go from here to Tahiti? Can you find out?” “Wait a minute I’ll see if
I can find out anything.” It was five minutes.
“There’s a smallish cruise ship, the Eastern Sun, coming through here
but not for a few weeks. It’ll stop at Papeete. I can get a cabin and
I might even get a job for the trip, which would save you cash. But
it’s a long time off yet.” That would suit me. I thought we would be
a few days before we could really be sure of leaving, and then might be
dredging or searching for several weeks around Minerva Reef, wherever
that was.
I got the date of the Eastern Sun’s arrival in Papeete and promised
Paula that we would be there before her, so that she would not be
alone. “I don’t want to see you out of pocket,”I went on. “I’ll pay
your fare and expenses. If you get a paid job you can let me have it
back. Do you have a bank?” She told me and I said, “I’ll transfer
enough to your account. I’m grateful, Paula. I’m glad . to have you
on our team; and you don’t have to break your contract.” “There’s more
to this than just Mark’s death, isn’t there?” she said shrewdly.
“A lot more. I’ll tell you about it in Papeete, perhaps after we’ve
found out more still.” A girl like Clare Campbell would have demanded
a much greater share of knowledge before committing herself, but Paula
seemed accustomed to playing subsidiary roles. As we said goodbye I
wondered how in hell Mark could have attracted such widely disparate
women, though they had one thing more than their sex in common.
Both seemed determined and courageous, and they were both worthy of a
better man than Mark in their lives.
I went back to the hotel slowly, looking at shops and enjoying the
exotic street scenes around me. I lunched alone, not finding any of
the others in, but presently I saw Clare and her father arriving, and
soon after we were joined by Geordie carrying a book. Over cold drinks
we’got down to business once more.
The book Geordie had brought from the ship was a copy of Bill
Robinson’s To The Great Southern Sea.
“Here’s the bit. I’ve looked up the Pilot too, but I left that on
board for later. I’ve been rereading Robinson, knowing that we’d be
sailing down this way. He sailed from the Galapagos to Mangareva in
his schooner, and here is what he has to say about Minerva. This was
published in 1957, not long ago, by the way.” He passed the book to
Clare, indicating a paragraph. She started to read silently but her
father said, “For God’s sake read it aloud so we’ll all know what’s
going on.” So Clare read to us: “Approaching Mangareva we passed close
to Minerva, one of those shoals of doubtful position and uncertain
existence known as “vigias”. Vigias are the bane of navigators, for
one is never sure where they are, or if they are there at all.
According to the Sailing Directions, which neglect to state how she g
of her name, there seems to be no doubt about Minerva’s authenticity.
A ship named the Sir George Grey was assumed lost there in 1865,
although the British Navy failed to locate a reef there a few years
later. In 1890 the German bark Erato saw the shoal. It was again seen
breaking heavily in 1920 ten miles from the position reported by the
Erato.
“To my great disappointment, the maraamu spoiled our chances of looking
for Minerva. For although the wind had gone down to a fresh breeze and
we arrived at the vicinity at midday, there was still a big sea
running, which broke in an unruly fashion. It was impossible to
distinguish breakers caused by a shoal from those left in the wake of
the maraarnu. We steered a course that took us ten miles to the north
of the northernmost reported position of the errant shoal kept a
vigilant look-out, but saw nothing.” Clare’ stopped reading and
Campbell said, “Well, I’m damned. Do you mean to tell me that while
spacemen are whirling round in orbit and we’re on the verge of going to
other planets that there’s a piddling little shoal like this that
hasn’t been located?” “That’s right,” said Geordie . “There are lots
of them.” “It’s disgusting,” said Campbell, more accustomed to precise
locations on land. “But if Mark found it we can find it.” “If he
did.
I doubt it,” I said. “If an I.G.Y survey ship had found Minerva they’d
have reported it, and they didn’t. But it doesn’t mean they didn’t
dredge around there,” I added hastily into three disappointed faces.
“You heard what Robinson said about it. You’d probably only be able to
see it in a flat calm, with the tides right.” “Robinson took damn good
care to steer well clear of it,” snorted Campbell. “Ten miles north of
its reported position, indeed.” “He was a wise man and a good
seaman,”said Geordie. “He didn’t want to lose his ship. It might be a
shifting shoal and if you can’t see where it is it’s a good idea to
keep clear of it. I’ll do the same, believe me.” Once again they all
looked at me – the reluctant expert.
“The conditions I’m thinking of are possible,” I said. “We have to
make a start somewhere, and it would be fun to find it, if we can.
Why not?” One more thing happened before we left Panama. Kane came to
see me.
We had ostensibly treated him as just one of the crew, and he’d done
his work well and was not a bad seaman. But Geordie had only agreed to
take him as far as Panama and now we were waiting to see what his next
step would be.
He came down to my cabin one morning and said, “Mr Trevelyan, could I
have a word?” “Come in.”He looked fit again. Without trying to show
it, I had kept clear of him on the voyage, finding it intolerably
creepy to have the possible murderer of Mark underfoot, but I couldn’t
avoid some contacts and this was one I had almost been hoping for.
“What is it? “You’re carrying on this research stuff, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. As you know, we’re leaving in a day’s time.” “There
was a message waiting.for me here in Panama from my partner, Jim
Hadley.
Jim’s down in New Guinea and he says he can’t come up this way for a
while Now, I know you only promised to bring me as far as here, and I’m
grateful, my word I am. But I wondered if I could stick with her a bit
longer – you’ll need a man in my berth, any way. Maybe you’ll be
putting in some place that’s nearer for Jim – Tahiti, maybe?
That ‘ud suit us both.” I said, “I don’t see a problem. You’re
welcome to stay on as far as I’m concerned, if it’s all right with the
skipper.” “Gee, thanks, Mr Trevelyan. I know I keep asking favours
and you help out every time.” “There’s no favour. We will need a man
– you work well and you earn your keep. But it’s up to Mr Wilkins,
mind.”
“Too right. I’ll check with him. Thanks again.” I passed the word
to
Geordie to accept the expected offer, and told Campbell about it.
“Right, we’ll keep him under our thumb,” he said. “Not much chance of
him knowing where we’re going if we don’t know, and he can’t pass the
word on from out there.” So friend Kane stayed on with us. And the
next day we sailed on a voyage of uncertain duration to an unknown
destination which might, or might not, exist.
Chapter Four
According to local knowledge the Reife de Minerve was nothing but a
legend, and not an uncommon one at that. The Pilot’s preface on vigias
showed that there were probably masses of them around, but certainly it
said that in 1880 HMS Alert had searched the area in which it was said
to lie, without any success. And she wasn’t the only one several ships
had looked for it, some had found it – but it was never quite in the
same spot twice.
We left Panama and made good time at first but-in a day or so found
ourselves becalmed in a sea of glass. We stuck it for twenty-four
hours and then went ahead under power. Campbell didn’t like cliches
about painted ships on painted oceans, especially after I told him
another legend concerning the ship that had floated in the Gulf of
Panama for forty years until she rotted and fell apart.
Using the engines was a pity because there would be so much less fuel
for station-keeping and dredging, but in Campbell’s view time was as