Question Mark 1990 #8

Sergei Iosifovich Venetsky

What does the ocean store?

To the reader

The World Ocean... According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, about 70% of the earth's surface falls on the "continuous water shell of the Earth surrounding the continents and islands". But how can “dry” interest express all the greatness of the World Ocean with its grandiose volumes of water that are not accessible to our imagination, with its boundless expanses and bottomless depths? Let us give just one, but quite a clear example: if all the ocean water reserves are conditionally represented as a giant column with a diameter of one kilometer going into the sky, then its length will be almost twelve times the distance from our planet to the Sun. Realizing all the conventionality of such a comparative model, we nevertheless ventured to offer it to readers in order to show the truly astronomical scale of the World Ocean, modestly called the "water shell of the Earth."

The topic that fully corresponds to the title of this brochure is as boundless as the ocean distances are boundless. To give a more or less complete answer to the question "What does the ocean store?", Dozens of solid tomes will be needed. But we, of course, do not set ourselves such a super-task. Our goal is much more modest: to tell only about some interesting episodes from a huge chronicle that tells about man’s attempts to uncover the secrets of the ocean floor, shed light on certain mysteries of history and life, find at least a small fraction of those values ​​that the sea took away from people. We will talk about ships in distress, about those sometimes fabulous treasures that went into the abyss with them, about those cities that, by the will of fate and the elements, disappeared under water.

So what is the ocean hiding from us? Where are sea trophies buried? How to get to them? Who and when tried to penetrate into the domain of Neptune? Who succeeded? What were the people able to get back?

Perhaps, to some extent, the reader will be able to find answers to these and other questions in a brochure prepared on the basis of materials from the domestic and foreign press.

VENETSKY Sergey Iosifovich - member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR. His popular science books "Tales about Metals", "On Rare and Dispersed", "From Fire to Plasma" were awarded diplomas of the annual competitions of the All-Union Society "Knowledge" and translated into many languages. In the periodical press, he published a large number of articles on the world of metals, metallurgy, and the history of material culture.

Steps into silence

Centuries gone to the abyss

Since ancient times, man has sought to use sea routes to establish links between continents, countries, and peoples separated by water. Often the seas and oceans served as the arena of fierce battles, in which the fate of entire states was sometimes decided. Over the long centuries that the history of the sea of ​​navigation counts, an innumerable number of all kinds of ships - caravels and galleons, frigates and brigantines, cruisers and submarines, steamships and motor ships - left their native shores to deliver people, goods, products and others to various parts of the globe. cargo or to meet with the enemy and resolve a dispute with him in a naval battle.

But not always the ship, and sometimes even huge fleets, were destined to return to their port, to their harbor: mighty waves and hurricane winds threw ships onto reefs and rocks, heavy, enemy cannonballs pierced wooden sides and crushed masts, exploding powder kegs carried into chips of the deck and superstructure, a random spark turned a luxurious liner into a blazing fire in a matter of minutes. In all these and similar situations, the fate of the ship was usually a foregone conclusion: it plunged into the abyss, and the ocean floor became its last refuge.

People died, the cargo that was in the holds and cabins turned out to be the prey of the sea. Sometimes he counted only a dozen other amphorae with wine or casks of olive oil, but it happened that tons of gold, silver and other valuables disappeared into the sea abyss along with the ship in distress. Historians believe that in the last five centuries alone, the ocean has swallowed up an eighth of the world's gold and silver production. Of great value were many other cargoes that went to the bottom as a result of thousands and thousands of shipwrecks that happened at sea.

But the ruthless elements fell in an evil hour not only on ships: the sad fate of becoming its victims also fell to the lot of some coastal cities, settlements, islands, hiding under water as a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or any other reasons, sometimes still unknown .

Everything from water

Attempts to penetrate into the depths of the sea were made by people in antiquity. The earliest depiction of a diver found on Mesopotamian tombstones dates back to the turn of the 5th and 4th millennium BC. e.

Approximately eight centuries younger are similar drawings preserved on the walls of the tombs of the ancient Greek city of Thebes. In the 5th century BC e. The Athenians used divers in the siege of Syracuse. A few decades later, the great Aristotle designed diving equipment in the form of a bell, with the help of which his no less great pupil Alexander the Great plunged into the Mediterranean waters: in this way he personally got acquainted with the underwater barriers of the Phoenician city of Tyre, preparing to attack him from the sea. Shortly after successful reconnaissance, the city was captured by the troops of the young king-commander.

For more than two millennia, the diving bell remained the main technical tool that made it possible to dive to a relatively shallow depth, conduct search operations there, and, if successful, take away the valuables found at the bottom from the sea. With its help, for example, a certain William Phips at the end of the 17th century managed to extract from the water a significant part of the treasures of the Spanish galleon that sank near the Bahamas.

From a young age, Phips dreamed of treasures resting on the seabed ... Since the Spanish conquistadors, who landed on the lands of the American continent, at the beginning of the 16th century, plundered the local peoples and tribes on an unprecedented scale, for more than two centuries from the shores of the New World, then and the ships and flotillas, heading for the Iberian Peninsula, departed. But, as if taking revenge on the conquerors, the ocean more than once snatched the stolen gold and silver from their hands. These sunken jewels haunted Boston resident William Phips. A former ship's carpenter, he decided to change his profession and become a smuggler, while not leaving the dream of finding an underwater treasure sooner or later.

It is easy to say - to find, but where, in what place of the vast expanses of the sea to look for the remains of sunken ships stuffed with treasures? It is not known how the life of a young seeker of happiness would have developed in the future if he had not once heard a call for help on the island of Hispaniola, coming from a wooden barn. This hoarse cry was for him a truly happy voice of fate. Strong in body and not timid in spirit, William, without hesitation, entered the barn and saw two guys beating a pathetic old man. William's anger was so obvious that they not only left their victim, but immediately rushed to their heels. “Why did these villains beat you?” Phips asked the barely recovered old man. In response, he told his savior the secret that the escaped thugs wanted to find out.

Once upon a time, Ottavio - that was the name of the old man - served as a helmsman on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Cancepción. Fortune turned out to be unfavorable to this ship: having run into the reefs of the Silver Bank, it crashed and sank, taking with it countless treasures: precious metal ingots from Peru and Mexico, emeralds and other precious stones from Colombia, pearls from Venezuela. One of the few who managed to escape was Ottavio. Realizing that he no longer had the strength or means to raise the galleon from the bottom of the wealth, he gave Phips a map on which the exact place of the ship's death was marked. In return, the old man only asked for some gold if the search was successful.

And success came. But before this happened, a lot of grief and disappointment fell to the lot of the owner of the treasured card.

Phips understood the difficulty and danger of the upcoming treasure hunt: after all, the local waters were the domain of pirates, who would hardly have reacted favorably to the fact that someone got rich before their eyes. Therefore, all preparations for the expedition had to be carried out in the strictest confidence, and considerable funds were required for the technical equipment of the expedition. In a word, it was necessary to look for, as they would now say, a sponsor - a rich and powerful patron. And the young smuggler, who did not have time to prove himself in this slippery field, went to England, intending to interest King Charles II himself with his plans. This monarch, a great lover of lavish fun, which took a lot of money, liked the idea of ​​Phips, and soon he, on the royal frigate Rose of Algiers with 18 guns, was already heading to the Caribbean Sea to the very Silver Bank reefs where he was waiting ( did you wait?) a sunken Spanish galleon.

Dropping anchor in the place that was indicated on Ottavio's diagram, Phips and his companions spent days inspecting and rummaging the seabed in shallow water near the reefs, but, alas, they managed to find only one small ingot of silver. It was not possible to find the remains of the galleon. The planned period of searches was coming to an end, and the provisions taken on board the ship were also melting. The unsuccessful search caused discontent among the crew. Even a rebellion was brewing, and Phips had no choice but to return empty-handed to England. The only silver bar could only be regarded as a souvenir and was unlikely to satisfy the exacting "sponsor", so William was by no means pleased with the upcoming rendezvous with the king. Where are you going to get away from him?

But fate protected the loser from a meeting that did not promise him anything good: while Phips, not knowing peace, was looking for his happiness, Charles II, on the contrary, managed to find eternal peace. He ascended the throne younger brother James II, who did not even want to accept a dubious person who arrived from a long voyage. This suited Phips quite well, since it relieved him of his previous obligations and allowed him to look for a new influential partner. Soon one was found: it was Henry Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, a passionate gambler who dreamed of making a solid fortune. It was he who obtained from James II the necessary consent to search for treasures, promising the king a tenth share of the booty.

Having royal "good", the duke easily put together a "Company of gentlemen - adventurers", who put at his disposal 3,200 pounds sterling - a very solid amount at that time. Some time later, or rather, on September 12, 1686, two ships under the command of William Phips departed from the shores of Foggy Albion in a southwestern direction: one of them, with 22 guns, he named “Jacob and Mary” in honor of the crowned couple, the other , smaller, with 10 guns, - "Henry" in recognition of the Duke's merit in equipping the second expedition.

And here is Phips again near the Bahamas in the area of ​​​​cherished coral reefs. The Indian divers hired by him dive dozens of times daily in search of at least some traces of the lost ship. This is how a month goes by. But all in vain. It seems that this time the fortune does not consider it necessary to make Phips and his team happy. The captain is ready to admit defeat. Having called his assistants to a meeting, William announces to them the termination of the search work. At the same time, he stomps his foot under the table in his hearts, accidentally touching some strange object, similar to a piece of coral growth, but suspiciously regular shape. What is it? With an ax blow, Phips breaks it - inside is a small box of hard wood. Another blow of the ax, and silver and gold coins rain down on the deck.

A small investigation is immediately carried out and it turns out that this “piece of coral” was taken from the bottom by one of the divers in the first weeks of the search. Since everyone was interested not in corals, but in precious metals, Phips threw him at the same time under the table, where he had lain all this time. But how to find the place where the chest of coins, disguised by the sea, was retrieved from? The diver recalls that he found his find in a rocky depression, at the bottom of which, as he remembers, large coral formations were piled up. Within a few minutes, several Indians plunge into it at once. An agonizing wait, and finally, one by one, they emerge to the surface, holding “bricks” in their hands, overgrown with a layer of corals. Moreover, some of them even claim to have seen ship cannons in the crevices. Is the goal close?

Phips decides to go down into the water himself. For this purpose, back in London, he built with his own hands a simple diving bell - a large cone-shaped barrel, girded with iron hoops and covered with a thick layer of lead for ballast. Inside this "bathyscaphe" there were seats for divers, who could get out from under the bell to the bottom with a breathing hose. Now it was already possible to go deeper and stay under water longer, and therefore, to see more.

During one of the dives, something happened for which Phips endured difficulties and hardships for many months: a sunken galleon was discovered at a depth of about 12-15 meters. Covered entirely with coral growths, it looked like a reef rising from the bottom. Even experienced sailors did not immediately determine where the ship's bow was and where the stern was. But was it so important, if every now and then it was possible to raise to the surface either a silver ingot, or a handful of coins, or a gold plate! With such a material incentive, divers worked more cheerfully. From early morning, as soon as the first rays of the sun made their way through the water column, the working day began, which ended at dusk. Only a storm interrupted the search for some time, but as soon as it subsided, the dives resumed.

The booty was deposited on the deck of the main ship. The pile of treasures taken from the sea gradually grew. But ... the dissatisfaction of the crew was also growing: work had been going on for more than two months, people were insanely tired, drinking water began to rot in barrels, and melting food supplies forced the cook to reduce portions. In addition, one morning a light sloop approached the Silver Bank reef, anchoring not far from the underwater mine of Phips. This is where the artillery that his ships were equipped with came in handy. A volley of 22 cannons put an end to the hopes of uninvited guests: the sloop riddled with cannonballs soon went to the same place where the galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción had been resting for several decades.

Phips understood that the main wealth of the Spanish ship still remained in its holds. Using his high authority among the crew, the captain asked his subordinates to continue working for some time, reaffirming that everyone would receive their share of the extracted jewelry. He persuaded the best of the divers to try to penetrate the lower hold of the galleon. He complied with the request of Phips, but when he got to the surface, blood was streaming down his face. The poor fellow did not even have the strength to climb into the boat, and he had to be dragged there by two sailors. But the diver's efforts were not in vain: after catching his breath, he said that he had found a large chest in the hold, which he could not even budge.

Not to leave treasures to other, more successful seekers of happiness? On this issue, all members of the expedition showed complete unanimity. Descending one or two into the hold, the divers managed to sling the chest in three days, remove it from the hold, and then lift it aboard the Yakov and Mary. A wave of an ax - and gold jewelry, diamonds, emeralds, pearls and even crystal glasses rained down on the deck, which, breaking, made a farewell bewitching ring. But it was not he who enchanted the team, but those innumerable treasures that, in front of everyone, were taken from like a magic chest. All valuables were carefully weighed and registered in the ledgers, kept carefully from the beginning by the trusted confidants of Phips and the Duke of Albemarle.

Joy and jubilation reigned that morning in the camp of underwater victors. There was no longer any question of stopping the work that promised fabulous prospects. Everyone expressed their readiness to endure any trials, if the sea so generously endows them for it. However, in life, reality often comes into serious conflict with the dream. So it happened in those days distant from us for three centuries, when the divers of Phips, at considerable risk to their lives, tried to penetrate the holds of the Spanish galleon clogged with coral outgrowths. To facilitate the breaking of these natural "locks", the crew even forged a variety of tools: hooks, crampons and other devices. But the divers failed to open the petrified skin or deck of the ship. The sea considered the given material values ​​to be quite sufficient compensation to the expedition members for their hard work.

However, they really did not have to complain about their fate: the ledgers already contained many entries, in which a total of tens of thousands of pounds of silver appeared in the form of ingots, several boxes and bags of coins, 25 pounds of pure gold, a great variety of all kinds of jewelry, precious stones, pearls. With such booty, it was not a shame to return to London, and Phips sets a course for the British Isles.

The way back was not easy. Suffice it to say that already at the very beginning of the voyage, only the high skill of the captain and the cunning of Phips allowed him to cheat the French pirates: on a dark stormy night, he risked hiding his ships among the formidable rocks, thanks to which he managed to escape from the pursuit, which could sadly end so successfully established multi-month expedition. And so, leaving behind thousands of miles, filled with mortal dangers and the most difficult trials, on June 6, 1687, Phips returned to the harbor, from where nine months earlier he set off on his voyage for underwater riches.

London welcomed Phips as a hero. Everyone who was involved in the equipment of the expedition began to divide the booty. Most of all went to the Duke of Albemarle and the "Company of gentlemen - adventurers." Strictly speaking, William Phips and his crew had to look for true adventures at sea, and the gentlemen's land "adventures" were reduced only to the risk of losing their funds invested in the enterprise. Now, the costs have paid off handsomely. Well, who does not risk, he does not drink champagne.

Officers, boatswain, cook, sailors - all members of the crew found their share, but old Ottavio Phips could no longer thank the old man: he died shortly after he parted with his secret. The Tower of London also got something: its arsenal was replenished with six bronze cannons taken from the sea.

Having received his "tithe" - over 20 thousand pounds sterling, James II not only deigned to accept the former ship's carpenter, but also awarded him a knighthood "for good and honest services." Soon, the newly-born knight was awarded two medals. The front side of one of them was decorated with profiles of the royal couple, and on the back was a ship named after her, anchored above the sunken ship. The inscription embossed on the medal read: "Let your fishhook always hang."

This phrase, taken from Ovid's poem "The Art of Love", implied, of course, the "hook" with which Phips was so successful in catching his "goldfish". On another medal, Neptune was minted, armed with a traditional trident: the lord of the underwater kingdom, dressed in a magnificent wig and therefore surprisingly similar to the Duke of Albemarle, calmly looked at the extraction of treasures. The motto of the medal stated: "Everything - from the water."

The king, who had noticeably become kinder to Phips, offered him to take the high position of commissioner of the British fleet, but he decided to return to New England, where he was from. With his share, which amounted to more than 11 thousand pounds, he built a large and beautiful house in Boston, intending to live in it for his own pleasure.

However, James II wished to appoint Phips governor of Massachusetts and governor general of Maine and Nova Scotia.

How do you turn down a royal commission? I had to put a heavy burden on my shoulders. In the new role, Phips had a chance to engage in battles with the troops of the French colonies on American soil more than once. In addition, in the intricacies of life's intrigues, he did not feel as confident as in sailing on a stormy sea. After a major battle near Quebec, the recent darling of fate was not only defeated, but also ruined, entangled in debt, pursued by numerous personal enemies. In a word, an experienced sailor managed to run aground on land.

The only hope left was for influential patrons in London. But there Phips was in for a bitter disappointment: by that time, James II was forced to part with the English throne and fled from England, and the unlucky governor had no merit in front of the opposition that came to power, led by William III. For non-payment of the debt of yesterday's triumphant, they were unceremoniously thrown into prison. His body, undermined by tropical fever, could not bear the cold and dampness of the stone cell, which became his last abode. He soon died. It happened in 1695, when Phips was a little over 44 years old.

The only property of a noble prisoner was a small silver bar - the same one that he had raised from the bottom during his first attempt to find the sunken Spanish galleon. This piece of silver, which served as William's talisman, could not save its owner from the bitter vicissitudes of fate, but it was useful to him on the eve of his death: in his last hour, Phips gave the commemorative silver to the jailer so that he could buy a decent coffin for him.

But the jailer did not have to fulfill the dying will of the legendary prisoner: as if recovering from their unjust cruelty, the authorities ordered Phips to be buried at the expense of the royal treasury. On his grave, the widow erected a white marble monument with a beautiful urn supported by two angels. The bas-relief on the monument repeated the design of the medal awarded to the brave treasure hunter in his finest hour: a ship at anchor surrounded by boats from which underwater treasure mining is carried out.

The troubles and troubles that began in the last period of his life haunted Phips even after his death: under unknown circumstances, this tombstone disappeared without a trace. Only in the documents the text of the epitaph, once inscribed on marble, has been preserved:

“Here lies the knight Sir William Phips, who, by his inexhaustible energy, discovered among the rocks of the Bahamas, north of Hispaniola, a Spanish galleon, which had lain for forty-four years at the bottom of the sea; he extracted gold and silver to a sum of up to 300,000 pounds sterling, and with his usual honesty brought these treasures to London, where they were divided between him and other partners.

For great merits, His Majesty, the reigning King James II, Phips was granted a knighthood. At the request of respectable New Englanders, Phips assumed control of Massachusetts. He carried out his duties until his death, taking care of the interests of the motherland with such zeal and neglecting personal interests, that he justly earned the love and respect of the best part of the population of this colony.

The epitaph bashfully kept silent about the tragic ending of the early life of William Phips. We spoke in such detail about the former ship carpenter, who, thanks to his own business qualities and the will of fate, acquired a knighthood and became a governor, not only because he successfully used a diving bell to search for and extract treasures hidden by the sea, but also because in the history of underwater treasure hunting The name of Phips opens the list of successful seekers of happiness who managed to raise from the bottom not individual coins, ingots, figurines, but huge wealth.

Egyptian Gold Hunt

The sea reacted favorably to Phips' undertaking, but such a successful outcome of the expedition was the exception rather than the rule: the bell-type diving technique did not allow the courageous submariners of the past to conquer more or less significant depths. New approaches to the creation of diving equipment were needed. It took humanity a long time to do this: only at the end of the 18th century, the German inventor Kleingert created a diving suit with a metal helmet and air supply with a pump. Now the development of the seabed has gone more cheerfully, but great depths remained still beyond the control of man. There were many reasons for this, but perhaps the main one has long been considered the pressure of the water, which, as the diver immersed, grew in proportion to the depth. But the sea hid its trophies not only in shallow water. That is why people have strived to continuously improve diving and deep-sea technology.

One of the steps along this path was the creation of an armored space suit, which made it possible to penetrate much deeper into the mysteries of the ocean than an ordinary diving suit. The armored suit was made by the Hamburg firm of Neufeldt and Kuhnke in 1920. It was a massive steel cylinder with three thick glass portholes. The role of arms and legs was performed by bulky metal joints on hinges, and pincers served as fingers, with which it was possible to carry out various works under water. The suit did not have a hose for supplying air from above: the diver took with him the necessary supply, designed for six hours of being under water. The armor reliably protected him from water pressure, thanks to which it was possible to work at a depth of up to about 200 meters. The diver's workplace was illuminated by a powerful underwater searchlight.

The armored suit was successfully tested during diving operations on the sunken American steamer Washington, which was torpedoed off the coast of Italy by a German submarine during the First World War and has since rested at a depth of about 100 meters near the Gulf of Rapallo.

The expedition, led by the head of the Genoese company Sorima Salvage and Company, captain of the 3rd rank Giovanni Kualia, achieved excellent results: 700 tons of copper ingots and steel railway equipment were lifted from the seabed, among which huge locomotive boilers stood out for their size. For this purpose, the company has developed a variety of equipment: cranes of original design, buckets, hooks, powerful electromagnets, specially designed for lifting metal objects from sunken ships.

Well-proven armored suits and lifting equipment could be tried in a more difficult, but also more profitable situation. Kualia's attention was attracted by the English steamer Egypt, which sank in 1922 off the northwestern tip of France. In dense fog, he collided with the French steamer Seine, designed to sail in ice and had a reinforced hull. Crashing into the left side of the Egypt, the Seine almost cut it in half. Together with him, the abyss swallowed up about 100 people and huge valuables: 1089 bars of gold, 37 boxes of English gold coins and 1229 bars of silver - in total, more than a million pounds sterling. The captain of the "Egypt" Collier managed to give an SOS signal and report the coordinates of the collision: 48 degrees 10 minutes north latitude and 05 degrees 30 minutes west longitude.

Shortly after the disaster, Lloyd's company paid the shipowners the amount due to insurance and thereby acquired the right to the sunken valuables. But the company could not find those willing to try to raise them from the bottom for several years. It was for this case that Giovanni Kualia took up.

In 1928, his new expedition headed for the place (30 miles from the coast) where the Egyptian was supposedly sunk. But why presumably: after all, the coordinates of the death of the ship are known? Alas, these data differed from those reported by the captain of the Seine. Both those and others did not correspond to the information received from the coastal direction-finding stations, which detected the location of the "Egypt" at the time of the SOS signal. All these coordinates also differed from the coordinates of the point where, shortly after the disaster, mailbags that surfaced from the "Egypt" were picked up, but here, however, the waves and wind could have time to make adjustments. Be that as it may, the search had to be carried out over a fairly large area. It took two seasons before, at the end of August 1930, at a depth of several tens of meters, it was possible to find a steamer buried in the ground - in all likelihood, "Egypt".

But while the search was going on, Kualia did not waste time: knowing that in the same region, at a depth of about 60–70 meters, the sunken Belgian ship Elizabethville rested, he made an attempt to find and examine it. Interest in the ship was fueled by rumors that diamonds were kept in the captain's safe of the “drowned man”. "Elizabethville" was found much faster than "Egypt". A diver who descended in an armored suit managed to get into the captain's cabin, found a safe and brought it to the surface. However, to the great disappointment of the search engines, there were no diamonds in it. But is it worth it to despair?

The work was continued, and fortune decided to smile at the members of the expedition: a solid batch of ivory was on the ship. Soon, 8 tons of valuable cargo migrated from the holds of the "Belgian" to the deck of the search and lifting vessel. Such a significant catch was a good gift from the sea, but, perhaps, Kualia was no less pleased with the additional experience of divers in an armored spacesuit, which made it possible to count on further success in the "unloading" of the ship "Egypt".

However, let us return to the unidentified steamer. Here, first of all, it was decided to remove the captain's safe from the bottom. With the help of explosions, it was possible first to remove the crane installed on the deck of the ship, which prevented the captain from entering the cabin, and then to clear the way to the safe. A diver, dressed in an armored suit, with the help of a clamshell device, picked up a steel box, and it slowly floated up.

The safe was delivered to Brest and opened in the presence of the English consul. There was no doubt: the “Egypt” really lies on the ground. But as the weather deteriorated sharply, the sea seriously and for a long time stormed, and the lifting work had to be suspended. While the waves were raging over the "Egypt", Kualia decided to do something else: to help the French authorities remove the American steamer "Florence" torpedoed at the end of the war, which sank at a shallow depth and therefore interfered with navigation, from the sea route. The ship rested in a place sheltered from the winds, but the situation was complicated by the fact that the Florence served to transport ammunition and went to the bottom along with a deadly cargo. Fearing that in the course of the blasting necessary for lifting, live shells could also explode at the same time, Kualia took his mother ship a whole mile to the side. The first explosions passed without complications, and during subsequent explosions they no longer began to divert it so far. When it remained to carry out the last series of explosions, not a trace remained of the original foresight. And it was here that the formidable force lurking at the bottom played its sinister role: a mighty explosion that smashed the American “shell carrier” lying on the ground formed a giant wave that hit the Italian auxiliary vessel, which was about 200 meters from the place of flooding. The wave sank the ship and ended the lives of 12 members of the expedition. Only seven survived.

A heavy blow of fate did not break Kualia: he acquired a new vessel, equipment and diving equipment, replenished his team and at the beginning of the next season returned to the abandoned Egypt for a while. More explosions, explosions, explosions. Finally, huge holes were pierced in the decks of the ship - access to gold is open. But on the calendar it was already late, autumn, and the ocean, as if not wanting to part with its wealth, again got excited in earnest. This time, the "time out" lasted almost six months. When the opportunity arose the following spring to continue work, it turned out that the path to gold was blocked by deck debris. It took several weeks to clear the breaches and lift the rubbish that interfered with the divers. And then came that happy hour for the expedition, when the ladles began to raise “Egyptian” gold from the abyss, ingot after ingot, coin after coin.

Work begun four years ago continued for another three seasons. In order to thoroughly clean the steamer "bottlenecks", I had to use an ingenious device - a special suction bucket. It was a vessel, hermetically sealed from the bottom side with glass. As soon as the ladle was over a scattering of gold coins or a pile of jewelry, a special device broke the glass, and the water rushed in, sucking the gold objects with it. Having captured the trophies, the bucket immediately automatically closed. It only remained to raise it to the surface with a winch and extract the extracted values.

The hunt for Egypt's gold, which lasted seven years, ended with great success for the expedition: it was possible to take from the sea about three-quarters of all the gold that drowned along with the ship. An important achievement was the fact that for the first time in the history of underwater rescue operations, they were carried out at a depth inaccessible to divers dressed in an ordinary suit. Another step into silence was made possible by the use of an armored suit.

Adventures at the Niagara

No matter how good the armored suit was, it also had its diving limits. Huge pressures prevailing at a depth of more than 200 meters fettered the movement of articulated arms and legs, due to which the diver practically lost his ability to work, and the suit turned, in fact, into a point for underwater observations. Observation chambers already known by that time were more convenient for this purpose. Back in the last century, the French inventor Ernst Bazin came up with an original attraction that quickly gained popularity: in a steel cylinder suspended on chains, people using lifting devices plunged several meters into the water and through the windows admired the underwater landscapes illuminated by strong searchlights.

A major lifting action using an observation camera was carried out during the Second World War when salvaging gold that sank along with the steamer Niagara far from the main theater of military operations - off the coast of New Zealand. On a gloomy June morning in 1940, the ship hit a German mine and began to quickly sink into the water. Fortunately, all passengers and crew members managed to escape, but the valuable cargo, which only the captain knew about - 590 gold bars worth 2 and a half million pounds - had to be sacrificed to the sea.

Six months later, the Claymore floating base began search operations, which were led by Captain Williams from Melbourne. The leadership of the group of submariners was entrusted to one of the most experienced Australian divers - Johnston. On board the Claymore was an observation chamber ready for descent with an autonomous apparatus for generating air.

In the very first days of the search for the Niagara, an event occurred that almost led to sad consequences. During trawling, the cable, stretched from the floating base to the auxiliary vessel and sagging to the bottom, suddenly caught on something. Johnston, taking his place in the observation chamber, immediately went under the water.

The culprit of the delay turned out to be just a large stone, and the diver gave the command to rise. When the camera was already close to the surface, Johnston heard a strange rattle: it looked like some kind of cable was rubbing against the metal skin. What is this rope? The diver received an answer later, already on the deck of the mother ship: together with the anchor, a mine cable tangled with the anchor chain was pulled out of the water, which rubbed against the walls of the chamber. The very same mine, whose peace was violated by the sailors, now calmly floated in the water literally a meter from the side of the Kleimar. As they say, a little more, a little more ... But such a neighborhood was a serious danger. And Johnston again, now in an ordinary diving suit, descends into the water in order to drive away the uninvited guest with a hook. But she seemed to rest, not wanting to move a single inch. What to do? Captain Williams decided not to engage in risky amateur activities and asked the naval command to send a minesweeper with mine clearance specialists.

Soon, help arrived in time, but the unpleasant mission - to catch the insidious ball with a trawl - Johnston again took over. And the clouds of fate prepared another surprise for him: trying to entangle the mine, he discovered that its cable was twisted with the mooring cable of the Claymore. I had to unravel them, but at the same time the diving lines caught on the horns of the detonators and pulled Johnston close to the top of the mine. She approached close to the hull of the ship and in the next moment with her whole mass pressed the diver to him. Unwittingly, he played the role of a living shock absorber, preventing the detonators from hitting the ship's skin. One can imagine what Johnston experienced in moments of "intimacy" with a very insidious person.

But the brave diver did not lose his composure. First of all, he tried to separate his lines from the sinister horns. Finally, he managed to escape from the mine embrace. For another seven agonizing hours, the struggle with the mine continued, until it was possible to take it to a respectful distance and shoot it with a machine-gun burst.

The search for the Niagara continued, and after more than two months, the same Johnston, who had so many misfortunes, found the sunken Niagara. The ship lay with a large list to the port side at a depth of 133 meters. When viewed through the windows of the observation chamber, Johnston saw a large ragged hole - the result of a meeting with a mine. To take a closer look at the situation, he asked to lower the camera on the ship itself. The command was carried out, and after a minute or two the diver was already able to examine in detail the destroyed deck of the Niagara. But…

It can be seen that the sea, seriously annoyed by the inflexible character of this courageous man, decided to give him another test. To say that it was harsh would be to say nothing. However, judge for yourself. Suddenly, the Claymore's bow moorings snapped, and the wind began to blow the ship aside. Behind him dragged and hanging on a cable observation camera. She was dragged along the hull straight to the gaping hole. A few more moments - and the camera will catch on the torn edges of the lining, pull tight and break the cable, and then Johnston will only have to count the last hours of his life. But he must have been born wearing a shirt: the camera moved faster and faster and therefore safely passed a dangerous hole in the body, only to immediately collapse upside down on the ground. Fortunately, she did not encounter any obstacles and the assistants who were above were able to soon raise their leader to the surface. When wounded, with a face covered in blood, Johnston was pulled out of the cell, he smiled ...

Despite the machinations of fate, people did not back down from their goal. To determine the most convenient way to the gold pantry, the expedition members built a cardboard model of the Niagara and simulated the course of blasting on it. The calculation turned out to be accurate, and soon the explosives made large holes in the side and two decks of the ship, throwing a stunned shark and the wooden parts of the ship's navigation bridge onto the surface of the sea. The diver in the cell could now come close to the armored cabin where the boxes of gold lay, but only get closer. The entrance to it was blocked by a massive steel door.

I had to resort again to the help of explosives. A few days later, to the general delight of the members of the expedition, a deep-sea capture brought the door to the deck of the Claymore. (In remembrance of these busy days, Captain Williams later installed it in his Melbourne office.)

Nothing could prevent the "expropriation" of the gold stolen by the sea, and on October 13, 1941, the crew began lifting operations. True, some people considered this number not quite suitable for starting such a responsible operation, but superstitious fears were in vain: on the same day, with the help of mechanical grippers, the first gold bars were lifted onto the deck of the mother ship.

Every day now brought an excellent "harvest". The pile of yellow bars in the Claymore's captain's quarters grew by leaps and bounds. In a little over a month, 553 bars of the precious metal worth more than £2 million were raised from the bottom. Attempts to find the rest of the ingots were in vain, and the captain announced the end of the expedition. After a brilliant rescue operation that took less than a year, the Claymore is heading home.

They say that the sea is full of surprises. And this time it prepared an unpleasant surprise for the rescuers. When only a few miles remained to the harbor, the chief engineer suddenly noticed that water was entering the engine room. The ship, which had served for decades, was about to be scrapped for a long time, and the Niagara gold voyage was supposed to be the last in its biography. Many months of stay on the high seas was a difficult test for a ship that had seen a lot in its lifetime: the hull leaked, and the heavier Claymore began to slowly sink to the bottom. I had to start all the sump pumps, which made it possible for the captain to somehow bring the ship into the harbor. Immediately, the sailors began to unload their precious booty, and before they had time to take out the last ingots, the Claymore, which had pretty much taken on water, sat down on the bottom, on the ground.

Even such an embarrassing final chord could not affect the high assessment of the work of the expedition by specialists. Of course, success became possible primarily due to the skill and courage of people, but the observation chamber also made its contribution, and a considerable one, to the common cause: after all, the depth of the Niagara did not allow even an armored suit to be used during diving.

But the camera as a deep-sea vehicle was, of course, far from perfect. A few years after the events described, the Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard designed, manufactured and tested the world's first bathyscaphe - an autonomous apparatus for oceanographic and other research at great depths. In 1953, the scientist and his son Jacques in the Trieste bathyscaphe made a dive to a depth of 3160 meters. A year later, the Frenchmen J. Guo and P. Wilm moved this threshold to 4050 meters, and six years later, in January 1960, J. Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant D. Walsh, having descended to 10917 meters, reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench - the deepest trench located in the Pacific Ocean: the maximum depth recorded by the Soviet research vessel Vityaz is located in the southern part of the trench and is 11022 meters.

Bathyscaphes, hydrostats and other deep-sea vehicles are designed mainly for reconnaissance of the situation about the possessions of Poseidon. A truly massive assault on the underwater expanses began after the Frenchmen Jacques Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invented scuba gear in 1943. Thanks to this simple and convenient device, rather long dives of a person to a depth of several tens of meters have become commonplace. People of many professions rushed into the depths of the sea - biologists and hydrologists, photographers and cameramen, geologists and archaeologists. Scuba diving not only opened a new era in the study of the world of the ocean, but also made it possible much more successfully than before to win back from the sea those riches that it was not averse to appropriate for itself forever.

Underwater "mines"

Millions taken from the sea

On a clear May day in 1949, the American amateur scuba diver McKee, during his vacation, was filming underwater on the coast of Florida, not far from the reefs of Key Largo. In search of attractive plots and exotic seascapes, he slowly glided along the coral labyrinths, sinking lower and lower, when suddenly, at a twenty-meter depth, the remains of an ancient sunken ship appeared before his eyes. Having examined the ship with curiosity, or rather, what was left of it, the swimmer noticed several cannons, an anchor and three elongated bars covered with plaque. McKee was not too lazy to pull them ashore and was more than rewarded: the heavy bars turned out to be ingots of pure silver. When, at the end of his vacation, McKee showed his find to the specialists of the Smithsonian Institution History Museum in Washington, they determined that the “NATA” brand standing on the ingots belonged to an ancient silver mine located in Panama, and the ship discovered by the scuba diver was, in all likelihood, one of fourteen Spanish galleons that were wrecked during a mighty hurricane that swept through these parts in the spring of 1715.

The dead ships were part of the "Golden Fleet", which was supposed to deliver another tribute to the New World to King Philip V of Spain - untold wealth stolen by the conquistadors from the peoples of the American continent. The king, who did not want to put up with such a sensitive loss, ordered an expedition to be organized without delay to raise overseas valuables from the seabed. At the ill-fated reefs of Key Largo, work began to boil, since the ocean did not store its prey so deep. Soon, tons of gold and silver - ingots, coins, jewelry, released from water captivity, were ready to be sent across the Atlantic to replenish the fortune of the Spanish monarch, who was languishing in anticipation of good news. But, as it turned out, other contenders for treasures, the pirates of these places, were also waiting for the successful completion of diving operations. A daring attack, a short fight, and now boxes and bags stuffed with jewels raised from the bottom are transferred aboard a pirate sailboat.

Two and a half centuries after the events described and a decade and a half after McKee's successful vacation off the coast of Florida, a group of underwater treasure hunters managed to find four more sunken galleons of the Golden Fleet near the same Key Largo reefs and thoroughly clean their cabins and holds . Among the large number of extracted jewelry stood out a huge, three and a half meters long, gold chain of more than two thousand links. A beautiful keychain was attached to the chain - a golden dragon, made, according to experts, at the beginning of the 18th century by Chinese jewelers. The entire production was estimated at that time at half a million dollars. But, of course, this discovery did not exhaust the innumerable treasures stolen by a hurricane and hidden at sea in 1715.

And how many such hurricanes swept over the seas and oceans over the long centuries of navigation? But did the evil winds become allies of the abyss, which managed to swallow and bury thousands and thousands of ships at the bottom, many of which could compete in their gold and silver reserves with other royal treasuries?

So, for example, only in the coastal waters of the Caribbean Sea, according to historians, the remains of about a hundred galleons rest. Hardly fewer ships have sunk off the southeastern tip of Florida. The area of ​​Cape Hatteras, the waters surrounding the Bahamas and Bermuda, Vigo Bay in Spain and the Zuider Zee in Holland - all these and many other areas of the ocean floor can rightly be called ship cemeteries, and therefore, underwater Klondike or El Dorado. In fact, according to one of the most famous sea treasure hunters, American Harry Riesenberg, author of the book “600 billion under water”, which was sensational at the time, it was for this amount (of course, in dollars) that the ocean “borrowed” gold, silver and other jewelry.

These fantastic riches have been exciting the minds of seekers of happiness for several centuries. Drowned treasures, like a magnet, attract a great number of scuba divers, divers, specialists in the field of ship recovery, and even just amateurs - adventurers who hope for the favor of fortune. The epidemic of underwater treasure hunting has acquired a particularly large scale in recent decades, when modern technology came to the aid of marine "geologists" - sensitive magnetometers and probes, sealed lights, special nozzles for ship propellers that allow washing sand and bottom silt. In many countries, books, atlases, maps have been published for a long time, which indicate the exact and estimated coordinates of the death of ships stuffed with treasures.

The first success, which also turned out to be unusually large, came to Fischer in 1964, when off the coast of Florida, not far from Fort Pierce, at a relatively shallow depth, he “came across” a golden “carpet” - a lot of coins scattered on the sand. From the ship that once carried them, which crashed here, there is practically no trace left, and the noble metal, as if nothing had happened, was patiently waiting in the wings. Among the almost two thousand coins raised by Mel and his assistants, there were the rarest royal doubloons of the early 18th century, for which the lucky diver managed to get 25 thousand dollars. From now on, Fischer's fate was decided: the sea firmly took him into its arms.

The whole family of the wealthy scuba diver, his wife Dolores and four sons, joined in the development of the underwater gold mine. The family bought a suitable boat, acquired diving, magnetic, lifting and other necessary equipment - now it was possible to start a targeted search for precious prey.

Mel Fisher's attention was attracted by the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1622, a few miles from the coast of Florida, on board which, according to ancient documents preserved in the archives of Seville, there were 27 tons of gold and 47 tons of silver. In all likelihood, a significant amount of smuggled valuables that the merchants and other passengers sailing on the Atocha intended to illegally deliver to Spain were not yet included in the documents. She was accompanied by a solid convoy - eight warships with powerful artillery. In a word, the pirates would hardly have risked attacking such a formidable flotilla. But what was beyond the strength of the sea robbers, the elements managed to do: near the coast of Florida, a fierce storm overtook the ships, and countless treasures were at the bottom.

It is these tens of tons of precious metals captured by the sea that became the guiding star for Mel Fisher. For four years in a row, his group, using the data at its disposal about the place of death of the Atocha, searched for the galleon, which had become legendary in three and a half centuries. But, despite the fact that the treasure hunters had very advanced equipment - an unusually sensitive underwater magnetometer and a special nozzle for a ship propeller, which made it possible to direct a powerful jet of water down to wash away sand and silt, all their efforts were in vain: the sea did not want to part with treasures " Atochi".

Only a few years later, in 1970, Fischer was able to establish the cause of his failures: as it turned out, an employee of the Seville archive made a mistake when publishing the text of an old chronicle that reported the death of a golden galleon, and therefore the coordinates of the shipwreck, which Fischer was guided by, turned out to be, to put it mildly, not quite faithful. Chalk managed to get a reliable copy of the document and establish a more or less exact place where a heavy wind threw the Atocha onto the reefs. It would seem that now it will not be difficult to find it. However, day after day passed, week followed week, and the search still did not bring results that could please Fisher. But why? Yes, the fact is that wooden sailing ships, having torn their side or bottom against the stones, usually did not go like a stone to the bottom, but continued to move with the wind, gradually falling apart. Sometimes the ship sank quite far from the place of the fatal meeting with the underwater rock. Apparently, this happened with Atocha.

Nevertheless, Fisher did not lose faith in success, rightly believing that the iron objects on the galleon - anchors, boxes with muskets, cannonballs - sooner or later will be in the field of view of his magnetometer and will make themselves felt. And so it happened: one fine day, the recorder of the magnetometer suddenly became agitated and started dancing, leaving zigzags of hope on the tape. A few minutes later, the divers rushed into the water. The device did not deceive: first, an old musket was removed from the bottom, then they managed to find a large anchor and a handful of silver coins. Another dive - and a diver beaming with joy appears on the surface of the water with a huge golden chain. Then the ocean gave away many more of its trophies: gold jewelry, jewelry spoons and plates, precious stones, a golden boatswain's whistle, a bronze astrolabe, a large number of coins, gold and silver ingots, bags of golden sand.

The harvest was good, but it remained unclear whether all these valuables belonged to the Atoche or whether they came from another ship. One of the found silver ingots put a dot over the "i", on which the numbers "4584" were clearly visible. Such a serial number also appeared in the declaration of the ship's cargo "Atocha", which was stored in the archives of Seville. Fischer also had a copy of this document indicating the weight of all the precious metal ingots listed in it. And so, in one of the Florida port bars, the numbered bar was subjected to a public weighing, and the result exactly matched the weight affixed to the declaration. This means that Atocha, or rather, part of its wreckage, scattered by a storm over a large area of ​​the Gulf of Mexico, has been found. Where are the rest of the galleon?

A thorough underwater survey showed that there was nothing more to count on in this place of the seabed: the main treasures of the Atocha rested in other "warehouses". It took many more years, more than 2 million dollars and several human lives to find them. Among those who died in 1975 during a severe nighttime storm that capsized the search yacht "North Wind" were Fisher's eldest son Dirk and his wife Angel. The sea seemed to take revenge on people for their daring attempts to take back the trophies captured by the elements.

But even a family tragedy did not break Mel Fisher. By this time, his company already had more than a thousand shareholders who were ready to continue to subsidize their brave president. The search was continued - and the ocean finally gave up. It happened in 1980, when sensitive electronic equipment told that there were metal objects at the bottom. And here they are, these objects that made themselves felt - a grappling hook and a huge, almost two meters in diameter, copper boiler, were raised to the deck. The finds themselves were not of particular value, but they inspired hope for the success of the expedition. Soon, a ship's ballast stone was found at the bottom, and not far from it were several ceramic vessels, casks of indigo blue paint, and four small disks covered with growths, which turned out to be silver Spanish coins from the time of King Philip III, who ruled in 1598-1621.

Then the finds rained down as if from a cornucopia: fragments of ceramics and hundreds of coins, a broken astrolabe and an officer's sword, a silver bell and trays. During one of the dives, Fisher's son Kane discovered part of the skeleton of a fairly large wooden ship, and among the wreckage were six ingots of silver, jewelry, and copper blanks.

The search continued, and the sea became more and more accommodating: ingots of gold and silver, a number of silver items - jugs, a dish, an inkwell, a candelabra. The team was greatly interested in a strange heavy lump, which was not without difficulty brought to the surface of the sea: it consisted of many silver coins, tightly “glued” together during a long stay in sea captivity. But the most valuable, or rather, invaluable find was a gold ring with a huge rectangular-cut emerald.

What kind of ship so generously endowed Fisher and his assistants? All the same "Atocha"? No. As shown by comparing the numbers of ingots with archival inventories of ship cargoes of that era, the treasures raised from the bottom were at one time on board the Spanish galleon "Santa Margarita". Together with the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the ship left the American continent in 1622, heading for its native shores, and during the same ill-fated storm shared its sad fate: the Santa Margarita, broken on the sharp reefs, was easily dragged by the ocean to its chambers. When the elements calmed down, a passing Jamaican ship rescued 68 people who were desperately fighting for their lives. Five days later, captain's mate Giuseppe Geronimo was found drifting on the waves on a wooden deck hatch cover. The remaining 120 people who were on the galleon died in shallow water near the Florida reef barrier.

Since the surviving people could accurately indicate the place where the ship sank, rescue work soon began, because the Santa Margarita was not inferior in wealth to her “friend” in misfortune, the Atocha: her official cargo list included a large number of gold and silver in the form of ingots, coins, jewelry. There were other cargoes on board, in particular, copper, ivory and kegs with rare overseas indigo dye, for which European textile workers willingly gave a lot of money.

In the summer of 1626, divers and divers, led by a resident of Havana, Francisco Nunez Melian, managed to find and raise 350 silver ingots, a large anchor, several bronze guns, copper ingots, and jewelry. The search continued for another three years, but did not bring much success. In addition, Melian was offered a very prestigious post of governor of Caracas, and he preferred to curtail search work.

And now, three and a half centuries later, the peace of Santa Margarita was disturbed by Fischer, who was looking for Atocha. Well, "Atocha" will wait, but for now, for the cause, if the sea is ready to fork out. By the end of next year, tens of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver were mined from the bottom of the sea. In the world of underwater treasure hunts, Fisher took a leading position: before him, no one had been able to take away so many sunken treasures from the ocean.

After parting with the Santa Margarita, Fisher again focused his attention on the search for the remains of the Atocha, which beckoned him like a first love. The path to it took several more years, but now fortune, which had chosen Fischer as its favorite, was unable to deny him the right to the rest of the wealth of Atocha.

Yes, and Mel himself made sure that the search was successful: from the millions that fell on his head, he spent a considerable part on the purchase of new search vessels and equipment. And he was more than rewarded: Atocha, who had been waiting for him, gave him almost all of her fortune - a huge amount of gold, emeralds, silver bars and coins. Now the total value of the sea trophies obtained by the former farmer amounted to almost hundreds of millions of dollars.

If Mel Fisher can be considered the champion in the seizure of valuables misappropriated by Neptune, then his compatriot Barry Clifford, perhaps, has the right to claim the role of the silver medalist of these unofficial competitions. His name is associated with the successful search for the pirate galley "Waida", which in 1717 ran aground and sank in shallow water just a few hundred meters from the Florida beach of Cape Cod in Marconi Beach.

There were legends about the wealth of Waida. According to historical chronicles, before breaking on the reefs, the pirates managed to rob about fifty ships. Examining their ship's papers allowed Barry to solve a simple addition problem and value the pirate treasure at about $400 million. According to the most conservative estimates, there were at least 4.5 tons of golden sand on the galley. Over half a million silver coins, a large load of African ivory, a casket with precious stones from India - in a word, there was something to stay awake at night and dream about luck.

Clifford began searching for "Waida" in the spring of 1982. Less than a week later, the divers hired by him found, at a depth of about ten meters, a fragment of a clay pipe, several copper nails and scraps of ship's belts. Barry's heart told him that this was "news" from the cherished galley, to which all his thoughts were directed. But he failed to convince his companions of this in order to launch extensive search operations.

Two years later, three cannons were found in the same area, but they could also belong to any of the many ships that found their last shelter near the treacherous Florida reefs. Another year has passed. And so, while exploring another underwater area, one of the scuba divers noticed some object that was almost completely buried in the underwater dunes. What is it? When the find was freed from sandy captivity, a large ship's bell appeared to the eyes of the divers. He had a lot to tell the seekers.

Covered with a thick layer of shells, the bell was not without difficulty lifted into the boat and brought to the shore. Here it was cleaned of growths, and the metal spoke: on the bronze rim, the words “Galley “Waida” – 1716” were clearly visible. Now there was no doubt: somewhere nearby the sea hides a huge treasure. As Clifford said at the time, "the hour of the big catch has come." He wasn't wrong. Soon a great "nibble" began. Divers worked from dawn to dusk, without days off and holidays. But how can a true treasure hunter be able to rest if each dive brings so many treasures that one can’t dream of even in a dream? In total, Clifford's scuba divers recovered approximately $15 million worth of treasure from the bottom. It is appropriate to compare such a “catch” not with a goldfish, but with a whole school of large goldfish.

Treasures of the Legendary Galleon

If the reader remembers, we parted ways with the Spanish galleon "Nuestra de la Concepción" after William Phips at the end of the 17th century completed his very successful expedition to its remains, resting among the coral reefs of the Silver Bank (Silver Bank) - that's how it came to be called area of ​​the Atlantic after the finds of Phips. And although the harvest of silver he collected amounted to at least three dozen tons, almost ten times more precious metal continued to lie somewhere on the seabed among the wreckage of the galleon: after all, as ancient documents testify, it was loaded with silver right up to the cannon ports . The main part of the cargo was reales - coins minted in 1640 in the former Spanish possessions located on the territory of present-day Mexico, Bolivia, Peru. Phips, of course, did not make public the exact location of the Concepción, and soon the silver galleon was forgotten for a long time. The next page in the biography of the legendary ship was entered in our days by the American treasure and adventure seeker Bert Webber.

From childhood, he had a dream about the sea, more precisely, about the unknown underwater world, about the dead brigs and caravels that hold many burning secrets. As a young man, he became seriously interested in scuba gear and literally plowed with him the flooded quarries of Pennsylvania. Then Bert made a life choice: he entered the diving school in Miami. Soon he happened to take part in a professional expedition organized by the Museum of Sunken Treasures in Florida to search for ancient ships - prisoners of the ocean. “There was a glimmer of hope that treasure would be found,” Webber later wrote. - They didn't show up. But the underwater operations, the raising of the soil, the finds made, attracted me so much that I realized that I needed to find funds to make this my profession.

The first expedition was followed by the second, then the third, the fourth... However, they were all poorly prepared, and the sea did not consider it necessary to subsidize them at least partially. As a matter of fact, it was not gold and silver that attracted Weberr: “For me, money was never the only goal,” he says. - Of course - you have to pay the bills and provide for the family, but what attracts me most of all is the search, adventure, chasing a dream, striving for the impossible. What requires courage, challenges.”

And Bret defied fate: he decided to lead an independent search for sunken ships near the coast of Florida and the Bahamas. But fortune was in no hurry to show him his favor: year after year passed, but each time Webber returned to the slop empty-handed. And at home, his wife and four children were waiting for him, and, alas, he could not feed them even with the sweetest dreams. Expeditionary off-season had to be filled with activities that were very far from sea romance: working at the factory at the conveyor, selling books, doing odd jobs. But the dream continued to be a guiding star for him.

The failure of random searches led Webber to the idea that all efforts should be concentrated on any particular ship, the place of death of which is approximately known. And it was then that Bert's close friend and assistant Jim Haskins recalled the famous "Concepción", or, as it was sometimes called, "Phips' Galleon". “It seems to me,” Jim shared his thoughts, “there is still a lot of riches hidden by the sea. All records show that Phips failed to find the stern of the ship, which was overgrown with coral. Webber liked the idea, and soon the friends went overseas to rummage through the West Indian archives of Seville, get acquainted with the documents of the Maritime Museum in Madrid and the British Museum in London. It took them four long years.

“The more I analyzed the records,” Webber recalled a few years later in The Lost Treasures of the Concepción, “the more confidence grew in me that success was possible and that an attempt should be made. Having studied enough materials already, I borrowed money from a Chicago banker, obtained the exclusive right to search from the government of the Dominican Republic, and obtained a map of aerial photographs. In 1977 I started one of the most well-prepared expeditions ever to go to the Silver Shoal."

For almost half a year, a group of Webber's submariners spent at the reefs. The wreckage of 13 ships that died here was found. Bert plotted their location on a map and handed it over to the appropriate department in the Dominican Republic. However, even on the trail of "Concepcion" failed to attack. But the galleon could not have disappeared. So the search must continue.

Webber returns home to Chicago. Thanks to the financial assistance of friends and acquaintances who believed in him, he founded the company "Sea Quest International" and again sent Haskins to Spain to continue archival "intelligence". It was there that an event occurred that led to further luck. The role of the good fairy in this was played by a young Canadian, Victoria Stappels-Johnson, who, on behalf of Peter Earl, a professor at the London School of Economics, studied the history of Concepción using Spanish documents. Victoria told Jim that her boss was collecting material for his future book about the fleet of precisely those times, which included the year of the death of the silver galleon.

When Webber found out about this, he immediately decided to contact Professor Earl. “Who knows, we thought, suddenly he will have the thread that we lack,” says Bert. “How could we assume that the professor already had a long-lost, it would seem, key to the whole case: the logbook of the ship Henry?” It is hard to say how Webber managed to win over the English scientist, but be that as it may, he soon held in his hands a copy of the manuscript, on the first page of which, in typical ancient letters, it was reported: “The journal of our journey begins with God's help in 1686 aboard the ship Henry, under the command of Francis Rogers, bound for Ambrosia Bank, north of the island of Hispaniola, in company with the James and Mary, under the command of Captain William Phips, in search of a sunken Spanish galleon, in which God help us.

If many were familiar with the ship's journal "Jacob and Mary", then the journal "Henry" for three centuries was actually out of sight of historians and treasure hunters. Among many books and manuscripts, it was kept in a private library on the estate of the English Lord Rumney until it was brought to light. But it was "Henry" who first approached that ill-fated reef where the "Concepción" rested, so the exact coordinates of the silver "mine" appeared in his ship's log. The journal of the main ship already kept records of operations to raise treasures.

Webber must have never leafed through a single book in his life with such excitement as the pages that Earl handed him. “When I read the ship's magazine Henry in England, I realized that in 1977 we passed over the very place. But since the Concepción was a weak target for our magnetometric equipment, we did not find it.

At about the same time that the events described were taking place, a real revolution took place in the field of magnetometry: the Canadian company Variant Associates, which specialized in the production of magnetometric instruments and systems, created a fundamentally new portable magnetometer. Webber was listed as a consultant to this firm, and as an already well-known researcher of the underwater world, he was instructed to conduct practical tests of the device. With it, a scuba diver could dive to the very foot of the reef and detect metal, even one that was wrapped in a three-meter layer of sand or barricaded with petrified corals.

I had to borrow almost half a million dollars more and again drop anchor at well-known reefs. This time, fortune appeared on a date with members of the expedition five days later: during one of the dives, the Concepción was found. “It seemed to Phips,” Webber writes in his book already mentioned, “that the corals had swallowed up the stern of the ship, blocking access to the main treasures. It was only thanks to the rediscovery three centuries later that we realized that there was no food here. Apparently, soon after the disaster, a strong storm split the Concepción in two. The stern part was thrown over the reef and dragged about 120 meters before it lay down on the bottom of the coral canyon. There I discovered it with a magnetometer. The main part of the lost treasures and handicrafts turned out to be here.”

Workdays began, but Bert and his associates firmly believed that the holiday was just around the corner. To bring it closer, I had to work hard for almost a year: it was necessary to destroy and remove hundreds of tons of coral outgrowths, which with a strong shell bound the wreckage of the galleon along with its precious cargo. But at last the path to the treasure is open. The time has come when every dive was no longer a burden, but a joy: as if imbued with sympathy for the Webber group, the sea generously rewarded underwater workers for perseverance and hard work.

Here are found a lot of silver coins minted in 1640 (by the way, they confirmed that it was the “Concepción” that was found, which was wrecked, as the reader remembers, in 1641). Following on the deck of the search vessel, divers raise two large gold chains made in China. Day by day, a mountain of silver ingots is growing - there are several tons of them! Of great interest were Chinese farfbrown cups from the Ming Dynasty, which ruled the country for almost three centuries, but left the historical scene three years after the death of the Concepción. It is curious that the cups endured the storm and the impact of the galleon on the reefs well: out of 30 pieces, only two were broken. In the same chest where the porcelain was located, smuggling was also found: some cunning, hoping to deceive the Spanish customs officers, hid a thick layer of silver coins in the double bottom of the chest. But even before that, someone had cheated the smuggler himself: among his secret cargo there were many counterfeit coins of rather fine work, testifying to the high skill of the New World counterfeiters of that time. From the bottom of the sea, the divers recovered the navigation instruments of the Concepción: three astrolabes and a cruciform level.

Experts estimated the extraction of the group at many millions of dollars. And although half of them, according to the agreement, had to be given to the government of the Dominican Republic, in the territorial waters of which the remains of the Phips galleon rest, the income of the company founded by Webber turned out to be very solid. Along with significant financial resources, Bert also gained a high international reputation as an explorer of the underwater world. A scientific approach to business, participation in the development and testing of new equipment for marine searches, a careful attitude to finds of great archaeological significance - all this distinguishes Bert Webber from thousands of greedy treasure hunters who are ready to destroy everything and everything for the sake of the glitter of gold, hack plunder underwater "warehouses", not at all caring about the historical and cultural value of many "ignoble" cargoes of sunken ships of the past.

The reader might get the impression that as soon as you start underwater searches, luck will soon come according to the principle of a cheerful song, which asserts too optimistically that "he who seeks will always find." Alas, this is far from being the case: after all, not everyone who buys a lottery ticket wins the Volga. And Mel Fisher, and Barry Clifford, and Bert Webber, with whom you were able to meet, are just a few chosen ones of fortune from the multimillion army of those who have tried and are trying to find happiness in underwater gold or silver mines. But who has counted all the disappointments or failures that have befallen the vast majority of these treasure seekers? Who knows how many dramas and tragedies happened on this slippery path?..

Perhaps a thousand times right, Jacques Yves Cousteau, who also, as you know, paid tribute to the search for sunken treasures, but practically never found them: “Life and strenuous activity,” says the famous scientist and traveler, “this is a true treasure.”

Not only gold

There is no doubt: very many seekers of happiness who are ready to dive into the depths of the ocean, sunken treasures are attracted primarily by their value. But scientists, who are called underwater archaeologists, as a rule, are not driven by self-interest, but by the desire to shed light on the pages of the life history of our distant ancestors that have not yet been read, to obtain previously unknown information about the level of material culture of society in ancient times. That is why for such disinterested knights of science, a simple ship's nail or anchor found at the bottom is sometimes of much greater interest than, say, an ornament made of noble metal, and a clay amphora that has lain in the water for dozens of centuries can bring no less joy than a gift from Neptune. emerald or diamond. But aren't some works of art saved from sea captivity worth their weight in gold, for example, sculptures carved by ancient masters from bronze or marble?

The history of underwater archeology is rich in bright events. One of them happened about forty years ago, near the godforsaken fishing village of Bodrum, sheltered by Cape Gelidonya on the western coast of Turkey. Once upon a time, in the ancient era, there was a place founded at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. by Greek colonists, the large city of Halicarnassus - the capital, Karius. This commercial and cultural center is known as the birthplace of the great historians of Ancient Greece - Herodotus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, but even more so as the place where in the middle of the 4th century BC. e. one of the remarkable structures of antiquity was erected - the Mausoleum.

So they began to call the tomb of the Carian ruler Mausolus, built at the behest of his wife Artemisia and later ranked among the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately, neither the city itself nor the Mausoleum survived to this day: they were ruthlessly destroyed by the crusader knights who captured the coast of Asia Minor in the 15th century. The village of Bodrum is all that remains today of the once majestic city.

On one of the summer days of 1953, Bodrum fishermen returned home with an unusual catch: from the bottom of the sea they pulled out a large, larger than human growth, bronze statue, entwined with algae and plastered with shells. Local residents reported about the amazing find to the Archaeological Museum of the Turkish capital Ankara. Experts who arrived in Bodrum a few days later appreciated the beautiful creation of an unknown ancient master. “We immediately realized,” wrote one of the experts after returning to Ankara, “that we were seeing something unusual. In the bright light of day, the head of the statue appeared before our eyes in all its perfect beauty. Her sad and sweet face immediately convinced us that this sculpture is a true masterpiece. In this face, the genuine power of feeling excites, which is inherent only in the creations of truly great masters.

Art historians were only able to determine the age of the sea beauty: she, apparently, was created in the 4th century BC. e., that is, during the time of the great sculptor of Ancient Greece, Praxiteles. But who exactly carved it? How did this masterpiece end up on the seabed, and even about a kilometer from the coast? It is most likely that the sculpture was on board a sailing ship that sank near the harbor of Halicarnassus. In this case, the remains of this ship and the rest of its cargo should rest somewhere nearby, perhaps as valuable as the sad woman cast in bronze.

The idea interested the young American Peter Throckmorton, a journalist and submariner. And now he is on the coast. Turkey, where the sea gave its charming captive to the Bodrum fishermen. Time after time, Peter plunges into the water, until he finally finds an old galley on the seabed. Inspired by good luck, he sends a telegram to his friends in the USA, and soon a whole group of scuba divers arrives to help him. For several weeks, they literally search all the coastal waters surrounding the small island of Yassy. The success exceeded all expectations: instead of one galley, a whole ship cemetery was found - the wreckage of about four dozen ships that sank here at different times over more than two millennia. An antique rowboat, an old Turkish frigate, and even a submarine rested here, forever frozen on the ground during the Second World War. But why did they all choose this particular place as their final resting place? The answer to this question became obvious when divers discovered a treacherous rocky reef nearby, hidden at a depth of only a few meters: like a sharp knife, it easily ripped open the wooden sheathing of sailboats, and even ships with a metal hull could inflict mortal wounds.

Of particular interest to scuba divers was the Byzantine cargo ship that was wrecked and sank to the bottom about fourteen centuries ago: at least, this was shown by a careful study of coins, ceramics and other objects found by divers on the ship. Among them were bronze scales, which were found in the captain's cabin and on which it was possible to read the engraved name of Georgos. Perhaps Georgos was the name of the captain of the lost ship? Even the remnants of a meal were preserved in his cabin - olive pits, nuts and lobster shell. But the captain, apparently, did not have a chance to wet his throat for the last time: the amphora with wine served at the table was sealed with wax. But although the search off the Turkish coast lasted for several more years, underwater archaeologists could not get an answer to questions related to the biography of a beautiful stranger from Bodrum.

Since we are talking about amphorae with wine, we will tell you about another discovery that ended with a tasting of an ancient drink, the aging of which far exceeded all conceivable and unimaginable technological terms. During the work of one of the expeditions of Jacques Yves Cousteau on his famous scientific vessel "Calypso" near the tiny rocky island of Grand Conglouet, off the coast of Provence in the summer of 1952, French scuba divers found the remains of a galley on the seabed, on the deck of which, under a layer of hardened silt and sand, among other cargo, many Greek amphorae were found, once filled with wine, and now with sea water. But once the divers came across a corked amphora with preserved contents. The cork is solemnly opened, and a thick, cloudy liquid is poured into glasses: ancient Greek wine is tasted first of all by Cousteau himself and his assistant Lallemant.

Although the sea water did not penetrate the wine, there was no alcohol in it anymore. Having barely sipped the drink of the ancient Greeks, or rather, what it had turned into over long centuries of unplanned aging, Lallemand immediately spat it out, but Cousteau slowly, like cognac, drank his portion and commented on the results of the tasting: “It seems that unimportant grapes grew in that a year ... "Without much pleasure, the liquid was also tried by some other - the most inquisitive - members of the expedition, and the remains were thrown out of the amphora overboard. True, they immediately regretted it: it was necessary, of course, to leave some exotic antique drink for chemical analysis. Unfortunately, all further attempts to find at least one more vessel with wine were unsuccessful.

More fortunate in this regard was a Mexican diver who, in 1959, plunging into the water near a coral reef a few kilometers from the coast of Yucatan, found a bottle of rum lying at the bottom. The drink came to his taste, and after some time he again went to prey. And what? This time the sea turned out to be extraordinarily generous, giving its guest not only a dozen more of the same bottles, but also a gold watch to boot. The engraving on the cover of the watch, which indicated "London 1738" and the name of the master, made it possible to more or less accurately establish the date of the shipwreck. By the way, even a fragment of an English newspaper was preserved inside the watch, which told its readers about the exploits of the Hungarian general Seckendorf, who bravely fought against Turkish troops in the same 1738, and on the back published an advertisement for a London pharmacy, strongly recommending the use of patented remedies for gout and rheumatism.

We do not know the further fate of bottles with two-century-old rum, but perhaps it is time to move from alcoholic beverages to a snack, also obtained from the bottom of the sea. Would you like to taste, for example, canned fish, which, quite possibly, was intended for the legionnaires of Julius Caesar, deployed two thousand years ago in the remote provinces of the Roman Empire? Yes, yes, do not be surprised: amphoras with garum - the so-called fragrant fish marinade, considered one of the favorite dishes of the ancient Romans - were discovered at the bottom of the sea near the small village of Albenga, located on the coast of the Ligurian Sea. This happened shortly after the Second World War, but long before that, scientists heard rumors that local fishermen, no, no, and even pulled out a seine with ancient amphorae.

Professor Nino Lamboglia, director of the Institute for the Study of Liguria, became seriously interested in the rumors. A group of divers was sent to Albenga, who quite quickly found an antique galley with many amphorae on deck and in the holds at a depth of about 50 meters. At the request of the scientist, the emergency rescue service put at his disposal the Artillo II ship, which became the floating base of the submarine detachment, who were engaged in unloading the ancient transport ship. In less than two weeks, more than a thousand amphoras were recovered from the abyss, and most of them turned out to be safe and sound.

Lamboglia and his assistants began to study the amphoras and their contents. To the surprise of scientists, some amphoras were filled with ... pine cones. For what purpose? One could only guess about the purpose of the cones, although many hypotheses have been proposed in this regard. In many Vessels there was a more suitable cargo - nuts, by the way, well preserved for twenty centuries: divers clicked them with pleasure in their free time. However, most of all there were amphoras with the already mentioned garum, which was produced in many cities of the empire both for their own consumption and for sale to other provinces and countries.

Not only amphorae, but also many other antiques were recovered from the water: hundreds of household and personal items, ship details, in particular, a lead wheel that was used for unknown purposes. Quite a natural interest of scientists was caused by three military helmets of a very unusual shape and some other elements of equipment of Roman legionnaires. Since the number of finds multiplied by leaps and bounds, it was decided to build a special museum building for them. The Italian press, which widely covered the diving work, called their results a major achievement in underwater archeology. But at the same time, voices were heard criticizing the expedition leadership for a number of significant blunders, in particular, for the fact that not a single sketch of the find site was made, not a single photograph was taken.

The last remark could not but be recognized as fair: after all, underwater photography had by that time already totaled almost six decades. In 1892, the Frenchman Louis Boutan designed and manufactured the world's first camera for shooting underwater, and after a few months he successfully put it into practice. In 1900, Bhutan declared: “I have discovered a new area. Let others now enter into it, tread new paths, achieve new successes.

The first among these others was a reporter for one of the American newspapers, John Eriest Williamson, who, a decade and a half later, not only took photographs under water, but also created an underwater movie for the first time. One evening, returning home from the editorial office along a narrow street, he looked at the sky and in the rays of the setting sun he saw an unusual picture: “A clear greenish sky rose above the crooked roofs and rickety pipes, and I was seized by a strange feeling that I was standing at the bottom of the sea among the ruins open underwater city. I was suddenly inspired to photograph the underwater world.”

His father, the owner of a shipyard in Virginia, helped Williamson to realize his dream. Shortly before inspiration dawned on his son, Williamson Sr. built an original camera designed for observation: and rescue work at shallow depths. The spherical chamber, equipped with portholes, was attached to the barge with the help of a wide metal cylinder going down: a ladder was placed inside it, along which it was possible to go down into the chamber and through which air entered it. It was this structure that Williamson Jr. decided to use for underwater filming.

Soon, pictures of the underwater world lay on the table of the editor of the Virginia Pilot newspaper, and a plan for filming a movie under water was already ripening in John's head. The pictures were published in the newspaper, and the Hollywood magnates liked the idea of ​​filming: they immediately allocated considerable sums for the creation of a film that promised to cause a sensation among fans of the cinema that was getting on its feet ...

A few months later, work began to boil in the transparent waters of the coast of the Bahamas. The role of the first underwater movie heroes was played by local native divers who rushed to the bottom for coins. The film was filmed and coral reefs, and marvelous algae, And flocks of fish, and starfish. But, even though it took place in salt water, the owners of Hollywood considered these stories insipid. Something spicy and hearty was needed. And Williamson decides to film the battle of a man with a shark.

Two natives for a substantial reward agreed to participate in an underwater "corrida". A dead horse was lowered into the water as bait, and the sharks were not long in coming. Taking a huge knife in his hand, ONE of the daredevils bravely rushed into the water. And although he brilliantly fought and plunged his blade into the shark's belly, I won't get into this frame: the participants in the duel at the most important moment were out of sight of the clumsy lens.

The second diver, as it turned out, was not so brave and preferred to hide from the sea predator behind a horse carcass. But she was not supposed to appear on the screen, so nothing good could be removed. Then Williamson decided on a feat: “I will still make a film,” he told the cameraman. “I will fight the shark myself.” And now, rubbed with a special ointment, he, standing on board, waited for one of the sharks, and there were a dozen of them spinning next to the observation photosphere, to appear in front of a wide porthole.

Finally, one of the "heroines" entered the frame, Williamson filled his lungs with air and boldly jumped overboard.

The swimmer immediately found himself under the shark, which, noticing him, immediately wagged its tail and swam on the bullfighter with its mouth open. “The huge gray carcass almost ran on me,” Williams later recalled. “I remembered the maneuver the native used and decided to repeat it. Leaning to the side, I grabbed the monster by the fin, trying not to let go of it from my hand. Then, arching, he swam under the deathly-pale belly to take the most advantageous position. After that, having gathered the last of his strength, he struck. A shiver ran through my hand as I felt the blade of the knife pierce right up to the hilt into the belly of the shark. In the next instant, her thrashing body began to throw me from side to side. And then - fog, confusion, chaos ... "

As the "fog" cleared, Williamson realized he was in a lifeboat. Everyone around rejoiced and congratulated the courageous producer of the film, who killed the formidable predator and made it possible to shoot footage that was rare in terms of entertainment. Soon, the documentary "Williamson's Underwater Expedition" was shown on the screens of many countries, which aroused great interest among the audience.

Success spurred the founder of underwater cinema. In a short time, Williamson's films "Underwater Eye" (about the search for sunken jewels), "The Girl from the Sea" and, finally, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", based on the famous novel by Jules Verne and taking pride of place in the history of cinema, are released one after another. . This film has long been the highlight of the world screen program. Both experts and film lovers did not skimp on compliments to the filmmakers. Particular praise was given to shots in which a diver fought a mortal battle with a giant octopus. Compared to this scene, Williamson's previously filmed fight with the shark, which almost cost him his life, looked like an ordinary underwater brawl. One of the critics, publicly stated that in the episode of the new film that struck everyone, "there is not a hint of fake or deceit." Only when, two decades later, Williamson published his memoirs, it turned out that the octopus was made of rubber, and a diver hidden inside controlled the movements of his huge body and tentacles.

Williamson's trick was one of the first cinematic techniques and means to shoot the most terrible scenes without much risk to the participants in the filming. But the sea did not change its steep temper, and underwater filming continued to be a life-threatening business. This was confirmed by the sad fate that befell one of Williamson's followers, cinematographer Jim Ernest. Together with his friend and companion John Craig, he decided to search for the treasures of an old Spanish ship that sank off the southern coast of California, and at the same time shoot the search on film. Hopes for success were promised by a rather dilapidated map of La Paz Bay that somehow fell into the hands of one of them, on which there was a cross faded from time to time - the place of the ship's death.

The map did not disappoint: soon after the start of the search work, the ship was found. And now Jim goes down under the water with an automatic movie camera. Craig, who remained at the top, carefully follows the movements of his comrade through the air bubbles emerging from the depth. But what is it? Suddenly, the signal end twitched: four double jerks - a conventional sign of an emergency rise. Assistant Antonio began to quickly pull the lines, but at that moment some force pulled the air hose out of his hands, and he almost fell overboard. Struggling to stay on his feet, Antonio in the next moment saw the end of the hose emerge from the water. Where is Jim?

Craig, without wasting a minute, dresses in diving equipment and, together with another assistant, goes in search. Here in front of them - a sunken ship, a few more agonizing minutes - and Craig sees a movie camera that has fallen into the mud. There is no doubt: misfortune happened to Jim, and he, having lost air, undoubtedly died. After looking for their comrade for some more time, but never finding him, the divers, taking the orphaned camera with them, rose to the surface. Perhaps the film will tell what happened at depth: after all, the device operated automatically under water.

The film is removed from the camera, developed, inserted into the projector - and a blurry image of a sunken ship appears on the screen, which is getting closer and clearer every second. Now Jim himself is in the frame: he installed the camera at the bottom, and thanks to this he turned into a movie hero. Here he is dragging some boards, then turns and heads back to the ship. At some point, a shadow appears on the screen. Jim raises his head and a huge stingray comes into view. The oscillating disk hangs over the diver.

The movie projector continues to chirp, dispassionately recreating the terrible picture of the death of Jim Earnest. Barely holding back tears, Craig peers at the screen; he must know everything that happened to the friend. Here the stingray wraps its dorsal fin around the air hose and both lines - signal and rescue, and then, like a huge kite, falls on Jim, knocks him down and continues to strike with powerful fins. The camera was only a few paces away, and Craig sometimes felt as if the man and his mortal enemy were about to swim out of the screen into the cramped cabin where this horror-filled movie show was taking place. What happened in the last seconds of the underwater duel, it was not possible to find out: the image on the screen wavered, dimmed and completely disappeared. Cinematographer Jim Earnest's last film ended...

If photo and movie cameras firmly mastered the underwater kingdom at the beginning of the century, then the television debut under water took place only in 1947, shortly after the American atomic bomb was tested on the Pacific coral atoll Bikini. The specialists needed to find out how the underwater world reacted to the explosion and what damage the ships that once sank at the bottom near the atoll received. But not to send divers to certain death? After all, radioactive contamination is inevitable. It was then that they decided to “send” television cameras into the water. However, the first pancake turned out to be a lump: a barely noticeable image that appeared on the screens of television receivers only allowed one to guess what had fallen into the lens.

Four years later, the experiments were continued. The reason for them was the mysterious disappearance of the English submarine Effrey. Leaving Portsmouth for the English Channel, she did a training assignment for some time, but then something happened to her. Distress signals were received by many ships. The unfolding search was led by Lieutenant Commander of the Navy of Great Britain J. N. Bethurst, captain of the Rickleim floating base. Since the exact coordinates of the accident were not known, the work had to be carried out over a large area - along the proposed course of the submarine. It was primarily about saving the crew - there were 75 people on board the boat.

Day after day passed, but despite the fact that the searchers had the latest sonar equipment at their disposal, no traces of the accident could be found. Everyone understood that people had died, but the Rickleim continued to surf the sea. As soon as the echo sounder “noted” any significant irregularities at the bottom, the sonar began to probe the suspicious place, which made it possible to get a more or less accurate idea of ​​the shape and size of the found ledge. If it looked like a submarine, divers descended under the water, but only long-sunken ships were waiting for them at the bottom. "Effrey" as if sunk into the water, however, so it was in the most literal sense. Further searches could drag on for a long time.

What to do? An unexpected help to the sailors was offered by employees of the Naval Research Laboratory located in Teddington: they recommended the use of television. Captain Bashurst and Diving Inspector Shelford arrived at Teddington to get acquainted with the unusual technique for them. The “Trick Box,” as they dubbed Marconi’s hermetically sealed television camera with many different devices, did not inspire much confidence in the sea wolves, but why not give her a difficult test? The authorities approved the idea, and soon a group of senior officers led by the admiral arrived on board the Rickleim to conduct tests.

TV equipment set up completed. The diver is given a command to dive, and he goes to the bottom. The depth under the "Rikleim" is about 45 meters. Everyone was quiet in the wardroom, as if waiting for a miracle. And it came: a slightly flickering, but very good image appeared on the screen. The admiral took the handset that connected the ship with the sailor who had gone under water, and loudly, as if he was far away, shouted: “Diver, can you hear me?” “Yes, sir,” came a clear voice. But the admiral, apparently, still had some doubts, and so that they finally dissipated, a new order was given: "In this case, write something on the slate board." The officers saw the diver leaning over the board, and a minute later brought it up to the TV camera lens. As soon as the words appeared on the screen, there was a friendly laugh in the wardroom. On the board was written: "How about a raise in the salaries of divers?"

The admiral and other officers appreciated both the diver's sense of humor and the high level of television technology, which made it possible to count on the successful completion of the search for the submarine.

Television was adopted by the rescuers, and the scientists Ross Stamp and John Phillips, who were on board the Rickleim, who owned the idea of ​​​​using the novelty for underwater reconnaissance, constantly, as they say, “on the go”, improved their offspring. Almost every day the camera examined the ships that came "at hand", while transmitting a lot of interesting information to the screen.

Several weeks have passed. Significantly simplified search technology made it possible to explore a much larger area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe seabed than before, but the submarine still did not want to reveal its location. Nevertheless, the captain of the mother ship, and the members of her crew, and television specialists all believed that luck would come sooner or later. And then one day the sonar “reported” that there was an “unidentified object” at an eighty-meter depth. First, the observation camera went under the water. When she sank to the desired depth, the sailor sitting in her reported upstairs that he saw a sunken ship, resembling a submarine in outline. However, poor visibility - no more than three meters - did not allow a more specific conclusion.

It was then that the TV camera said its weighty word. As soon as she was lowered and brought to the hull of the ship lying on the sand, everyone made out on the screen the gun turret of the submarine. But "Effrey" is it? "Rikleim" slowly moved along the surface of the sea, and the camera lens floated along the hull of an unknown vessel. The cabin was left behind, and a large letter "Y" appeared on the screen. Following it, other letters alternately crawled into the left side of the frame, and the previous ones respectively moved to the right: "A", "R", "F", "F" and finally the last one - "A". Now everyone could read the word "AFFRAY". With such a stunningly spectacular ending, a telecast from the depths of the sea ended, putting an end to the “i” in search of the Effrey submarine.

A lot of time has passed since then. Photo, film and television cameras have become attributes of almost all respectable underwater expeditions. Such equipment was also present on board deep-sea submersibles, with the help of which it was possible to detect even those vessels that rest under a huge water column measured in kilometers: the legendary English liner Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck, the American nuclear submarine Thresher and many other ships in whose fate the ocean played a sinister role.

Secrets of the drowned cities

“Tempered by the sun and sea winds, in magnificent oriental silks and precious jewelry, bearded sailors crowd here at the piers and play for gold coins, the value of which is of no interest to any of them. The taverns are filled with gold and silver goblets that sparkle with gems stolen from fifty cathedrals. Every building here is a treasure trove. Even in the ears of a simple sailor, heavy gold earrings with precious stones. So one of the historical chronicles of the 17th century describes Port Royal - the largest shopping center and the main haven of pirates of the Caribbean, which was once located on the site of the current capital of Jamaica, Kingston.

That distant summer day on the island was unusually calm. The sun was slowly approaching its zenith, and the thick midday heat enveloped Port Royal tightly. Vessels with their sails tucked away in a huge bay swayed lazily on a light wave. People hid in the shadows. Only black slaves, driven by whips, danced on the sagging gangways, dragged bales with cargo and chests with stolen filibuster treasures to the shore. In some places, smoke was smoking over the houses: dinner time was approaching, and the owners of seaside taverns were roasting appetizing pieces of lamb on a spit, cooking oyster soup, stewing turtle meat with fish and fragrant spices in large copper basins. It seemed that nothing could disturb the peace of the city, lulled by heat and silence.

Suddenly, thunder rumbled from somewhere, and the city shuddered. And in the next instant, an earthquake of terrible force turned Port Royal into a pile of ruins. The earth opened up, and the sea rushed into the breach with a noise, covering everything that came in its way: people, houses, warehouses, carts with horses, boats. With a crash, the church of St. Paul, located not far from the bay, fell apart and collapsed. The last sad groan was issued and disappeared under the water by a heavy church bell.

Large ships, raised by multi-meter tidal waves, invaded the shore and collapsed on the roofs of buildings, to disappear with them then into giant crevices flooded with water. In a matter of minutes, the city ceased to exist. The ruthless element claimed over 5 thousand lives - most of the population of Port Royal. It happened on June 7, 1692 at 11:43 am.

But how do we know the exact time of the tragedy? Did one of the few survivors have the strength and courage to record in cold blood this terrible moment, which must have seemed like the end of the world to the unfortunate inhabitants of Port Royal? No, the clock showed the time, and not simple ones, but gold ones. Yes, yes, the gold watch that the members of the expedition led by Edwin Lipk, organized in 1953 by the US National Geographic Society, managed to raise from the bottom to raise the sunken treasures of Port Royal and scientifically explore the sunken city. After one of the dives, a diver who climbed onto the deck of the Sea Diver rescue vessel showed his comrades his booty: a small round shiny object - a gold watch, the dial of which was covered with a hard lime crust.

It was quite reasonable to assume that the watch belonged to one of the inhabitants or guests of the pirate capital, who met their death hour there at the time of the fatal earthquake. Then the clockwork stopped. Link set to work cleaning and examining the watch. First of all, he noticed on the inside of the lid the engraving: "Paul Blondel." Who is he: the master who made the clock, or their owner, who died on that nightmarish day in Port Royal? It still had to be figured out, but for now, back to work. Carefully removing the coral rind from the dial, Link saw Roman numerals made up of many tiny silver studs. There were no arrows on the clock: for two and a half centuries they were eaten by corrosion. “Now we have the opportunity to accurately determine the time of the death of the city,” Edwin Link told his assistants. “If the hands broke after the coral had covered the dial, X-rays would help determine their original position, fixed on the coral layer.”

Everyone, of course, was eager to find the answer to this question, but, alas, there was no X-ray machine at hand. Rescued familiar dentist from Kingston. A day later, Link was already carefully studying the pictures of the dial, which was again “put on” the coral crust. The rays that illuminated it showed those places where the iron arrows once froze, then “melted” in sea water. The traces of the arrows in the photographs were quite clearly visible: the shorter line was slightly to the left of the twelve, and the longer one rose slightly above the eight. In other words, the clock stopped shortly before noon or midnight.

To finally clarify the situation, Link sent the find to the London Museum of Science and Technology: it has the world's best collection of antique clocks and employs specialists who know everything about them. Soon a telegram arrived in Kingston from London: “The clock was made in 1686 by Paul Blondel from Amsterdam. They show 11 hours 43 minutes. Until now, it was only known that the tragedy struck Port Royal on a hot June day, now, thanks to a find on the seabed, it was possible to establish the exact time of the earthquake.

Edwin Link's expedition worked in the underwater city for two and a half months. During this time, the Sea Diver's deck was visited by many marine trophies: copper ladles with long handles, broken pewter spoons, bowls and other kitchen utensils, wine bottles and vials for medicine, roofing tiles and fragments of bricks. Of course, these objects, dating back to the 17th century, were of considerable interest to historians and archaeologists. But the watch turned out to be the only gold item found by the members of the expedition. It was time for strong winds, and the work had to be curtailed. The Sea Diver weighed anchor and headed for Florida.

Perhaps more successful from this point of view was another explorer of Port Royal - Robert Morks. In the 60s, on the instructions of the government of Jamaica, he conducted a rather large-scale archaeological search on the former squares and streets of the city conquered by the sea. “This is the largest object of underwater archeology in the entire Western Hemisphere,” the scientist wrote in the pages of the American magazine National Geographic.

“Now we have a unique opportunity to find out what the whole city of the 17th century looked like. When excavating, we even come across food, such as oil, which has become hard as a stone. We know what kind of tobacco they smoked then - we found a whole leaf of tobacco. We can tell what kind of spirits they drank at that time: we analyzed the contents of corked bottles. There were rum, wine and brandy. We picked up about 250 nearly intact pieces of pewter. This is more than has been found at all other underwater archaeological sites in the Western Hemisphere combined. We found six thousand earthenware pipes, silverware, pocket watches and a copper rum distiller.”

But Morks had finds more interesting than the property of a Port Royal moonshiner. One fine day, divers pulled out a chest with the coat of arms of the Spanish King Philip IV from the bottom. The chest was filled to the brim with perfectly preserved silver coins from the second half of the 17th century. As stipulated by the agreement, the treasure became the property of the Jamaican authorities.

There is no doubt that Port Royal will once again delight underwater archaeologists and seekers of happiness: after all, only a small fraction of the wealth that was in the city at the time of its death was found. It is known that the port warehouses located along the pier were always crammed with gold, silver and expensive goods awaiting shipment to Europe: after all, many sea trade routes converged in Port Royal in those days, connecting the largest harbors of the world. In addition, the city served as a haven for many pirates who brought their booty here. That is why there are still legends about the underwater treasures of Port Royal, which attract crowds of tourists here. On clear days, they go out to sea in special boats with a transparent bottom and peer with curiosity into the blue waters of the bay. When the sun shines especially brightly, a silent dead city appears before tourists. However, some people sometimes even imagine a bell ringing coming from the depths ...

Of course, cities do not sink as often as ships, nevertheless, Port Royal has many "comrades in misfortune." Especially a lot of drowned cities are located in the coastal strip of the Mediterranean Sea. One of them is the legendary Bibion, which history has linked with the name of the leader of the Hun tribe Attila. In the middle of the 5th century, hordes of the Huns invaded the possessions of the Roman Empire from the east. Although Attila managed to reach the northern part of Italy, he did not gain much military success here, and was soon forced to leave the Apennine Peninsula and go to the Danubian lands. According to historical documents, in his Italian residence Bibione, the leader of the Huns buried a treasure - treasures stolen during campaigns. Fate released Attila only a year of life - he died in 53.

But Bibion ​​also turned out to be not eternal: the ancient city soon disappeared from the face of the earth, swallowed up by the waves of the Adriatic Sea. For a long time, Italian historians have been trying to find at least traces of it on the seabed. However, all their attempts were unsuccessful, until, finally, luck came after the Second World War to the professor of archeology Fontani.

The scientist found out and carefully studied the path of the Hun conquerors along the ancient Roman road from Ravenna to Trieste through Padua. A surprise awaited him: about a kilometer from the mouth of the Tagliamento River, the ancient road broke off, resting on one of the lagoons of the Gulf of Venice. A curious detail was also revealed: the inhabitants of the local coastal village extracted stone for the construction of their houses from the sea, and they sometimes managed to get whole stone blocks from the bottom. Local fishermen told the professor that more than once they found ancient coins on the seabed, which they transferred to the museum for a decent reward.

Acquaintance with these coins made it possible to determine their age: they date back to the first half of the 5th century. Everything indicated that it was here that one should look for Bibion, who disappeared one and a half millennia ago.

Fontani managed to put together a group of experienced scuba divers who examined a fairly large section of the bottom of the bay. They found massive walls and watchtowers of the ancient fortress, the remains of stairs, and various buildings. The divers recovered a lot of coins, antique household utensils and even urns with ashes.

So, Bibion ​​was found, but no trace of Attila's treasure could be found. Numerous seekers of happiness heard about the discovery of the legendary city, and soon the village, lying near the mouth of the Tagliamento, became a real Mecca for Italian scuba divers. Some intended to look for the treasure of the Hun leader here, others were attracted by a thirst for adventure, and others pursued purely scientific goals. Perhaps the romantics and scientists have at least partially satisfied their hopes, but the treasure hunters have so far been left with nothing.

The discovery of Bibion ​​awakened among many residents of Italy and other countries an interest in searching for sunken cities. The number of scuba divers rushing into the waves of the Mediterranean Sea has increased markedly. But one of them, Raimondo Buchera, who, as usual, spent his holidays on the small island of Linos, located about halfway between Malta and the African coast, did not care much about underwater archeology. He was fond of spearfishing and loved to "wander" with a gun in the local waters. On that day, which will be discussed, the sea did not spoil him with rich booty. Raimondo was about to get ashore when he noticed a large tuna in front of his right, quickly leaving towards the sea, and a little further away from him, a flock of frisky bonito. Bucher himself could not later say what made him swim after them: after all, he would hardly have been able to catch up with this procession. Nevertheless, he took the same course. After a minute or two, the fish disappeared from sight, but suddenly the scuba diver saw a massive stone wall under him at about a thirty-meter depth. The stunned Bucher approached her and swam along her. Composed of large blocks of the correct form, the wall first stretched horizontally, and then rather sharply went into the depths.

The next day, Raimondo returned to the mysterious wall with his brother. And then a new surprise awaited them: on one of the battlements one could see an angular human figure carved out of stone, resembling a pharaoh.

Day after day, the brothers, in no hurry to reveal their secret, plunged into the sea to take more pictures of the ancient wall. And only when documentary evidence of its existence was in hand, Bucher found it possible to tell archaeologists about his find. Those, of course, became interested in the underwater fortress and tried to find answers to the numerous questions posed by the wall. What is this fortress? What people built it? When? How did she end up at the bottom?

Geologists joined in solving the problems, who said that in times not so distant by geological standards, the island of Malta was connected through Sicily to the continent. Where the Tyrrhenian Sea now laps was once the land of Tyrrhenis. The ancient tribes of the Pelasgians lived here, about whom Homer reverently narrates: after all, they reached the heights of civilization before the Greeks and Cretans. It must be the Pelasgians who built this stone bastion to protect against enemy raids. According to a number of Italian archaeologists, the fortress could belong to the ancient city of Efuse, which disappeared from the face of the earth and is mentioned in ancient literature. The most terrible enemy of Efuza was the sea, which swallowed up the city and nearby territories several millennia ago. The reason for this was the activity of underwater volcanoes: their eruptions led to the flooding of large and small areas of land on the mainland, islands, isthmuses. Gradually disappeared under the water and Efuza with its fortress walls.

The following curious fact speaks about the reality of such a version. At the beginning of the last century, the captain of a British corvette discovered a tiny island near Sicily, not marked on any of the maps. For the right to own a new piece of land, which managed to get not even one, but two names - Fernandez and Isola Giulia, a heated dispute broke out between England and the Kingdom of Naples. It is not known how it would have ended if, six months later, the island had not plunged into the water as suddenly as it appeared on the surface.

On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, south of Haifa, there is also a place where underwater archaeologists work with enthusiasm. We are talking about the remains of the ancient Jewish port city of Caesarea, founded several decades before our era on the site of an ancient city of the Hellenes called "Straton's Tower".

Tourists can see ruined houses of the 2nd-3rd centuries, theater buildings, a hippodrome, two aqueducts, fragments of the fortress walls, and the ruins of a Crusader castle. But this is only part of Caesarea. The other part of it is under water - in the harbor, where once at times up to a hundred ships anchored: the capital of the Kingdom of Judah was a major trading center. In those distant times, the residence of the Roman procurators of Judea was also located here.

Underwater Caesarea became interested in the amateur archaeologist Edwin Link, already known to us from the search for Port Royal. In the summer of 1957, his yacht Sea Diver, equipped with the latest technology, entered the harbor, and her crew began their work here. First of all, with the help of electronic devices, the bottom was probed and a map was drawn up of the areas hidden by the sea of ​​the ancient capital of the Jewish king Herod. Then the divers began archaeological searches. Soon they managed to raise a large statue that once adorned the entrance to the harbor, and several marble columns. The sea didn't want to give Link any more.

Four years later, underwater research in Caesarea was continued by Israeli and Italian archaeologists. They found the remains of the library building, which in ancient times was as famous as the libraries of Jerusalem and Alexandria. But, perhaps, the discovery of the pedestal of a massive monument was an even greater success of the expedition. When it was brought to the surface and thoroughly cleaned, everyone saw the inscription preserved on it: “...tius Pilatus”. It was he, the cruel and treacherous procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, who entered, as Mikhail Bulgakov told us in his immortal novel The Master and Margarita, “in a white cloak with a bloody lining, shuffling with a cavalry gait, in the early colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great" to sentence Jesus Christ to crucifixion.

A few years later, after the Samaritans complained about the bloody beating of Pontius Pilate by their servants, the procurator was removed from office and sent to Rome. Perhaps then the Jews threw the monument to the hated executioner from the base. In any case, the archaeologists failed to find the statue itself at the bottom of the harbor next to the pedestal.

There are many sunken cities and settlements on the Black Sea. Back in the 1930s, interesting underwater archaeological research was carried out under the guidance of Professor K. E. Grinevich in the region of Chersonese, an ancient Greek colony, the ruins of which are located not far from Sevastopol. Divers working in spacesuits examined in detail and measured the remains of the masonry of residential buildings, towers and other structures at a distance of up to 70 meters from the coast (the length of the air hoses did not allow to go further). Professor K. E. Grinevich himself could not resist the temptation to visit the sunken city: having put on diving equipment, he went for a walk and for 23 minutes got acquainted with the ruins of ancient Chersonesus resting at the bottom.

These dives in the pre-war period laid the foundation for underwater archaeological research in our country. It was possible to continue work, significantly expanding their geography, only after the war. The object of scientists' attention was, in particular, the quiet Black Sea bay near Sukhumi. Here once stood the ancient city of Dioscurias, founded in the VI century BC. e. Greeks from Miletus. At the beginning of the 1st century, the Romans captured the city and built a fortress here. But the life of Dioscuriades turned out to be short: in the 4th century, her decline began, and two centuries later, she completely ceased to exist. Unable to withstand the onset of the sea, the city went to the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay.

Back in the 18th century, the Georgian historian Vakhushtiy Bagrationi wrote that forty antique columns protrude from the water in the sea near Sukhumi. Time and waves gradually destroyed them, and by our days there is no trace of them left. But in 1958, a part of a relief marble tombstone in the form of a stele weighing about a ton was extracted from the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay. Experts determined the age of this masterpiece of ancient art: the 5th century BC. e. A few years later, archaeologists discovered the ruins of an underwater city here. This was the Dioscurias. A few tens of meters from the shore at the bottom of the bay, the remains of a round tower and a stone wall have been preserved. “The tower with a diameter of about three meters is built of large cobblestones ...” writes the head of the archaeological expedition V.P. Pachulia in the book “In the Land of the Golden Fleece”. “The wall adjoining the tower is surrounded by three rows of thin bricks. The masonry and shape of the bricks are typical of Roman construction techniques... The gaps in the one and a half meter wall of the tower served, obviously, as loopholes. Judging by the wall adjacent to the tower and numerous building fragments, there were once defensive structures that blocked the entrance to the Besletka River.

The search for the alleged upper part of the stele with a dedicatory inscription, unfortunately, did not give the expected results - the layer of silt caused by the river is too large. Maybe in the future, archaeologists, armed with powerful ejectors, will pump out river silt from this place and many unexpected things will appear before their eyes.”

Let's part with the promising Dioscuriad and mentally transport ourselves to a completely different area of ​​the globe - to Micronesia, more precisely, to the archipelago of the Caroline Islands, which lie in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. However, our attention was not attracted by the entire archipelago, but only by the volcanic island of Ponape, which is part of the Senyavin group of islands (they were discovered in 1828 by the Russian navigator F.P. Litke and named after D.N. Senyavin, a remarkable naval commander who defeated the Turkish fleet in the Dardanelles and Athos battles in 1807). Why is Ponape Island interesting to us?

On the underwater reef of this island are the ruins of the huge stone city of Nan Madol, in which, according to scientists, about one hundred thousand people once lived. Ancient architects created many artificial islands from basalt blocks on the reef foundation and erected a city, dissected by a wide network of canals-streets. That is why historians and archaeologists often call Nan Madol the Venice of the Pacific. Here is what the famous Czechoslovak ethnographer and writer Miroslav Stingl writes about him: “On the islands of Nan Madola, the unknown creators of the first Micronesian city built dozens of magnificent buildings from huge stone blocks: temples, fortresses, small “palaces”, and also created artificial lakes, etc. The purpose of many buildings has not yet been finally established. This mystery is just one of many mysteries of an incomprehensible artificial archipelago, a stone city, the like of which is not found in all of Oceania.

The fact that on a distant Pacific island, or rather, next to it, the remains of a mysterious city are located, has long been known. In the literature, for example, there is a mention of a certain Belgian anthropologist who visited there in the last century and collected some curious objects confirming the existence of a “dead city”. But on the way back, the ship was wrecked and sank. All "material evidence" went to the bottom. At the turn of the last and present centuries, serious scientific research on Nan Madol was carried out by the German archaeologist Paul Hambruch, who focused his attention on the topography of the ancient city. The scientist managed to map 92 islands - "neighborhoods" of the Pacific Venice.

Around the same time, a mysterious incident occurred on Ponape, which not only excited the local population, but also resonated in Europe, in particular in Germany, which then owned the Caroline Archipelago. Among the inhabitants of the island there was a legend that claimed that anyone who dared to spend the night among the ruins of Nan Madol would certainly face a quick death. And despite this warning, the German governor of Ponape, a certain Berg, ventured to spend the night in the "dead city". And what? He died suddenly the very next day, although he had not previously complained about his health.

But still, this, apparently, should not be considered the main mystery of the island. In fact: scientists are concerned about many questions that have not yet been answered. Who built Nan Madol and when? Where, from what continent, from what country, how did hundreds of thousands of future Nanmadol people come here? What made them leave their land? Where did the ancient builders carve the huge stone beams and blocks from which the city was built? What technique did they use? However, this list of questions can be arbitrarily long ...

An attempt to lift the veil of secrecy over Nan Madol was undertaken relatively recently by a group of Australian scientists led by David Childers. First of all, they carefully studied the historical and folklore documents related to the "dead city". As the local legends said, large building stones flew here by air, and the city was built by "natives with the help of two aliens who sailed from the east." The following fact turned out to be curious: the architecture of Nan Madol is so peculiar that it cannot be found a clear analogy in other parts of the planet. Perhaps the only question to which we managed to find a more or less exact answer is the age of the city. With the help of modern scientific methods, scientists have established that it was erected two millennia ago. Nan Madol did not reveal all his other secrets.

Moreover, the work revealed something that gave rise to a lot of new historical problems: in all likelihood, Nan Madol was built on the site of a much more ancient city that went under water at least ten thousand years ago. It must be said that even on the eve of the Second World War, when the Senyavin Islands belonged to Japan, from time to time rumors appeared that Japanese pearl divers saw columns and houses standing on the seabed under water not far from the ruins of Nash Madol. Rumor even assured that Japanese divers found several platinum sarcophagi in the flooded city and raised to the surface. Whether this is really so, no one can say with certainty, but information about underwater structures was also confirmed in the post-war period, when the archipelago received the status of a United Nations trust territory controlled by the United States: members of a number of American expeditions saw the city lying at the bottom.

And now, Childers and his colleagues could visually get acquainted with one of the oldest settlements on our planet, located not on earth, but under water, as if reminding us that the World Ocean is the ancestral home of all living and man-made in the world around us today. “Huge columns, decorated with corals, rose from the bottom of the lagoon, and sharks swam out to meet us from the depths,” Childers recalled in the pages of an Australian magazine. Scuba divers who dived to a depth of 20–35 meters counted a dozen such columns. In addition, quite clear drawings were found on the basalt blocks resting at the bottom - various geometric shapes.

There is a hypothesis among historians based on Chinese and Indian legends: once, in ancient times, on the site of numerous Pacific archipelagos there was a mainland called Mu, or Lemuria. So are the islands and the underwater city in the lagoon off Nan Madol the surviving bits of this land and the ancient civilization that grew up on it, which, unfortunately, has not survived to this day?

"Question mark"8/90

What does the ocean store?

VENETSKY Sergey Iosifovich

Everything from water

Attempts to penetrate into the depths of the sea were made by people in antiquity. The earliest depiction of a diver found on Mesopotamian tombstones dates back to the turn of the 5th and 4th millennium BC. e.

Approximately eight centuries younger are similar drawings preserved on the walls of the tombs of the ancient Greek city of Thebes. In the 5th century BC e. The Athenians used divers in the siege of Syracuse. A few decades later, the great Aristotle designed diving equipment in the form of a bell, with the help of which his no less great pupil Alexander the Great plunged into the Mediterranean waters: in this way he personally got acquainted with the underwater barriers of the Phoenician city of Tyre, preparing to attack him from the sea. Shortly after successful reconnaissance, the city was captured by the troops of the young king-commander.

For more than two millennia, the diving bell remained the main technical tool that made it possible to dive to a relatively shallow depth, conduct search operations there, and, if successful, take away the valuables found at the bottom from the sea. With its help, for example, a certain William Phips at the end of the 17th century managed to extract from the water a significant part of the treasures of the Spanish galleon that sank near the Bahamas.

From a young age, Phips dreamed of treasures resting on the seabed .. Since the Spanish conquistadors, who landed on the lands of the American continent, at the beginning of the 16th century, plundered the local peoples and tribes on an unprecedented scale, for more than two centuries from the shores of the New World now and then ships and fleets departed, heading for the Iberian Peninsula. But, as if taking revenge on the conquerors, the ocean more than once snatched the stolen gold and silver from their hands. These sunken jewels haunted Boston resident William Phips. A former ship's carpenter, he decided to change his profession and become a smuggler, while not leaving the dream of finding an underwater treasure sooner or later.

It is easy to say - to find, but where, in what place of the vast expanses of the sea to look for the remains of sunken ships stuffed with treasures? It is not known how the life of a young seeker of happiness would have developed in the future if he had not once heard a call for help on the island of Hispaniola, coming from a wooden barn. This hoarse cry was for him a truly happy voice of fate. Strong in body and not timid in spirit, William, without hesitation, entered the barn and saw two guys beating a pathetic old man. William's anger was so obvious that they not only left their victim, but immediately rushed to their heels. “Why did these villains beat you?” - Phips asked the old man, who had just come to his senses. In response, he told his savior the secret that the escaped thugs wanted to find out.

Once Ottavio - that was the name of the old man - served as a helmsman on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Cancepción. Fortune turned out to be unfavorable to this ship: having run into the reefs of the Silver Bank, it crashed and sank, taking with it countless treasures: precious metal ingots from Peru and Mexico, emeralds and other precious stones from Colombia, pearls from Venezuela. One of the few who managed to escape was Ottavio. Realizing that he no longer had the strength or means to raise the galleon from the bottom of the wealth, he gave Phips a map on which the exact place of the ship's death was marked. In return, the old man only asked for some gold if the search was successful.

And success came. But before this happened, a lot of grief and disappointment fell to the lot of the owner of the treasured card.

Phips understood the difficulty and danger of the upcoming treasure hunt: after all, the local waters were the domain of pirates, who would hardly have reacted favorably to the fact that someone got rich before their eyes. Therefore, all preparations for the expedition had to be carried out in the strictest confidence, and considerable funds were required for the technical equipment of the expedition. In a word, it was necessary to look for, as they would now say, a sponsor - a rich and powerful patron. d And the young smuggler, who did not have time to prove himself in this slippery field, went to England, intending to interest King Charles II himself with his plans. This monarch, a great lover of lavish fun, which took a lot of money, liked the idea of ​​Phips, and soon he, on the royal frigate Rose of Algiers with 18 guns, was already heading to the Caribbean Sea to the very Silver Bank reefs where he was waiting ( did you wait?) a sunken Spanish galleon.

Dropping anchor in the place that was indicated on Ottavio's diagram, Phips and his companions spent days inspecting and rummaging the seabed in shallow water near the reefs, but, alas, they managed to find only one small ingot of silver. It was not possible to find the remains of the galleon. The planned "term of the search engine was coming to an end, and the supplies of provisions taken on board the vessel were also melting. The unsuccessful searches caused dissatisfaction with the crew. Even a mutiny was brewing, and Phips had no choice but to return empty-handed to England. The only silver bar could be regarded as nothing more than a memorable souvenir and was unlikely to be able to satisfy the exacting "sponsor", so William was by no means pleased with the upcoming rendezvous with the king.

But fate protected the loser from a meeting that did not promise him anything good: while Phips, not knowing peace, was looking for his happiness, Charles II, on the contrary, managed to find eternal peace. His younger brother James II ascended the throne, who did not even want to accept a dubious person who arrived from a long voyage. This suited Phips quite well, since it relieved him of his previous obligations and allowed him to look for a new influential partner. Soon one was found: it was Henry Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, a passionate gambler who dreamed of making a solid fortune. It was he who obtained the necessary consent from James II to search for treasures, promising the king a tenth share of the booty.

Having royal "good", the duke easily put together a "Company of gentlemen - adventurers", who put at his disposal 3,200 pounds sterling - a very solid amount at that time. Some time later, or rather, on September 12, 1686, two ships under the command of William Phips departed from the shores of Foggy Albion in a southwestern direction: one of them, with 22 guns, he named “Jacob and Mary” in honor of the crowned couple, the other , smaller, with 10 guns, - "Henry" in recognition of the duke's merits in equipping the second expedition.

And here is Phips again near the Bahamas in the area of ​​​​cherished coral reefs. The Indian divers hired by him dive dozens of times daily in search of at least some traces of the lost ship. This is how a month goes by. But all in vain. It seems that this time the fortune does not consider it necessary to make Phips and his team happy. The captain is ready to admit defeat. Having called his assistants to a meeting, William announces to them the termination of the search work. At the same time, he stomps his foot under the table in his hearts, accidentally touching some strange object, similar to a piece of coral growth, but suspiciously regular shape. What is it? With an ax blow, Phips breaks it - inside is a small box of solid wood. Another blow of the ax, and silver and gold coins rain down on the deck.

A small investigation is immediately carried out and it turns out that this “piece of coral” was taken from the bottom by one of the divers in the first weeks of the search. Since everyone was interested not in corals, but in precious4 metals, Phips threw him at the same time under the table, where he had lain all this time. But how to find the place where the chest of coins, disguised by the sea, was retrieved from? The diver recalls that he found his find in a rocky depression, at the bottom of which, as he remembers, large coral formations were piled up. Within a few minutes, several Indians plunge into it at once. An agonizing wait, and finally, one by one, they emerge to the surface, holding “bricks” in their hands, overgrown with a layer of corals. Moreover, some of them even claim to have seen ship cannons in the crevices. Is the goal close?

Phips decides to go down into the water himself. For this purpose, back in London, he built with his own hands a simple diving bell - a large cone-shaped barrel, girded with iron hoops and covered with a thick layer of lead for ballast. Inside this "bathyscaphe" there were seats for divers, who could get out from under the bell to the bottom with a breathing hose. Now it was already possible to go deeper and stay under water longer, and therefore, to see more.

During one of the dives, something happened for which Phips endured difficulties and hardships for many months: a sunken galleon was discovered at a depth of about 12-15 meters. Covered entirely with coral growths, it looked like a reef rising from the bottom. Even experienced sailors did not immediately determine where the ship's bow was and where the stern was. But was it so important, if every now and then it was possible to raise to the surface either a silver ingot, or a handful of coins, or a gold plate! With such a material incentive, divers worked "more fun". From early morning, as soon as the first rays of the sun made their way through the water column, a working day began, which ended already at dusk. Only a storm interrupted the search for a while, but as soon as it subsided, the dives resumed .

The booty was deposited on the deck of the main vessel. The pile of treasures taken from the sea gradually grew. But... the dissatisfaction of the crew also grew: the work had been going on for more than two months, people were insanely tired, drinking water began to rot in barrels, and melting food supplies forced the cook to reduce portions. In addition, one morning a light sloop approached the Silver Bank reef, anchoring not far from the underwater mine of Phips. This is where the artillery that his ships were equipped with came in handy. A volley of 22 cannons put an end to the hopes of uninvited guests: the sloop riddled with cannonballs soon went to the same place where the galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción had been resting for several decades.

Phips understood that the main wealth of the Spanish ship still remained in its holds. Using his high authority among the crew, the captain asked his subordinates to continue working for some time, reaffirming that everyone would receive their share of the extracted jewelry. He persuaded the best of the divers to try to penetrate the lower hold of the galleon. He complied with the request of Phips, but when he got to the surface, blood was streaming down his face. The poor fellow did not even have the strength to climb into the boat, and he had to be dragged there by two sailors. But the diver's efforts were not in vain: after catching his breath, he said that he found a large chest in the hold, which he "could not even budge.

Not to leave treasures to other, more successful seekers of happiness? On this issue, all members of the expedition showed complete unanimity. Descending one by one and two by two into the hold, the divers managed to sling the chest in three days, remove it from the hold, and then lift it aboard the Jacob and Mary. Swing the ax and gold jewelry, diamonds, emeralds, pearls fell on the deck and even crystal glasses, which, when broken, made a farewell bewitching ring. But it was not he who enchanted the team, but those innumerable treasures that, in front of everyone, were taken from like a magic chest. All values ​​​​were carefully weighed and recorded in the ledgers - from the very the beginning was carefully led by the confidants of Phips and the Duke of Albemarle.

Joy and jubilation reigned that morning in the camp of underwater victors. There was no longer any question of stopping the work that promised fabulous prospects. Everyone expressed their readiness to endure any trials, if the sea is so generous. Gives them for it. However, in life, reality often comes into serious conflict with the dream. So it happened in those distant ones. we are three centuries away from the days when the divers of Phips, at great risk to their lives, tried to penetrate the holds of the Spanish galleon clogged with coral growths. To facilitate the breaking of these natural "locks", the crew even forged a variety of tools: hooks, crampons and other devices. But the divers failed to open the petrified skin or deck of the ship. The sea considered the given material values ​​to be quite sufficient compensation to the expedition members for their hard work.

However, they really did not have to complain about their fate: the ledgers already contained many entries, in which a total of tens of thousands of pounds of silver appeared in the form of ingots, several boxes and bags of coins, 25 pounds of pure gold, a great variety of all kinds of jewelry, . precious stones, pearls. With such booty, it was not a shame to return to London, and Phips sets a course for the British Isles.

The way back was not easy. Suffice it to say that already at the very beginning of the voyage, only the high skill of the captain and the cunning of Phips allowed him to cheat the French pirates: on a dark stormy night, he risked hiding his ships among the formidable rocks, thanks to which he managed to escape from the pursuit, which could sadly end so successfully established multi-month expedition. And so, leaving behind thousands of miles, filled with mortal dangers and the most difficult trials, on June 6, 1687, Phips returned to the harbor, from where nine months earlier he set off on his voyage for underwater riches.

London welcomed Phips as a hero. Everyone who was involved in the equipment of the expedition began to divide the booty. Most of all went to the Duke of Albemarle and the "Company of gentlemen - adventurers." Strictly speaking, William Phips and his crew had to look for true adventures at sea, and the gentlemen's land "adventures" were reduced only to the risk of losing their funds invested in the enterprise. Now, the costs have paid off handsomely. Well, who does not risk, he does not drink champagne.

Officers, boatswain, cook, sailors - all members of the crew found their share, but old Ottavio Phips could no longer thank the old man: he died shortly after he parted with his secret. The Tower of London also got something: its arsenal was replenished with six bronze cannons taken from the sea.

Having received his "tithe" - over 20 thousand pounds sterling, James II not only deigned to accept the former ship's carpenter, but also awarded him a knighthood "for good and honest services." Soon, the newly-born knight was awarded two medals. The front "side of one of them was decorated with profiles of the royal couple, and on the back was a ship named after her, anchored above the sunken ship. The inscription stamped on the medal read: "May your fishhook always hang."

This phrase, taken from Ovid's poem "The Art of Love", implied, of course; the "hook" with which Phips was so successful in catching his "goldfish". On another medal, Neptune was minted, armed with a traditional trident: the lord of the underwater kingdom, dressed in a magnificent wig and therefore surprisingly similar to the Duke of Albemarle, calmly looked at the extraction of treasures. The motto of the medal stated: "Everything - from the water."

The king, who had noticeably become kinder to Phips, offered him to take the high position of commissioner of the British fleet, but he decided to return to New England, where he was from. With his share, which amounted to more than 1G thousand pounds sterling, he built a large and beautiful house in Boston, intending to live in it for his own pleasure.

However, James II wished to appoint Phips governor of Massachusetts and governor general of Maya and Nova Scotia.

How do you turn down a royal commission? I had to put a heavy burden on my shoulders. In the new role, Phips had a chance to engage in battles with the troops of the French colonies on American soil more than once. In addition, in the intricacies of life's intrigues, he did not feel as confident as in sailing the roaring sea. After a major battle near Quebec, the recent darling of fate was not only defeated, but also ruined, entangled in debt, pursued by numerous personal enemies. In a word, an experienced sailor managed to run aground on land.

The only hope left was for influential patrons in London. But there Phips was in for a bitter disappointment: by that time, James II was forced to part with the English throne and fled from England, and the unlucky governor had no merit in front of the opposition that came to power, led by William III. For non-payment of the debt of yesterday's triumphant, they were unceremoniously thrown into prison. His body, undermined by tropical fever, could not bear the cold and dampness of the stone cell, which became his last abode. He soon died. It happened in 1695, when Phips was a little over 44 years old.

The only property of a noble prisoner was a small silver ingot - the same one that he had raised from the bottom during his first attempt to find the sunken Spanish galleon. This piece of silver, which served as William's talisman, could not save its owner from the bitter vicissitudes of fate, but it was useful to him on the eve of his death: in his last hour, Phips gave the commemorative silver to the jailer so that he could buy a decent coffin for him.

But the jailer did not have to fulfill the dying will of the legendary prisoner: as if recovering from their unjust cruelty, the authorities ordered Phips to be buried at the expense of the royal treasury. On his grave, the widow erected a white marble monument with a beautiful urn supported by two angels. The bas-relief on the monument repeated the design of the medal awarded to the brave treasure hunter in his finest hour: a ship at anchor surrounded by boats from which underwater treasure mining is carried out.

The troubles and troubles that began in the last period of his life haunted Phips even after his death: under unknown circumstances, this tombstone disappeared without a trace. Only in the documents the text of the epitaph, once inscribed on marble, has been preserved:

“Here lies the knight Sir William Phips, who, by his inexhaustible energy, discovered among the rocks of the Bahamas, north of Hispaniola, a Spanish galleon, which had lain for forty-four years at the bottom of the sea; he extracted gold and silver to the sum of db-300,000 pounds sterling, and with his usual honesty brought these treasures to London, where they were divided between him and other partners.

For great merits, His Majesty, the reigning King Jacob I, Phips was granted a knighthood. At the request of respectable New Englanders, Phips assumed control of Massachusetts. He carried out his duties until his death, taking care of the interests of the motherland with such zeal and neglecting personal interests, that he justly earned the love and respect of the best part of the population of this colony.

The epitaph bashfully kept silent about the tragic ending of the early life of William Phips. We spoke in such detail about the former ship carpenter, who, thanks to his own business qualities and the will of fate, acquired a knighthood and became a governor, not only because he successfully used a diving bell to search for and extract treasures hidden by the sea, but also because in the history of underwater treasure hunting The name of Phips opens the list of successful seekers of happiness who managed to raise from the bottom not individual coins, ingots, figurines, but huge wealth.

To the reader

Steps into silence

Centuries gone to hell

Study

ocean

Work completed: Gulyaev Vyacheslav

student of 8 "b" class

Head: Dukhlintseva T.S.

• The oceans have been fully explored.

In Homer's famous poem, the Iliad, written about three thousand years ago, an oyster fisher is mentioned diving head first from his boat:

... "Exclaimed Patroclus the horseman:

How easy this man is! Dive amazingly fast!

If he were also on the sea, plentiful fish,

I could please many, looking for oysters, for which

He would spin from the ship, despite the fact that the sea is angry.

How he, being on the field, quickly dived from the chariot).

("Iliad", canto XVI).

The story of the exploits of Skill is the first mention in ancient literature about the military activities of divers. During the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC. during the siege of Pisa by the Athenians, Lacedaemonian divers delivered food to the besieged: "Divers dived and swam under water, dragging goat skins with poppy seeds mixed with honey and crushed flax seeds on a rope."

During the defense of Syracuse in Sicily in 413 BC, according to the testimony of the same Thucydides, the besieged built underwater barriers against enemy ships: the piles were driven in so that they did not rise above the water, and therefore it was dangerous to swim up to them, and anyone a careless ship ran into them like a pitfall. "But these piles were cut by divers for a fee," he adds further.

Several decades later, the great Aristotle designed diving equipment in the form of a bell.

Later, diving equipment was "reinvented" by the great Florentine Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

Many years later, an English astronomer and geophysicist Edmund Halley (1656-1742) proposed to additionally supply such a bell with air from submerged tanks. There is evidence that Halley himself descended to a depth of 17 m.

In 1718, Peter I received a petition from E.P. Nikonov, a peasant in the village of Pokrovskoye-Rubtsovo near Moscow, who worked as a carpenter at a state-owned shipyard, about the construction of a "hidden vessel" (submarine) in order to damage the underwater part of the hulls of enemy ships. From this submarine, the diver had to leave in an autonomous diving suit. The idea of ​​creating such a spacesuit was not put into practice, and the wooden “hidden ship” Morel, built according to his project, was damaged during tests in the spring of 1724.

Diving equipment of the bell type did not allow the courageous submariners of the past to conquer more or less significant depths. New approaches to the creation of diving equipment were needed.

It took humanity a long time to do this: only at the end of the 18th century, the German inventor Kleingert created a diving suit with a metal helmet and air supply with a pump.

Diving equipment A. Klinger

Suit A.Zibe

Campbell's suit

O. Deneyruz space suit

No matter how good the armored suit was, it also had its diving limits. More convenient for this purpose were already known by that time surveillance cameras.

Decompression sickness was, if not defeated, then tamed with the help of stepwise decompression, when the ascent from the depths did not take place quickly, but gradually, with long stops on the way to the surface.

It was these needs that eventually led to the invention of scuba gear.

A few years after the events described, the Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard designed, manufactured and tested the world's first bathyscaphe - an autonomous apparatus for oceanographic and other research at great depths.

Sunken temples of Mahabalipuram (India)

In April 2002, the ruins of large buildings were found under water off the coast of Mahabalipuram in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, at depths of 5 to 7 meters.

Pavlopetri (Greece)

The ancient city of Pavlopetri lies at a depth of 3-4 meters near the shore in northern Laconia, Greece. The ruins date back to 2800 BC at the earliest.

The ocean, majestic and eternal, keeps in its depths the secret of the origin of life, and traces of history, and exotic forms of animals and plants. Attempts to penetrate into the depths of the sea were made by people in antiquity. The earliest depiction of a diver found on Mesopotamian tombstones dates back to the turn of the 5th and 6th millennium BC. e. In the 5th century BC e. The Athenians used divers in the siege of Syracuse. A few decades later, the great Aristotle designed diving equipment in the form of a bell, with the help of which his equally great pupil Alexander the Great plunged into the Mediterranean waters in order to get acquainted with the underwater barriers of the Phoenician city of Tyre. Soon after successful reconnaissance, the city was captured by the troops of the young king-commander...

One of those who managed to overcome all obstacles in their path was Jacques-Yves Cousteau. When you find out the facts of the biography of this man, it seems as if fate itself ordered him to be an explorer of the deep sea.

In 1923, 13-year-old Jacques got a movie camera, with which he has not parted since. He builds scenery, shoots, develops film, and even organizes a motion picture production society called Film Zix, Jacques Cousteau. Seven years later, he enters the Higher National Naval School in France. And in 1936, Cousteau gets into a car accident, which forever closes his career in naval aviation. Only exceptional willpower allows him to leave the hospital in less than a year and return to the fleet - to the naval base in Toulon. In 1937, he finds his other half: Simone Melchior, who became his wife, will be his faithful companion in all projects and enterprises until the end of her life, especially since Simone's grandfather, Jean Baem, was a passionate lover of underwater exploration.

A year later, Cousteau meets Philippe Taye, a naval officer, poet, humanist, and a man in love with the sea. It was he who became Cousteau's "godfather" in free diving. Jacques' whole life turned upside down in an instant. From that moment on, he forever devotes himself to the knowledge of the secrets of the underwater world. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Philippe Tayet and his friend, Frederic Dumas, have not parted since. Friends called them the Three Musketeers. They dive, looking for the opportunity to breathe underwater with the help of all means known to them.

The fateful year of 1939 marked the beginning of forced inaction for the Three Musketeers, especially after the sinking of the French fleet at Toulon in November 1942. However, even in Nazi-occupied France, Cousteau finds an opportunity to edit the 18-minute film "18 meters under water", which is a success, thanks to which Jacques receives permission to film underwater in the military zone of the Mediterranean coast. He creates his own film company and takes part in the development of equipment for deep diving. Thus began the real odyssey of Captain Cousteau. The re-equipped Calypso with her team of enthusiasts plows the seas and oceans, conducts a huge amount of deep-sea research and filming. The film "The World of Silence", released in 1956, was called the work of the century.

Cousteau begins the first ever underwater archaeological excavation at the Grand Congluet near Marseille, crosses the Atlantic and sets up legendary experiments to study the full life under water - a series of projects "Precontinent", in which people lived in an underwater house at a depth of 10 meters for a week and worked at a depth of 25 meters. Not being a scientist, he conducts unprecedented research and makes many discoveries. Not being a professional director, he creates films that win Oscars and Palme d'Or at film festivals. And, of course, everyone knows his series of programs “The Underwater Odyssey of the Cousteau Team”.

He wrote books containing descriptions of the research carried out. One of the most famous books is “The Mighty Lord of the Seas”, which includes two novels written by Cousteau in collaboration with his son Philip and another Philip - Diole. They tell about the expeditions made by Cousteau's team on the ships "Calypso" and "Polaris III" in 1966-1967. The first of the novels, “So that there are no secrets in the sea,” tells about the formidable inhabitants of salt waters, who have always terrified people - about sharks. Many dives associated with the risk to life were made by brave scuba divers in order to film the behavior of these predators in their natural environment and assess the degree of their danger to humans if they decide to start large-scale development of the ocean expanses and the seabed. Researchers talk about the habits of sharks, their monstrous power and relentless killing instinct; their unpredictability and brutal beauty. Their history remains a mystery to humans, because they have not changed much over several million years of evolution and have remained primitive, but still strong and adapted to survival predators.

“Mighty Lord of the Seas” is a story about whales, the largest mammals on the planet. He is imbued with sympathy for these giants and hope for mutual understanding, to which man began to take the first steps after centuries of blind extermination of these animals. Whales are one of the greatest assets of nature, and their fate is another test of humanity's ability not only to exterminate, but also to protect, preserve and restore the environment.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau died on June 25, 1997. All his life he was surrounded by like-minded people, people whom he gathered around him thanks to his enthusiasm and love for the sea.

Everything from water

Attempts to penetrate into the depths of the sea were made by people in antiquity. The earliest depiction of a diver found on Mesopotamian tombstones dates back to the turn of the 5th and 4th millennium BC. e.

Approximately eight centuries younger are similar drawings preserved on the walls of the tombs of the ancient Greek city of Thebes. In the 5th century BC e. The Athenians used divers in the siege of Syracuse. A few decades later, the great Aristotle designed diving equipment in the form of a bell, with the help of which his no less great pupil Alexander the Great plunged into the Mediterranean waters: in this way he personally got acquainted with the underwater barriers of the Phoenician city of Tyre, preparing to attack him from the sea. Shortly after successful reconnaissance, the city was captured by the troops of the young king-commander.

For more than two millennia, the diving bell remained the main technical tool that made it possible to dive to a relatively shallow depth, conduct search operations there, and, if successful, take away the valuables found at the bottom from the sea. With its help, for example, a certain William Phips at the end of the 17th century managed to extract from the water a significant part of the treasures of the Spanish galleon that sank near the Bahamas.

From a young age, Phips dreamed of treasures resting on the seabed .. Since the Spanish conquistadors, who landed on the lands of the American continent, at the beginning of the 16th century, plundered the local peoples and tribes on an unprecedented scale, for more than two centuries from the shores of the New World now and then ships and fleets departed, heading for the Iberian Peninsula. But, as if taking revenge on the conquerors, the ocean more than once snatched the stolen gold and silver from their hands. These sunken jewels haunted Boston resident William Phips. A former ship's carpenter, he decided to change his profession and become a smuggler, while not leaving the dream of finding an underwater treasure sooner or later.

It is easy to say - to find, but where, in what place of the vast expanses of the sea to look for the remains of sunken ships stuffed with treasures? It is not known how the life of a young seeker of happiness would have developed in the future if he had not once heard a call for help on the island of Hispaniola, coming from a wooden barn. This hoarse cry was for him a truly happy voice of fate. Strong in body and not timid in spirit, William, without hesitation, entered the barn and saw two guys beating a pathetic old man. William's anger was so obvious that they not only left their victim, but immediately rushed to their heels. “Why did these villains beat you?” Phips asked the barely recovered old man. In response, he told his savior the secret that the escaped thugs wanted to find out.

Once upon a time, Ottavio - that was the name of the old man - served as a helmsman on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Cancepción. Fortune turned out to be unfavorable to this ship: having run into the reefs of the Silver Bank, it crashed and sank, taking with it countless treasures: precious metal ingots from Peru and Mexico, emeralds and other precious stones from Colombia, pearls from Venezuela. One of the few who managed to escape was Ottavio. Realizing that he no longer had the strength or means to raise the galleon from the bottom of the wealth, he gave Phips a map on which the exact place of the ship's death was marked. In return, the old man only asked for some gold if the search was successful.

And success came. But before this happened, a lot of grief and disappointment fell to the lot of the owner of the treasured card.

Phips understood the difficulty and danger of the upcoming treasure hunt: after all, the local waters were the domain of pirates, who would hardly have reacted favorably to the fact that someone got rich before their eyes. Therefore, all preparations for the expedition had to be carried out in the strictest confidence, and considerable funds were required for the technical equipment of the expedition. In a word, it was necessary to look for, as they would now say, a sponsor - a rich and powerful patron. d And the young smuggler, who had not had time to prove himself in this slippery field, went to England, intending to interest King Charles II himself with his plans. This monarch, a great lover of lavish fun, which took a lot of money, liked the idea of ​​Phips, and soon he, on the royal frigate Rose of Algiers with 18 guns, was already heading to the Caribbean Sea to the very Silver Bank reefs where he was waiting ( did you wait?) a sunken Spanish galleon.

Dropping anchor in the place that was indicated on Ottavio's diagram, Phips and his companions spent days inspecting and rummaging the seabed in shallow water near the reefs, but, alas, they managed to find only one small ingot of silver. It was not possible to find the remains of the galleon. The planned period of searches was coming to an end, and the provisions taken on board the ship were also melting. The unsuccessful search caused discontent among the crew. Even a rebellion was brewing, and Phips had no choice but to return empty-handed to England. The only silver bar could only be regarded as a souvenir and was unlikely to satisfy the exacting "sponsor", so William was by no means pleased with the upcoming rendezvous with the king. Where are you going to get away from him?