At last the Sea Hound settled with a bump
82 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
onto the ocean floor. Tom threw a lever, extending a set of caterpillar treads below the hull, and steered the craft in a search pattern.
“Getting anything on the scope?” Tom asked.
“No blips so far,” the sonarman replied.
Tom combed the area carefully for about two hours. Then he retracted the crawl treads and slowed the rotor enough for the ship to rise off the sea floor.
Using its jets, the Sea Hound now began roving back and forth in a much wider pattern. But there was no sign of the sunken liner. Tom and his crew were mystified.
“Could the Centurion’s navigator have given a wrong position?” Bud asked.
Tom shrugged. “He might have made a slight navigational error. But the passengers and crew were picked up close to the radioed position.”
For almost twenty-four hours the Sea Hound continued its search with no results, using both sonar and Tom Sr.‘s underwater metal detector. Baffled, Tom finally gave up the hunt.
“Too bad the Sea Hound isn’t a bloodhound,” Bud remarked glumly as the craft headed westward. “Maybe we could sniff out the wreck.”
Tom shot a thoughtful glance at his chum. “You might have something there, pal.”
Before returning to Fearing, Tom was eager to investigate the seamount where he and Bud had glimpsed the lights. When they reached the spot, sonar revealed no vessel in the vicinity, but Tom surfaced and checked by radar to make sure.
THE UNDERSEA MESA 83
Apparently the electric trawler was not in the area.
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