy about it but he finally nodded and said, “Alright. We stay and see what it is like tomorrow morning. The wind is usually easier then. One dive as soon as the sun is up, then we are out of here. But if the anchor drags, we go.”

  Jordan chipped in by reminding them that they only had two more air cylinders each and that they would have to go back to Bowen to refill them anyway.

  That was the best deal Andrew knew he was going to get and he was vaguely guilty at arguing to place the others and the launch a risk. He nodded and said OK.

  Moses then nodded and said, “Alright, now, what will we have for tea?”

  Andrew did not feel like food, was in fact feeling quite nauseous from overexertion, so he said nothing. Instead he took himself below and lay down to think. For a while he lay and fretted, badly wanting to get it all over with. Then he shivered with reaction and fell into a restless doze. He was roused from this to come up and have dinner.

  The smell of the food restored his appetite and reminded him of how hungry it was. Despite the motion of the launch Moses had cooked a steak and kidney pie and it tasted delicious. The effect was somewhat spoiled though, by the effects of several sharp gusts of wind which made the launch heel over and veer away southwards. Each time Moses took bearings by eye on the other launch and again carefully studied the sea. To Andrew it already seemed that the wind had picked up and the launch continued to roll with unpredictable jerks as od
d waves took it unexpectedly.

  The sun set with a nice glow of pink and orange on the undersides of the clouds but the wind felt cold and the waves appeared even more choppy. The white launch still lay at her anchor and appeared to be rolling with a quite alarming motion. As darkness set in the rapid, jerky movement of her lights emphasized this.

  The food picked Andrew up physically and he was able to listen to the radio news with interest. Moses than radioed his home, his wife having a radio set there. As he went to talk Carmen touched his arm. “Please Moses, if that is just a normal radio, please don’t mention the wreck. Anyone could hear.”

  Moses nodded and smiled. “It be OK,” he assured her. So when he spoke to his wife he just gave the launch’s call sign (her registration letters and numbers) and told his wife they had found ‘it’ and asked her to telephone Mrs Collins to reassure her that the little ones were not drowned yet. Andrew wasn’t very happy at the way Moses talked about needing some tools to get inside but there was no direct mention of either the word wreck or the name Merinda.

  The group then settled back to the table to discuss their plans for tomorrow. Suddenly the movement of the other launch’s lights registered in Andrew’s consciousness. He pointed and cried out, “Look! That other boat is moving.”

  They all made their way out onto the fish deck and stared across the tossing black waste. The other launch was obviously leaving as its wildly bobbing lights moved rapidly off in a North Westerly direction. After a few minutes it changed course and headed to the south in the direction of Bowen.

  Jordan grunted and said, “Must have heard the weather forecast and decided to get going while he could.”

  Moses answered him. “If he had any sense he would have gone in daylight, and so should we have.”

  “We can if you really think we should,” Carmen said.

  Moses shrugged. “We will see. We are here now and I’d like to know the truth too.”