Danger Below! Page 10

  “These are the ones you caught,” he told them. “And I’ll treat you both to hot fudge sundaes tomorrow if you can eat all the meat.”

  Barby surveyed hers dubiously, then shook her head. “You’re safe. I’ll make two meals out of this one.

  Maybe three.”

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  “At least three,” Jan said with a sigh. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  By the time everyone had eaten more than enough, and the uneaten lobster meat placed in the refrigerator for later use, the picnic table was littered with shells and smeared with melted butter. Rick and Scotty cleaned up by simply rolling up the paper that had been used as a tablecloth, placing paper, shells, corncobs, and other debris in the fire. The girls, meanwhile, brought coffee for those who wanted it.

  Big Mike Curtis, a contented smile on his face, leaned back and sighed. “This is a bonus I didn’t expect.

  It makes the whole job worth while.”

  “Tell us,” Barby urged.

  “All right.As most of you know, I’m hired pretty regularly by insurance companies to investigate claims.

  This time it’s a claim for a drill rig lost offSpindriftIsland . During my sniffing around I paid a visit to the Coast Guard, and guess what!”

  “You found out that we saw the rig go down,” Rick stated.

  “On the nose.And what better excuse to visit old friends than to find out what they saw.”

  “As though you needed an excuse,” Jan scoffed.

  “Well, I needed an opportunity. I’ve been pretty busy.”

  “Do insurance companies always investigate claims like this one?” Scotty asked.

  “Usually, because big sums are involved.When you’re paying out four million, which is the amount claimed in this case, it’s best to make sure everything is in order. The investigations are mostlyroutine , but the company wanted a careful look this time.”

  “Why?” Hartson Brant asked.

  “Loss of the drill rig was just a little too convenient for Coastal Petroleum.”

  Rick demanded impatiently, “Too convenient?”

  Mike gave him a knowing grin.“All right. I’ll give you a rundown on the investigation. The drill rig was an old one, actually one of the pioneering models. So much has happened in deep-sea drill-rig design that it was out of date, and not very efficient. What’s more, its depth capability was limited to a few hundred feet, and most of the drilling is now in deep water. It couldn’t be modified or improved, because the design was wrong. Well, as a result, Coastal Petroleum had a white elephant on its hands. They couldn’t write it off, because it cost too much, and they couldn’t operate it at a profit, because it was too inefficient.”

  Rick summed it up. “So the best thing that could have happened was to lose it in deep water where it couldn’t be salvaged. Then the insurance company would have to pay the full policy amount.”

  “Right.But I thought it was in fairly shallow water, within salvage depth?”

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  “It was, until yesterday. Now it’s in 1300 feet. We found it today with our echo sounder, on the way to collect lobsters.” Rick hesitated. “Mike, the rig was sabotaged!”

  The detective sat up straight.“Proof?”

  Rick shook his head.“All circumstantial, so far.”

  “But convincing,” Hartson Brant added. “Tell Mike what we know, and what we surmise.”

  “Okay.” Rick stood up and began to pace as he tried to recall all pertinent details. Scotty added other details. They described the order of events from the time Jan had seen the hurricane watcher to the pulling of the rig into Tansey’s Trench.

  When they had finished, Mike stared out to the darkening sea and thought it over. “Pretty conclusive,”

  he said at last. “They were obviously desperate and took some chances. But everything you’ve told me could have a legitimate explanation, even though it would be pretty thin. The question is,How can we get proof that will stand up in a court of law?”

  “Only one way,” Scotty stated.

  “Which is?”

  “Go down and get it,” Rick finished.

  CHAPTER XVI

  The Deep Scheme

  Mike Curtis studied the boys for a long moment. “The rig is at 1300 feet, you said?”

  Rick and Scotty nodded.

  “And just how do you propose to go down and get evidence?”

  Rick countered with a question. “What’s it worth to your insurance company to find out?”

  “Plenty, obviously.If you could prove sabotage, or barratry, it would mean the company wouldn’t have to pay four million dollars. Don’t worry about cost, Rick. What’s the method?”

  Barby interrupted. “What is barratry, Mike?”

  “Negligence or fraud on the part of a ship’s crew that causes loss.A lawyer would have to decide whether this is barratry or not, so we needn’t worry about that. All we have to do is gather all the facts and the evidence.”

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  Rick gestured toward the lab building, then to Pryor and Antell. “In there is Seafaring Industries’ deep submersible, Sea Horse. Roger is Project Director, and Dick Antell is Chief Pilot. The Sea Horse can carry divers down to the wreck.”

  Mike looked at Pry or. “Could it be done?”

  “Technically, yes. The obstacles might be availability of divers and other commitments that I don’t know about. I doubt there are any, because the company would have to have made them within the past few days while I’ve been here. So far as I know, we’re not due to make a commercial dive for another month. Of course your insurance company might not want to pay the price.”

  “I don’t think that will be a problem,” Mike said. “When I report what you here at Spindrift have seen, I think they’ll want answers at nearly any cost. But how about divers?”

  Jan said quickly, “There are divers right here at Spindrift.”

  Roger Pryor shook his head. “Saturation diving isn’t the same as sport diving, Jan. I’m sure the company will want to use professional divers who have worked from Sea Horse before.”

  “Rick and Scotty figured out the whole thing!” Barby exclaimed. “It would be absolutely terrible if they couldn’t go! And what’s so great about saturation diving? Every diver has to do it the first time, doesn’t he?”

  Dick Antell grinned. “She has you there, Rog . If the company insurance liability can be worked out, I’ll back Rick and Scotty as divers.”

  Pryor’s eyebrows went up. “That’s a pretty high recommendation, Dick.”

  “I know it. And that’s not all. I’ve got a stake in this drill-rig mystery, too. I propose we use Charley Martin as pilot, and I’ll dive with the boys.”

  Rick and Scotty looked at each other, both grinning widely. Things were shaping up!

  “Who’s Charley Martin?” Barby asked.

  “One of our pilots.He’s had almost as many dives as I have. I trained him myself, and he’s good.”

  Pryor hesitated, then looked at Hartson Brant. “How would you feel about Rick and Scotty making a saturated dive at 1300 feet? I’m sure you know what they’d be up against.”

  “I do.” Hartson Brant sipped coffee thoughtfully. “What does it take to make a deep diver?Perfect physical condition, first of all. I doubt you’d find two young men in any better condition than Rick and Scotty.Second, coolness in an emergency and the ability to think under stress. Dick, you’ve had two dives with them. What do you say? I ask you because I might be accused of prejudice.”

  “They qualify,” Antell said promptly.

  “I think so, too. Third, they need the necessary diving skills, and they have those. Fourth, they should be able to perform the tasks called for. In this case, that’s inspection and observation, and probably photography. You’ve seen them at work, Roger, and I can vouch for Rick’s ability with a camera. He Page 59

  can show you some of his underwater stills and movies. So, the answer to your question is that I feel perfectly comfortable about the
prospect of their making a deep dive, provided they have an experienced diver with them on the first attempt.”

  Dick Antell spoke up. “The company needs divers, Roger. If Rick and Scotty are willing to make contract dives for us, you have the authority to sign them up right now.” He explained to the group, “We have only two divers on salary. The rest of our crew is composed of contract divers that are called in, according to their special skills, when we need them.”

  “How about it?”Roger Pryor asked. “Aside from any dive on the drill rig, would you two be available now and then to dive on contract? It wouldn’t be a formal contract in the legal sense; just a statement of hourly rates, insurance, liability, working conditions, and similar details.”

  Rick and Scotty looked hopefully at Dr. Brant. He smiled understandingly. “School comes first,” he reminded them.

  “That says it,” Rick told Pryor. “We couldn’t dive when we were in school, but we’d be available at other times.”

  “All right.The first step is a complete physical exam, which our company doctor will give you. Then we’ll see.”

  Rick and Scotty shook hands.

  “I don’t suppose you need any girl divers?” Barby asked wistfully.

  Pryor grinned.“Nope. But I’ll tell you what we could use.Two very attractive and shapely girl divers for publicity photos. Would you be interested?”

  Barby sat back, open-mouthed. She didn’t believe it.

  “We’re very much interested,” Jan said swiftly. “And what’s more, you wouldn’t even have to pay us, if we could make a dive in the Sea Horse as observers.Especially if we could watch Rick and Scotty and Dick from the submersible.”

  Pryor laughed outright. “This is the greatest gang I’ve ever seen for making deals. Look, Mr. Curtis, I’ll phonePhiladelphia in the morning and see about availability of the Sea Horse and the tender, the Sea Beast, You check with your company and find out if they’re interested. If so, I’ll put you in touch with our Vice President for Operations to make the necessary contractual arrangements.”

  “It’s a deal,” Mike said.

  “Good. As to the other deals you’ve proposed, I can only say that we’ll see.”

  CHAPTER XVII

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  Prepare to Dive!

  Rick and Scotty had been subjected to physical exams before, but they were nothing compared to the scrutiny they got from Dr. Kenneth Hermann, medical supervisor ofProject Sea Horse. He pounded, probed, listened, ran lab tests, and asked dozens of questions. He ran them up and down a flight of stairs with electrodes strapped to their bodies, checked their hearing for frequency sensitivity, injected dyes into their sinus cavities, shoved wires into their Eustachian tubes, made them breathe against tightly constricting rubber chest bands while they inhaled pure oxygen, and finally dressed them in dry suits with helmets, put electrodes on shaved patches on their heads, and put them in a tank where they floated weightless in total darkness and silence for two hours.

  When Dr. Hermann had finished, he sat them down in hisPhiladelphia office and asked gently, “Still want to be divers?”

  The boys said they did.

  The physician smiled. “Then go dive. You’ve qualified physically.”

  Dick Antell was waiting in his own office. He led them to where the Sea Beast was bobbing gently at her dock in theDelaware River and showed them around the tender. The Sea Horse entered the tender from the open stern and was lifted to deck level on a platform. At deck level, a flexible tube extended from a huge cylindrical chamber to connect to the Sea Horse’s diving hatch.

  “You go into the chamber,” Antell explained, “after breathing a heliox mixture from portable tanks for an hour or so. That gets most of the nitrogen out of your lungs, plus any residual nitrogen in your tissues. As soon as you’re in the chamber it’s flushed clear with heliox. Then you take off masks and tanks and start breathing. When tests show no nitrogen left in the chamber, we start increasing pressure. You’re breathing pure heliox, of course. The partial pressure of oxygen is automatically adjusted to exactly what you need by a sensing device. When you’re down to the required pressure, which in this case is about six and a half tons per square inch, you transfer through the tube into the Sea Horse diving compartment.

  Tube and compartment are at the same pressure.”

  “You keep saying ‘you,’” Rick pointed out. “Won’t you be with us?”

  “Yes, and so will Dr. Hermann.Illchange the pronoun. The compartment is sealed, and down we go.

  When on station, we go out and do our job, then return. Sea Horse comes back to the mother ship and we transfer back into the chamber. From then on, all we have to do is decompress for about three days.”

  “Three days!” Scotty stared, disbelieving.

  “Well, maybe only two and a half. But decompression is what takes the longest.”

  “I suppose we’re in the chamber when the Sea Beast gets under way to reach the dive station?” Rick asked.

  “Right.”

  “Does the doctor actually dive with us?” Scotty wanted to know.

  “No, he doesn’t leave the compartment. He’s a diver, but only for observation. We’ll be wired up to his Page 61

  instruments, and he’ll give us some tests as soon as we return to the compartment.It’s part of a research project on diver physiology. Hope you don’t mind being experimental animals.”

  “We don’t,” Rick assured him.

  When examination of the Sea Beast was over, An-tell took them to the administrative office where they filled out employment forms, read and signed a work order assigning them as divers to Project 117, and noted with interest that they were to collect very high wages for their work. Rick commented to Scotty,

  “Imagine doing exactly what we want to do most and being paid for it at the same time,How lucky can you get?”

  “Pretty lucky,” Scotty said, grinning.

  But there was much more to be done. Antell turned them over to one of his assistants, who briefed them on equipment and procedures, then put them through dry runs until they were groggy. They spent the night inPhiladelphia , falling into bed exhausted after a light supper. Early the next morning they were back at Seafaring Industries, hard at work again.

  In case there were pieces to be removed from the drill rig, they had to practice the use of special underwater cutting tools, wrenches, screwdrivers, and pry bars. Once proficient on dry land, they suited up in a Keller-type dry suit and went into the tank to use the tools there. The tank was fitted with gadgets on which the tools could be tried. Their instructor watched through glass ports.

  As soon as he was satisfied that the boys could handle the tools, the instructor introduced them to camera cases designed for extreme pressures. Rick’s own cases wouldn’t withstand the great pressure to which they would be subjected. The company cases were of steel, good to a depth of 10,000 feet. They learned how to load and install the cameras in the cases, how to set focus and aperture, and how to advance the film. They loaded and unloaded and operated the devices until they could have done it in their sleep.

  The lights came next. They were relatively simple, and the boys mastered them easily and quickly.

  Rick thought the indoctrination must be almost over, but no. Communications equipment was waiting.

  Included was a device that turned the helium sound into normal frequencies, so the divers could talk to each other and to the submersible. There were also signals for use in case of electronics failure.

  Again, they fell into bed, exhausted, this time without even bothering to eat. The next day they covered the same ground over again in the morning, until the instructor was satisfied they had really mastered the equipment. Then he introduced them to a type of scuba they had read about but never used. It was cryogenic scuba, using liquefied gases. In use, the tanks would be charged with helium and oxygen, both in liquid form.

  “The gear is much lighter, and gives more down time,” the instructor told them. “One
thirty-pound unit is good for about two hours at the depth where you’ll dive.”

  “Do you mean we’ll be free diving?” Rick asked.

  “Only partially.You’ll be on a tether to the sub, and the tether line will contain your communications wires. But because you’ll be in and out among girders and heavy equipment, you’ll use the cryogenic tanks for breathing to avoid any possible damage to your air supply. On simple jobs with no danger of fouling, you’ll use the hookah system, breathing from the tanks on the sub.”

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  “It makes good sense,” Scotty observed. “If the tether line gets tangled or cut, we can still survive. But if air lines are cut, it’s all over.”

  “That’s it. Now, let’s take one of these cryogenic rigs apart so you can see what makes it go.”

  Dick Antell took them to dinner that night, and with him was Charley Martin, the submersible pilot who would take them down. They spent an enjoyable evening, but got to bed early.

  On the following morning Antell personally reviewed what they had learned, watching them go through each operation step by step, answering difficult questions that he threw at them. By lunchtime, he announced that he was satisfied.

  “Back to Spindrift,” he said. “We’ll eat lunch on the way. This afternoon and tomorrow we spend on the diver system in the Sea Horse. And, on the following day, the Sea Beast arrives at dawn. We dive late that afternoon!”

  CHAPTER XVIII

  The Deep, Deep Dive

  The Sea Beast plowed steadily outward from Pirate’s Cove toward the drill rig’s ultimate resting place.

  On the upper deck, Dr. and Mrs. Brant, Dr. and Mrs. Miller, and Mike Curtis and an official of the insurance company that had hired him stood at the rail and enjoyed the sea breeze.

  On the lower deck, Barby and Jan were looking into the pressure chamber where Rick, Scotty, Dick Antell, and Dr. Hermann were comfortably seated in sling-back chairs. Rick and Scotty held microphones through which they could talk to the girls. A converter turned the helium sound into normal voice. The boys sounded squawky to themselves, but natural to people outside the chamber. The girls used a microphone set into the chamber wall.