Dourado

CHAPTER 8

Maybe this one is it.” Corey’s voice was void of all conviction. They had struck out so far: three wrecks that had looked promising, three misses. Such results were not unusual, but it dampened their enthusiasm in any case.

Dane stared at the screen, watching as the submerged ship came into view. This one lay on its side, a gaping hole where the center of the deck had been. The masts were long gone, but it was obviously a wooden sailing ship.

“Can you see the rudder?” Dane asked, as Uma approached the stern.

“Negative,” Corey replied. He leaned closer to the screen, narrowing his eyes. “Let me get a little closer.”

Uma banked sharply, and dove down toward the ship’s rear. Dane leaned closer to the screen. It was difficult to tell beneath the crust of barnacles that coated the wreck, but the ship appeared to be absent its rudder. As the image clarified, Dane’s suspicions were confirmed. The rudder was missing.

“Looks good,” Dane said. “How close are we to where Jimmy predicted we’d find her?”

Corey consulted a chart, tracing his finger across the lines and moving his lips as he read. Satisfied, he looked back at Dane with a broad grin on his face.

“Spitting distance.”

That was all Dane needed to hear. “Let’s get wet!” he shouted.

Bones whooped and clapped his hands.

They hastily donned their dive gear. Willis leaned against the rail, a rifle held loosely in one hand, looking at them with undisguised envy.

“Man, I know y’all are gonna let me dive sometime, right?” He grinned. “No fair letting y’all two have all the fun.”

“Let’s see how it goes,” Dane said, strapping on his dive knife. “For now, we need your eyes up here.” He hoped Willis would not, in fact, be needed on the surface, but he was playing it safe.

“I know,” Willis replied. “At least I can chill with the lovely lady.” He gave Kaylin a playful wink.

Kaylin smiled, but did not answer. She took Dane’s hand and drew him closer to her. “I know this sounds cheesy, but I hope you can do it, you know, for Dad.”

Dane nodded. This one was for Maxie. He hoped they would not let him down. He turned to Bones.

“Ready?”

Bones raised his right hand, palm outward, in a sarcastic imitation of an Indian salute. Dane returned the salute with an upraised middle finger. The two divers sat down on the rail, turned and nodded at one another, and flipped backward into the water.

The water was cool, but not unpleasant and the initial shock wore off quickly. Dane got his bearings. A few strong kicks, and he was shooting down toward the wreck that lay beneath their boat. Bones swam alongside. The faint shafts of sunlight dissolved as they penetrated the depths of the ocean. As the darkness swelled around them, Dane flipped on the dive light strapped to his forehead.

The sunken ship was just barely visible in the distance. Once again, he welcomed the shiver of excitement that ran through his body whenever he dived on a new wreck. They approached it cautiously, careful not to stir up any more silt than necessary. The closer they swam to the ship, the more certain he became that this was the Dourado. It was the right size, the right apparent age, and in the right location.

They swam to the stern and made a careful inspection. The rudder had definitely been broken off. Dane ran his hand along the back of the ship, moving it down toward the ocean floor. There it was! He took out his dive knife and gently scraped at the barnacles that coated the ship’s exterior. Where the ship disappeared in the silt, a jagged hole gaped like the mouth of an angry leviathan. It was just as Rienzi had described in his journal. He looked at Bones, who nodded his understanding.

Together, they swam toward the gaping hole in the deck. Bones, ever vigilant, peered into the hole, letting his light play around the hold in search of unwelcoming hosts. He gave Dane the “all clear” signal, and let his body drift down into the boat. Dane followed behind.

This was the most dangerous part of a dive. The fine layer of silt that collected on the inside of a sunken vessel could easily be turned into a swirling maelstrom by an incautious flip of a swim fin. A diver could get lost inside an unfamiliar ship, blinded by the blizzard of dirt particles suspended in the water. Dane was not worried, though. He and Bones knew how to take care of themselves.

He looked around at the interior of the ancient ship, but there was little to be seen. Random bumps and bulges beneath the surface of the silt indicated that a few items might remain inside the hold. If this was the Dourado, he did not expect to find much inside the ship, given that items had apparently been salvaged from it at the time of its sinking. Still, he wished he could find something, anything to confirm the ship’s identity.

Bones waved to him. Dane looked over, and saw his friend gesturing for him to exit the wreck. He trusted his partner enough not to question his judgment. Dane carefully turned and swam out through the hole in the deck. When he reached the outside, he turned about and peered back into the hold.

Bones was looking at something covered in silt. Occasionally he would look up toward Dane, as if fixing his location, then look back down at the spot on the ocean floor. Finally, he began digging in the fine dirt. A massive cloud of silt erupted, spreading as if in slow motion to fill the hold. Dane caught a glimpse of Bones scooping something up before the other diver vanished from sight. He held his position, keeping an eye out for his friend. Moments later, he made his appearance, bursting forth from the cloud that poured out of the ship, his fine mesh dive bag clutched in his hand. He held up the bag for Dane to see. Coins! Dane gave his friend the thumbs up, and they headed for the surface.

Breaking the surface, Dane swam to the side of the Queen’s Ransom, where Willis offered him a helping hand. The muscular, ebony-skinned man lifted him from the water with ease. Bones clambered aboard with help from Kaylin, who wore the expression of an expectant parent.

“Well?” she asked.

“Let’s clean those up first,” Dane nodded toward Bones’ bag of coins. “They ought to tell us a great deal.” He tried to suppress his excitement. He had learned a long time ago not to get his hopes up, but right now he had a good feeling.

Retiring to the cabin, Dane and Bones set to cleaning the coins. Patiently they scoured away two hundred years of tarnish and grime. Glints of gold began to peek out from the black circles. Soon, thereafter, details appeared: writing, numbers and images. Forty minutes later, a small pile of gold coins lay gleaming dully in a bowl of preservative solution. Dane fished one out gingerly, held it up to the light and inspected it carefully, turning it around in his fingers.

“Portuguese,” he announced. He could feel the grin spreading across his face.

“And the date?” Bones asked, leaning forward, his pearl-white teeth glowing in the sun.

“Hmm…” Dane stalled, letting the tension build. “It’s hard to say, but I’m pretty sure…”

“Oh, just tell us, Maddock!” Kaylin scolded.

“Fine,” he said, chuckling. “The year of our Lord, 1824.”

The room erupted in shouts of joy. Kaylin threw her arms around Dane’s neck and gave him a squeeze. Willis, still standing guard on the deck, pumped his fist and smiled.

Bones scooped another coin out of the bowl and examined it. His smile widened. “Portugal, 1821.” He raised his clenched fist in triumph.

They repeated the ritual, taking turns examining the coins, until they had inspected every one. The final tally was eleven coins: seven Portuguese, three Spanish and one French. All were dated four years or more prior to the sinking of the Dourado.

“Gentlemen,” Dane began, “and lady,” he added, “I believe we have found our ship.”