Roy Norton

“ None but one who has worked in a wreckage outfit has much conception of the careful preparations that are requisite to even a less formidable task than ours. The handling of huge steel cylinders that must be submerged, the adjustment of the enormous pumps which must eventually drive the water from these and force air into them when once they are fixed to the wreck, the swinging of huge cranes, the handling of powerful donkey engines, and the thousand and one little details, upon any single one of which either success or failure depends, are exigencies which a layman does not appreciate. ”

“ Nature herself is, and will always remain, the most formidable opponent to the wrecker.
When our surface preparations had been made, the Hector again lowered herself, this time with complete confidence, to begin her share of the work. The first time when we attained that enormous depth, Twisted Jimmy and I had gone down in quivering fear, held in leash only by desperation. Familiarity does breed contempt, for on the second submergence to the sea floor, we descended with nothing more than a tensity brought about by a slight uncertainty, and on the third time we descended boldly. ”

“ I almost regretted having sent such an exuberant message to Monsieur Périgord, in the quietude of his beloved France, for I knew that if that paragraph in the newspaper was true, and I was convinced it was, his hopes, like our own, were centred solely upon our success.
We were, after all, but explorers in an unknown field, for never yet in all the history of the seas had man been able to resurrect from its greater depths any of his treasures lost, save under the most propitious circumstances. Its floors, below fifty fathoms' depth, were laden with the accumulation of the centuries. ”

“ We were the salvage kings of the world. Fortunes beyond computation were actually within our reach. As we almost leapt above the surface of the water and opened the conning-tower and ventilator conduits, I again thought with overwhelming gratitude of Monsieur Périgord, that kindly old man who had put such possibilities within our reach, and could I at that moment have flashed him a message across the Atlantic, telling him of our success, I would have given five hundred dollars for such ability. ”

“ Once the irons are fastened to a wreck in shallow waters, there is the constant danger that wave pressure alone will hoist her up, then bring her thumping down upon the bottom to her disintegration. It is for this reason that so few submarines are ever salvaged, save in the calmest of seas. ”

“ For an hour we ran abreast of her as she progressed toward safety, throwing a huge column of smoke into the stillness of the air above her, and proving to us that Rogers was sparing no effort for speed. ”

“ In the few minutes granted us to look through the periscope, we saw that the tug had altered her course and was heading toward the storm, apparently intent on working by a long angle for the port we had made after the sinking of the Esperanza. We knew now that whatever our desire to assist her, we could be of no service, and already were warned of our own danger by the terrific rolling and straining of the Hector.
A submarine on the surface in a storm suffers even more, owing to her build, than the average liner ”

“ Twisted Jimmy Martin, too, seemed to recall this, for he cut off his lights, dropped from his little platform, and we removed the deafeners and glasses, and met each other's eyes.
TRUE ENOUGH, THERE LAY THE ESPERANZA
"Now for it," he said grimly.
"Yes," I answered. "We shall know within the next few minutes just about how desperate an effort is before us to climb back up. Do you realize that we are standing at sixty-two fathoms' depth, probably the greatest depth ever before attained by any living human being?" ”