The Depth
Stacy leaned back on
the wooden wagon while the Captain took a drink of milk offered by the sheep
handler. It was the astounding news that the Captain had just told her.
Submerging was not new.
She had heard of the research into it for centuries. In the mid sixteenth
century, it was a native of the islands who first described the concept of how
submerging can be controlled by displacing its weight of water. It was then
when a priest explained the submarine should be cylindrical in shape to better
withstand the water pressure and pointed ends for streamlining. It was not for
another hundred years before the first successful submarine was build. It
looked like a turtle floating vertically. The unit worked in travelling under
the sea surface but it did not served its purpose when needed. However it drove
the experts to put more effort in developing the unit for warfare. It worked
with the different units designed and was proven successful. It was brought to
fore again during the war. Both sides researched into it and some more
prototypes were invented until the phenomenon stopped it all.
It was too dangerous to
travel in the seas.
Till Captain Arthur
first laid eyes on the new Sea King.
The new Sea King was a
three hundred feet squid design oblong shaped contraption with a dimension of
over twenty feet in radius. That extends to over two hundred feet before it
flared up to the tail encasing the four rear compartments. The top right was at
the length of fifty feet with circular surface held the main three harpoons
with each measuring over twelve feet in length lined outside the hull like
nasty darts. It was to be fired by the air pressure generated from the main
steamers engine below which burned using gas instead of coal. The holding area
held fifteen harpoons there stacked to the side. It was manned by the Boatswain
II Ian Mackay.
On the left top was the
hanger for the explorer mini submarine named Nemo for the pet fish that Lord
Nemo once reared. It measured twenty four feet in length with a radius of eight
feet with a seating capacity for four. It was cramped inside with the
electrical consoles that ringed the sides of the mini craft. The electrical
generator set at the rear of the craft powered the twin propeller to a maximum
speed of twenty five knots. Its only weapon against any predators was the dark
ink that it released from the nozzle at the bottom of the craft. The dark ink
contains toxins which could incapacitate a large predator but it was never
tested on the larger serpents.
At the bottom half
there was the two engines compartments which powered the massive ten feet in
radius propeller which will move the Sea King at a maximum speed of twenty five
knots. It was powered by the coal fired turbine. The engines were under the
supervision of Engineer II Andre Kosovan. He was a mad man when he had one too
few vodka or when his engines starts coughing or rattles.
In the centre section
of the Sea King were the three decker’s with the top deck housing the main
consoles and equipment to sustain the ship workings. It was all powered by the
twin electrical generators. The deck below was the crew quarters and storage.
It was under the control of Boatswain I Abigail Conlay. She may be a lady in
the looks but she held a stronger personality when it comes to her
responsibility after serving in the Army for over twelve years. Everyone calls
her Ma’am except his Lordship and the Captain. She guard her ship with the Webley holstered
under her arms. She once told the curious chap caught staring at her gun. On
the hull top and bottom were two sponson units each that could swivel at fifty
degrees with the twin three footer length harpoon guns that was facing the
stern and portside. It range was for the close proximity battles and the twin
harpoons have deadly range of fifty yards. There was one sponson at the bottom
hull with the same design.
“Make sure you are
watching the right areas, boy. One taketh life and the milked you to stay
alive.”
Then we arrived at the
final fifty feet which housed the bridge and observation deck, and also the
forward compartment. Unlike the squid body shape, it flared up there like a
hammer shark head. It shaped to streamline to the front with its menacing eight
mini three footer harpoons that will impact across a target area of thirty feet
across. Below its mouth piece was the twin pincers to pick on any samples. It
was able to rotate to the rear and land the samples into the storage
compartment. The bridge housed the communications and also the wheelhouse. The
wheel was situated in the front of the bridge facing a triple layer glass
window to the scenery of the depths. Behind the pilot was the Captain’ seat
mounted on the elevated flooring to have an overview of the bridge and the
window. There are two seats to his right which were reserved for the guests. Further
to the left is the navigator’s set with the extended table to the left side. At
the rear was the consoles linked to the other compartments.
The ballast of the ship
was attached to the side of the centre hull like a set of baby squids suckling
milk from the mother.
The hull of the ship was double layered to withstand the
lower depths pressure.
The Sea King was
compartmentalized to be able to isolate any breach in the hull. It four rear
compartment were also designed to disengaged during emergencies. The total
crews for the ship were fifty and they were all experienced sailors.
“So where is the fishing
part?” Stacy was ever curious.
“Fishing? Who said
anything about fishing? We are going to protect the boats by swimming with the
sharks. We will stop them from harassing the boats. The boats are not
adequately protected by being on the surface. We need to go under to see where
they are hiding.”
“Have you submerged in
it into the sea?” Stacy asked.
“Nope. I was just
telling you the schematics. The Sea King had not been fully tested. It had done
trial runs in the shallow waters but she is waiting for her Captain to break
into her first voyage to the deep.”
“Don’t you think that
is risky?” Stacy was just being nosy with her queries.
“We are always taking
risk every moment of our life. Right now, the train could crash or go over some
bad tracks.” The Captain’ words never rang more true than that moment.
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