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Coasts of Cape York

Page 47

by Christopher Cummings


  A head broke the surface and Willy sighed with relief. One safe! Then a second head appeared. He saw the diver’s face masks pulled down around their necks. Both spoke to Mr Hobbs for a minute. Willy saw Mr Hobbs nod and then the two swimmers moved away and clung to the hull of the launch. ‘What is going on now?” Willy wondered, as he saw the boat start moving and then turn towards the flying boat, leaving the divers behind.

  A minute later Mr Hobbs was at the door. Mr Jemmerling leaned out to talk to him and Willy and Jacob crowded in behind. “What is it?”

  “They’ve found one dead body. Gator Smith they think it is. There is no-one alive in the wreck but Carmen wants another rope and a net or bag. And Andrew said Willy is to come over to look.”

  “Willy?” Mr Jemmerling queried. “OK, get in Willy while we find a rope and a bag.”

  Willy was both puzzled and scared, but he was also curious. ‘What do they want me to see?’ he wondered. Very gingerly he lowered himself into the tiny boat, clinging tightly to the door frame as long as he could to counteract the slithering and bobbing motions of the rubber boat. Once he was seated he looked anxiously around the lagoon, very conscious that he was now almost at water level. No triangular fins were visible but that did nothing to calm him.

  Mr Jemmerling passed down a coil of rope and then a canvas kitbag. “The sun is nearly down. Tell them to hurry please,” he said.

  Willy nodded and glanced around, noting that Mr Jemmerling was right. The sun was now a huge orange disc sitting on the western horizon. Mr Hobbs shoved off and opened the throttle. As the boat surged and seemed to flow over the small waves Willy found he was fascinated by the close up sight of the flying boat sitting on the sea. ‘I should have brought my camera,’ he thought.

  As they approached the launch and the two divers Willy’s curiosity overcame his fear. “What is it?” he called as they surged to a stop at the floating buoy secured to the shotline.

  “You’ll see,” Andrew said. “Now, wait while we do this. Tie one end of that rope to the bag and the other end to the dinghy, then give it to me.”

  Mr Hobbs did this. By then Carmen had submerged and Andrew followed her. This time Willy was able to look down into the water and watch. He could see the bottom and also the dark figures that were the two divers. There were a couple of anxious minutes while both vanished in under the upturned hull and then one reappeared and began ascending.

  It was Andrew. As his head broke surface he removed his regulator and said, “Pull up the bag, but do it carefully.”

  He then clung to the side of the boat while Willy and Mr Hobbs hauled in the rope. This led to Willy getting splashed but he was too interested to care. Looking down he saw the bag coming up, held by Carmen. The bag contained a soggy, rotten case that looked like it was an old suitcase of the brass-bound, metal steamer trunk variety. The case was too big for the bag and half protruded from the top. It was covered in marine growths and was very heavy and leaked water. As soon as they tried to lift it aboard it split and more water cascaded out of the cracks.

  Carmen took out her regulator and said, “Don’t try to lift it into the boat. Mr Hobbs, tie it so it hangs underneath and take it back to the Pterodactyl. Tell them to lift it aboard very carefully. Willy, you get in the water and come with us.” She then retied the rope to the boat so that the bag and case were just under the water.

  Willy had all his attention focused on the mysterious case. It took several seconds for Carmen’s request to sink in. “Get in? In the water?” he asked disbelievingly.

  Andrew grinned. “Yes Willy, in the water.”

  “But.. but why?” Willy asked. He felt a sudden surge of fear and doubt.

  “You will see. Now be brave and get in. Quickly please, we are running out of time and this is a once in a lifetime moment,” Andrew said.

  ‘It will be if I get eaten by a shark,’ Willy thought. He was a good swimmer but did not like the ocean at all. “But I’ll get wet,” he mumbled in a feeble attempt to avoid their request.

  Mr Hobbs said, “What’s going on? Why do you want him in the water?”

  Andrew pointed at the ‘Catalina’ and said, “Mr Hobbs, please take the case to the flying boat and then come back to get us. Oh come on Willy! You’ll regret it if you don’t. Wet clothes don’t matter. You will like this, now be brave and get in. Stop worrying about sharks.”

  Willy had an inkling of why they wanted him in the water but it still took a conscious act of suppressing his fears to make himself move. Very cautiously he lowered his legs in, gasping with surprise at how cold the water felt. Then he slid down until only his head was sticking out. Carmen and Andrew moved in, one on either side.

  “Let go Willy, we’ve got you. We’ve got buoyancy control devices on. We won’t sink,” Andrew explained.

  Reluctantly Willy let go of the rope looped around the outside of the rubber boat. Breathing fast from fear he allowed himself to be towed away from the boat. Mr Hobbs looked doubtful and shook his head but then started the boat moving towards the ‘Catalina’.

  As he watched that boat go away Willy experienced a real spasm of terror. All he could see in any direction were rippling waves and the half-sunk red disc of the sun. For the first time he really appreciated the awful situation that Graham and Andrew had been in when they had survived a floatplane crash and were left floating in the sea for eighteen hours. He had to control a spasmodic urge to draw his legs up. They seemed to tingle as they dangled there. At every second he expected a shark to rip them off and he tensed in anticipation.

  ‘Be brave!’ he told himself as the two divers towed him backwards across the lagoon. They swam for fifty metres past the barnacle and weed-encrusted hull of the launch and then stopped. Carmen then took off her face mask and handed it to Willy. ‘Here Willy, put this on,” she ordered.

  “You aren’t going to take me under are you?” Willy cried. Then he swallowed a mouthful of water as a wave struck him in the face. Coughing and spluttering and stinging eyes kept him busy for the next couple of minutes.

  “Trust us. Just do it please,” Andrew said. He spat in the face mask and rinsed it, then half pulled it on to Willy’s head. The strap tangled in Willy’s hair, pulling and hurting but his cry of pain was ignored. Willy helped and managed to get the face mask on. Andrew then pointed down and said, “Now put your face in the water and look down.”

  Cautiously Willy did so. Then he mentally gasped. With the face mask he could see quite clearly and there it was- the wreck of the Dornier!

  Fascination at once drove out the fear. Willy stared in wonder. The wrecked aircraft lay on the bottom with its tail stuck on the coral reef and the nose lying out in the lagoon. He could not really tell how deep it was but guessed at about ten metres. One wing was completely missing and all the vertical fins were also gone but the other wing was there and so were two of the three engines. Much of the surfaces were thickly encrusted with coral and weed growths but to Willy’s delight there were still several pieces of Perspex in the cockpit windows.

  He lifted his head to breathe and cried, “This is amazing!” Taking another big breath he again put his head down. This time he could focus on detail, on the bent propeller blades, the small fish flitting in and out of the missing cockpit window, the glimpse of the rusting seats for pilot and co-pilot, the open side door.

  Seeing that door and the crumpled, torn hull half buried in sand, caused him to experience vivid images of the crash. He remembered Jacob’s grandfather’s story- the screaming women, terrified young Dutch children drowning. The horror of it caused him to shudder. For a few anxious seconds he looked around, half expecting to see white skulls amid the wreckage. Then he shook his head. ‘Don’t be silly. The sea creatures would have consumed them long ago,’ he told himself.

  Once again he came up for air. This time he wanted to talk but Mr Hobbs was returning so all he did was take another long look before the boat arrived. Mr Hobbs was terse. “Get aboard!” he yelled. “The boss
isn’t happy.”

  ‘I am!’ Willy thought. Feeling very pleased he allowed himself to be dragged and pushed into the boat. He then helped hoist in the diving gear and then Andrew and Carmen. As soon as they were aboard Mr Hobbs opened the throttle and headed back towards the ‘Catalina’. Willy noted with a shock that the sun had almost set and the whole sea now had a purple look.

  “That was fantastic!” he enthused.

  “It was, wasn’t it?” Andrew agreed.

  Then more sober thought s came to Willy and he said, “Was it horrible in the launch?”

  Carmen nodded. “Bit gruesome. Gator was all battered about and tangled in ropes and clothing.”

  “Sorry, but I had to know,” Willy said.

  “So did I,” Carmen agreed.

  They arrived at the door of the ‘Catalina’ to find an angry Mr Jemmerling. “What the devil were you bloody kids playing at? It’s nearly dark.”

  “We were looking at the ‘Dornier’,” Willy explained.

  Mr Jemmerling’s face at once transformed. ‘Ah!’ he exclaimed. “Yes, well, we can always come back and look at it tomorrow. Now get aboard.”

  They passed the gear up and climbed aboard. The boat was hauled through the door and deflated. As they stowed the gear and then stood there in their dripping clothes Mr Jemmerling said, “I hope you didn’t touch anything or go inside the wreck? We could be in trouble with the law if you did.”

  “We didn’t,” Carmen assured him. “And we didn’t need to. But I think Gator or Corey did. Where’s the case?”

  “In the saloon,” Mr Jemmerling said. He led the way to where Jacob and Harvey were already seated. Mr Hobbs, the pilot and the co-pilot crowded in behind them until there was barely room to move in the small compartment.

  For a minute they all just stood and stared at the slimy, battered case. Mr Jemmerling then gestured to Jacob and said, “You open it young van de Heyden. This was all your idea.”

  Very gingerly Jacob reached forward and touched the trunk. But it had already been forced open before so all he had to do was prise up the lid. This caused something to snap and more water trickled out but the lid was able to be swung back. Willy leaned forward to look in and was disappointed. Inside was just a mush of black, rotting material of some sort and a collection of sea shells and weed.

  Even more gingerly Jacob reached in and grasped a long object that was just visible. He lifted this up, slime and ooze slithering and trickling off it unheeded onto the table. Willy stared with fascination. It was a sword. As Jacob brushed at it he saw that it was a curved sword with a brass or copper scabbard. Set in the brass were dull coloured objects of blue, green and red which he then realized were precious stones. The haft, he noted, appeared to be made of gold and was also studded with jewels.

  “The sword of state!” Jacob breathed in awe.

  “They will be glad to get that back,” Carmen observed. She gently took it from Jacob and wrapped it in a cloth, then began to very gently rub at it.

  Jacob dug into the slush and extracted a metal box the size of a shoebox. It was very rusty and the old steel crumbled in his hands. Onto the table cascaded dirty water, mud and a trickle of diamonds. It was a necklace. Then a huge ruby with a pin fastener dropped out, followed by a dark green emerald brooch, the jewel the size of a hen’s egg.

  As the jewels were laid out on a towel. Willy could only gasp in aware and shake his head. ‘The Makassang crown jewels! We have found them!’

  There were pearl necklaces and earrings, diamond clasps, a starburst arrangement of diamonds that Willy later learned was a Turkish ‘Chelingk’; rings, gold ornaments and gold and silver buckles and buttons. These were all emblazoned with the Komodo dragon emblem of Makassang.

  By the time they had finished looking at the jewels, darkness had all but set in. Mr Jemmerling was the first to notice this and set things in motion. The jewels were wrapped in cloth and the aircraft took off. They lifted off and climbed into a sky, which showed only the last glow of the sunset to the west.

  “We are not going to try to land on the sea in the dark,” Mr Jemmerling said. “We will go to Cairns.”

  So they did. Along the way the teenagers dried themselves and the jewels were all cleaned and then they were photographed holding them. Mr Jemmerling sent several more long radio messages and made a couple of phone calls on his satellite phone. He was very careful not to mention where the wrecked ‘Dornier’ was except that it had crashed in the sea. “We must protect it from looters,” he explained. Carmen and Willy were allowed to phone their parents to warn them they were coming. Mr Jemmerling then radioed Wewak and Bonthorpe with the news.

  By then Willy felt utterly drained. He slumped in a seat and felt overwhelmed by the experiences of the previous week. But it was not over. When the Pterodactyl rolled to a standstill on the tarmac at Cairns Airport Willy saw that there was a crowd of TV camera men and media reporters, plus police, and various official looking persons. ‘Mr Jemmerling getting publicity,’ he thought with a wry smile.

  But he had underestimated Mr Jemmerling again. Mr Jemmerling certainly took some of the publicity but it was Jacob that he thrust to the front to tell his story and he helped him negotiate to sell it to several newspapers and magazines. Willy was just glad to see his mother and to watch.

  The crown jewels were taken off by several armed Commonwealth Police and a couple of officials. There were questions for Andrew and Carmen about what they had seen in the capsized Saurian, and then they were allowed to go with their parents. Mr Jemmerling again cautioned them not to tell where the wreck was and then asked them to keep in touch.

  Willy was whisked away by his mother. At home he found he was shaking and could barely stand. Shock and exhaustion had worn him out. After a hot bath his mother gave him a sedative and bundled him into his own bed. Just being in the familiar surroundings of his own room was extremely comforting to Willy, even though it felt unreal. He closed his scratchy, tired eyes and slipped into a deep sleep.

  He slept for twelve hours.

  *****

  When Willy woke he found that his father was home. Mr Jemmerling had sent the Pterodactyl to pick him and the Becks up. “The plane took some police divers and officials up to look at the Saurian and the ‘Dornier; wreck. They recovered Gator Smith’s body,” he added.

  Hearing that made Willy have vivid flashbacks to the terrifying waves during the cyclone and he shivered as he imagined Corey’s body being tumbled in the surf on the reef and then drifting in the sea, rotting and being torn apart by the fish. It was very morbid and depressing stuff and he wished he had Marjorie there to help take his mind off it. The best he could do was talk to her on the phone.

  Willy also found that the discovery of the ‘Dornier’ wreck and the Makassang crown jewels were headline news. Because of his involvement in the chase by the murderers he was also named and the local news media wanted to interview him. His parents allowed this but sat with him to protect him.

  The hardest thing Willy found was to keep his mouth shut when the reporters asked him where the ‘Dornier’ wreck was located.

  The next day, at Mr Jemmerling’s invitation, the family was flown to Crab Reef. Andrew and Carmen came with them. Mr Jemmerling had hired diving gear and his own diver and underwater cameras and the two wrecks were explored and extensively photographed. This time Willy was happy to go snorkelling and he even dived down to touch the tip of the sunken flying boat’s middle propeller blade.

  Pterodactyl then flew them to Bathurst Bay where Capt Kirk was just completing the salvage of the barge Oura. The barge was dragged off the beach at high water and the tow secured. Andrew, Carmen and Mr Jemmerling’s diver then did a survey of the barge’s bottom to check for damage. Luckily the barge had not been holed. Once that was done Bonthorpe set off, towing it south to Cairns.

  Graham was quite jealous that he had missed out on being there when the treasure was discovered and more so at not having seen the wrecks. As he was stil
l required to work on the Wewak, which was remaining to try to collect as many of the 44 gallon drums as possible, Willy felt sorry for him. When both Carmen and Andrew volunteered to stay and help with the work Willy felt he should as well.

  He asked his parents and they looked doubtful. “You have your cadet promotion course in six days,” his mother reminded him.

  “I know. I will be alright Mum. I will feel bad if I don’t help,” Willy replied.

  When Capt Kirk assured his parents that they would be back in Cairns in time for that they said yes. So Willy spent four extremely hot, sweaty days helping to roll empty drums down the beach, tie them into rafts so they could be towed by a boat to the Wewak, then helping to roll them up the LCT’s ramp and stack them in the oven like heat of the tank deck. But he became fitter and stronger and was glad he was helping his friends.

  The promotion course at Garbutt RAAF Base in Townsville came next and after that promotion to the rank of corporal. With the start of school he was, along with his friends, a minor celebrity. This was reinforced from time to time by articles in aircraft magazines about the aircraft wrecks, particularly that of the ‘Dornier’.

  But the biggest event to climax the adventure was being flown to Makassang in February. Mr Jemmerling took him and his father, plus Andrew and Carmen and their mother, Graham and his father, and the van der Heydens. They flew there in Pterodactyl for a dedication ceremony for the crown jewels by the Rajah. They were only there four days but as it was Willy’s first overseas trip he was very excited. They were the guests of the Rajah in the famous pink coral ‘Sun Palace’ atop the equally famous five hundred ‘Steps of Heaven’.

  The Rajah was a young man, dressed in a western suit and a Malay kopiah. He had been educated in England and greeted them warmly. The people also welcomed them as heroes and saviours. It was brought home to Willy that the crown jewels had a sacred and mystical significance that greatly strengthened the legitimacy of the Rajah’s rule and the tenuous independence of the tiny country. The Indonesians, who claimed it as part of their territories, were not pleased.

 

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