Clive Cussler; Craig Dirgo Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  PART ONE - L’Aimable

  I - The Father of Waters 1684-1685

  II - Out of Reach 1998-1999

  PART TWO - The Steamboat New Orleans

  I - Penelore 1811-1814

  II - Where Did It Go? 1986, 1995

  PART THREE - The Ironclads Manassas and Louisiana

  I - Civil War Turtle 1861—1862

  II - They Don’t Come Cheaper Than This 1981, 1996

  PART FOUR - U.S.S. Mississippi

  I - A Magnificent End 1863

  II - Nothing Stays the Same 1989

  PART FIVE - The Siege of Charleston: Keokuk, Weehawken, and Patapsco

  I - Cradle of Secession 1863—1865

  II - Three for the Price of One 1981, 2001

  PART SIX - The Cannon of San Jacinto

  I - The Twin Sisters 1835, 1865, 1905

  II - Dr. Graves, What Have You Done? 1987—1997

  PART SEVEN - Mary Celeste

  I - Mystery Ship 1872

  II - Paradise Gone 2001

  PART EIGHT - The Steamboat General Slocum

  I - Never Again 1904

  II - Coke Isn’t Necessarily a Soft Drink 1994, 2000

  PART NINE - S.S. Waratah

  I - Disappearing Act 1909

  II - Is It Here or Is It There? 1987-2001

  PART TEN - R.M.S. Carpathia

  I - Savior of the Seas 1912,1918

  II - It’s Never Easy 2000

  PART ELEVEN - L’Oiseau Blanc

  I - The White Bird 1927

  II - Rain, Black Flies, and Bogs 1984, 1997, 1998

  PART TWELVE - U.S.S. Akron

  I - Lighter Than Air 1931-1933

  II - No Surfing in New Jersey 1986

  PART THIRTEEN - PT-109

  I - PT-109 1943

  II - I Have a Special Room in My Mind for You 2001

  PART FOURTEEN - I America’s Leonardo da Vinci

  America’s Leonardo da Vinci - 1792, 2001

  POSTSCRIPT FROM THE AUTHOR

  CURRENT LIST OF NUMA SEARCH SURVEYS AND DISCOVERIES

  ADDITIONAL HISTORIC SITES AND ARTIFACTS

  “NOBODY DOES IT BETTER

  THAN CLIVE CUSSLER. NOBODY.”

  —Stephen Coonts

  The Sea Hunters II is...

  “Fascinating.”

  —The Associated Press

  “Thrilling.”

  —Library Journal

  “Genuinely illuminating.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “As with the first Sea Hunters, Cussler brings history alive with the same deft storytelling touch he has used in a popular, long-running series of adventure novels featuring Superman-of-the-seas Dirk Pitt.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  REAL ADVENTURES.

  REAL GLORY.

  For nearly twenty-five years, the real-life NUMA, Clive Cussler’s National Underwater & Marine Agency, has scoured rivers and seas in search of lost ships of historic significance—such as the Confederate submarine Hunley, which they raised in 2000.

  In this second volume of true stories, Cussler and colleague Craig Dirgo target the famous ghost ship Mary Celeste; the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the Titanic survivors only to be lost to U-boats six years later; L’Oiseau Blanc, the airplane that almost beat The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic before disappearing in the Maine woods—plus steamboats, ironclads, a seventeenth-century flagship, a certain famous PT boat, and even a dirigible—to prove once again that truth can be “at least as fun as, and sometimes stranger than, fiction” (Men’s Journal).

  “Cussler’s artful writing style and varied experiences while searching for historical treasures make this a first-rate adventure book.” —Publishers Weekly

  “FASCINATINGLY TOLD.” —Kirkus Reviews

  PRAISE FOR

  THE SEA HUNTERS

  “The Sea Hunters is a rollicking good book.”

  —Norman N. Brown, Chicago Tribune

  “Cussler tells one hell of a story.”

  —New York Daily News

  “Cussler does a great job of making history lively and

  interesting ... He entertains and enlightens at the same

  time, [and] his infectious enthusiasm will have more

  than one reader wondering if there’s any way he can

  hook up with him on his next adventure.”

  —The Denver Post

  “[An] absorbing, fast-paced collection.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  PRAISE FOR

  THE NUMA® NOVELS

  “MARVELOUS ... simply terrific fun.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “YOU CAN’T GET MUCH MORE SATISFYING.”

  —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

  “A GREAT STORY.”

  —Tulsa World

  “WILDLY ENTERTAINING.”

  —New York Daily News

  PRAISE FOR

  CLIVE CUSSLER

  “A NEW CLIVE CUSSLER NOVEL IS LIKE

  A VISIT FROM YOUR BEST FRIEND.”

  —Tom Clancy

  . “PURE ENTERTAINMENT ...

  as reliable as Pitt’s trusty Colt .45.”

  —People

  “Just about the best storyteller in the business.”

  —New York Post

  “PURE CUSSLER, PURE FUN.

  The action just keeps accelerating.”

  —The San Francisco Examiner

  “CLIVE CUSSLER HAS NO EQUAL.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  Dirk Pitt® Adventures by Clive Cussler

  VALHALLA RISING

  ATLANTIS FOUND

  FLOOD TIDE

  SHOCK WAVE

  INCA GOLD

  SAHARA

  DRAGON

  TREASURE

  CYCLOPS

  DEEP SIX

  PACIFIC VORTEX

  NIGHT PROBE

  VIXEN 03

  RAISE THE TITANIC!

  ICEBERG

  THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER

  Fiction by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos

  FIRE ICE

  SERPENT

  BLUE GOLD

  Fiction by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo

  GOLDEN BUDDHA

  Nonfiction by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo

  THE SEA HUNTERS II

  THE SEA HUNTERS

  CLIVE CUSSLER AND DIRK PITT REVEALED

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the authors nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  THE SEA HUNTERS II

  A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with

  the authors

  Copyright © 2002 by Sandecker, RLLLP.

  All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors’ rights is appreciated. For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-1-440-67426-6

  BERKLEY®

  Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  37
5 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY and the “B” design

  are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  For Barbara, always for Barbara.

  C.C

  For my mother, who raised six children

  and dozens of dogs, we miss you.

  C.D.

  IN MEMORY OF ...

  WILLARD BASCOM

  Ocean pioneer of the first magnitude.

  ROBERT FLEMING

  A great researcher.

  RICHARD SWETE

  Exceptional historian and nautical archaeologist.

  DONALD SPENCER Who inspired a legion of divers.

  &

  GERALD ZINSER

  Last surviving crew member of PT-109.

  Acknowledgments

  The authors are extremely grateful to the kind and gracious people who helped to make this book possible. Their efforts and considerations are deeply appreciated. Ralph Wilbanks of Diversified Wilbanks, John Davis of ECO-NOVA Productions, Bill Nungesser, Wes Hall, Connie Young, Robert Fleming, Richard DeRosset, Emlyn Brown, Gary Goodyear, Graham Jessop, Elsworth Boyd, Carole Bartholmeaux, Colleen Nelson, Susan MacDonald, Lisa Bower, John Hunley, and Wayne Gronquist.

  NUMA ADVISORY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

  Clive Cussler, Chairman

  Craig Dirgo

  Colonel Walt Schob

  Douglas Wheeler

  Admiral William Thompson

  Michael Hogan

  Eric Schonstedt*

  Commander Donald Walsh

  Dana Larson

  Barbara Knight

  Dirk Cussler, President

  Robert Esbenson*

  Ralph Wilbanks

  William Shea

  Dr. Harold Edgerton*

  Clyde Smith

  Peter Throckmorton*

  Tony Bell*

  Kenhelm Stott, Jr.*

  *Deceased

  Introduction

  WE ALL HAVE A FASCINATION WITH THE SEA AND THE mysteries that lie in the deep. It is still one of the great unknowns. Adventurers climb the highest mountains in order to reach the summits and feast on the horizons fifty miles away. A diver does not share that pleasure. Unless he is diving in the clear water of the tropics, his visibility is seldom more than twenty feet. He can only wonder what lies in the murk beyond.

  Men and women have hiked over most of the world’s landmass, and what little we have not encountered has been photographed from satellites. Giant observatories and the Hubble telescope have shown us the wonders of deep space. But the human eye and the camera lens have recorded less than 1 percent of the wonders that lie hidden below the surface of the seas.

  The deep liquid void is still a great enigma.

  Thanks to mushrooming scientific interest, however, deepwater technology has awakened. Probes have studied everything from bottom storms and the migration of sea life to currents, geology, underwater acoustics, and the increasing bugaboo of pollution. Because of new, sophisticated equipment that can probe thousands of feet down, great shipwrecks of history have been discovered in the silent darkness, after lying centuries in unmarked watery graves.

  Men like Bob Ballard and companies like Nauticos have reached and photographed several of these lost wrecks, but many lie there yet, waiting. That’s what we do: We try to find them. The National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) searches for lost ships of historic significance, in the hopes of finding and surveying them before they have deteriorated and are gone forever. Since we are a shoestring operation funded mostly by my book royalties, our expeditions concentrate solely on wrecks in shallow water.

  NUMA was formed in 1978 after our first venture—the unsuccessful hunt for John Paul Jones’s Bonhomme Richard— and while we were preparing for our second crack at the same ship. Wayne Gronquist, a prominent Austin attorney, suggested that it would be more advantageous as a legal entity if we incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation. I agreed, and Wayne, who served twenty years as NUMA’s president, filed the documents. And, yes, it is the same name as the government agency in my Dirk Pitt adventure books. The trustees thought it would be sporting to name the foundation after my own fictional creation, so I could say, “Yes, Virginia, there really is a NUMA.”

  When it comes to salvage, we leave that to others. No member of NUMA has ever kept an artifact. People who visit my home and office are always surprised to find only models and paintings of the ships we have discovered, never any relics. Any item brought up from a wreck is preserved and turned over to the state in whose waters it was found. For instance, the artifacts from the Confederate raider Florida and the Union frigate Cumberland—both NUMA finds—were preserved by the College of William and Mary before they were put on public display at the Norfolk Naval Museum in Virginia.

  My desire is that our discoveries should be followed by federal, state, or local governments; by corporations, universities, or historical organizations with the funding either to raise the wrecks or retrieve the artifacts for exhibit in museums.

  In the twenty-three years of its existence; NUMA’s search and survey teams have conducted more than a hundred and fifty expeditions and have discovered or surveyed sixty-five wreck sites. We’ve also searched for a lost locomotive, a pair of cannon, an airplane, and a zeppelin. The successes, I’m sad to say, have been outnumbered by the failures. When you tackle the hunt for a lost object on land or sea, you quickly learn that the odds against finding it are far steeper than your chances of winning at a Las Vegas roulette table.

  To look for a shipwreck is at best a crapshoot, and to launch and fund a search, it helps to be the headmaster of the village idiot school or else the kind of stubborn lunatic who tries to walk through walls simply because they’re in the way. I probably fall in the latter group.

  You have to live with failure—all too often, it seems. Let me describe just a few of our recent disappointments.

  In 2000, we hunted for John Holland’s sixteen-foot, one-man submarine in New York’s East River. Along with his competitor Simon Lake, John Holland is considered to be the father of the modem submarine. Their designs established the underwater navies of Europe and America just around the turn of the century.

  Holland’s tiny submarine was thought to be quite sophisticated for its time. Unfortunately, plans and reports on her construction are sparse. She was lost when she was stolen by the Fenian Brotherhood, an early parent organization of the Irish Republican Army, who funded Holland’s early experiments with submarines for the express purpose of putting the British navy out of business. For the Brotherhood, Holland designed and built the most advanced sub of the time, aptly titled the Fenian Ram. Though never created to ram a steel-hulled ship, the three-man, 19-ton boat was 31 feet in length, with a 6-foot beam, and was propelled by a 15-horsepower Brayton twin-cylinder gas engine.

  Not content with merely developing an efficient undersea boat, Holland conceived and perfected the instrument that turned the submarine into one of the most devastating weapons of warfare. Taking advantage of a missile developed by John Ericsson, the famed creator of the Civil War Monitor, who graciously allowed the sub builder to use copies of his experimental models, Holland fitted the missiles to a weapon of his own design in a 6-foot-by-9-inch tube. This gun, as it was called, was fired pneumatically by high-pressure air. The brilliant concept has changed little over the past 120 years.

  The sub and its weapon worked incredibly well during tests conducted by Holland, tests that irritated the impatient Fenians. Angered because they felt he was taking too much time with his experiments and trial runs with the ram, the Fenians decided to snatch it. On a dark night in November of 1883, a group of maddened Irish tanked up on good whiskey at a Brooklyn saloon. After becoming properly fortified, they borrowed a tugboat and sneaked up to the dock where the Fenian Ram was moored and towed her away.

  Enjoying the moment in an alcoholic haze, they became carried away and decided to make off with the small ex
perimental sub, too. Then they headed up the East River toward Long Island Sound, intending to hide the two subs up a small river near New Haven, Connecticut.

  By the time they reached Whitestone Point, the wind had begun to blow strongly from the north and heavily buffeted the small convoy. The Fenians failed to notice that the model boat’s hatch cover on the turret had not been tightened down, and water began spilling through the cracks. Rapidly filling, the little sub foundered in the rising waves, snapped her tow-line, and headed to the bottom, 110 feet below. Unaware of the loss, they calmly continued on their way to New Haven.