Stealth Journeys with the Steam Mapper

Chapter 87: Sir Steven's Last Voyage

Hearing of the sightings during World War I, Stef  immediately thought of the mysterious disappearance of Sir Steven Payne.   Was he using a submersible and his steam mapper at the time?   Could he have encountered a sea monster which took his life?   A creature much like the one Ned Land had escaped many years earlier?   Jules Verne had described the intensity of battle.    The musky odor, the blinding black ink and writhing tentacles which were chopped off one by one with Captain Nemo's axe.   One would never know Sir Steven's end.    But one could imagine how it happened.

This much Stef knew from reading Sir Steven's journal.   He was in a hurry to get back to Australia and in December 2019, he caught a flight aboard an aeroplane participating in a contest for long distance flying.

Stef imagined the kind of reaction Sir Steven would have in finding his way back to Australia . . .

Scanning his newspaper, the details of the upcoming flight contest caught Sir Steven's eye. "Here is just the opportunity I've been waiting for. And, the timing could not be better.  A trip to the southern hemisphere and the summery weather awaiting is just what my cold hands and face need.  The photograph here identifies the crew members of a local contestant, and I see an opportunity.  The article states the crew is taking on a newcomer and he looks just my size. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I shall seek him out at once."

Stef was sure Sir Steven was very willing to pay a huge sum of money to convince a crew member to drop out at the last minute.   He could always count on the inheritance from his professor friend to help with finances.  He flew incognito as part of the crew.  Good thing his weight had dropped down due to recent events.

Sir Steven had been informed the previous month that his beloved submersible had reappeared near Melbourne, Australia.   How ironic that the same submersible he had stolen eighteen years earlier, had been taken from him and Ned Land, during a sequence of unfortunate meetings involving reckless gambling and inebriation.  He rue the day he met his match in deception and connivery.   He would have to be exceptionally clever to go unrecognized and to find a way to steal his beloved submersible for the final time.   He would never risk losing it again.

He needed to act fast after learning of the reappearance through a telegram received the month before from a former research crew member.  Sir Steven didn't say farewell to Ned.    All would be explained later when he and the submersible were reunited.   The submersible was being used by a competitor, who also knew of undersea steam vents between Australia and Antarctica. Once again, Sir Steven used a disguise and his wits to get hired on as a deck hand.

Apparently, Sir Steven traveled by rail to Perth and stayed at the Palace Hotel to conduct private business before traveling on to Melbourne to get hired on as a lowly deck hand on the ship carrying his long-missed submersible.   Perhaps, he intended to get a former acquaintance to keep some of his belongings safe while he took steps to take possession of his submersible. Perhaps, Sir Steven left more than his journal in the old trunk found abandoned in the discards during the renovation of the Palace Hotel back in the 1980's.

Fortunately for Sir Steven, before his death, Professor Aronnax had made many modifications to the steam mapper device, and several types, including the newest design were still in possession of the "Land and Payne Steam Vent Company" in the safety of some of the original crew living in Perth.    The inventions had been removed to the safety of trusted crew members before the winner of the bet had come to claim his prize.

As he boarded the ship of the newest owners of the submersible, Sir Steven carried the newest steam mapper design inside his bedroll within his duffle bag.  "Have steam mapper, will travel." The famous submersible taken from Sir Steven, had been stolen during an expedition to New Zealand's coast where vents had been discovered.   The theft had happened while the Great War was in a fierce stage. The suspicions were that Kaiser Wilhelm II had arranged its capture in the spring of 1918.   Apparently, it had never left the Australian continent.

Now, over a year later, it had "resurfaced" and Sir Steven intended to waste no time in its recovery.  His plan as a deck hand, was to lower it to the surface and slip aboard alone one night while close to a British encampment along the coast of the Ross Sea.   He planned to bring it ashore and arrange a vessel to come in to retrieve it with Ned's help back in London.  The current "owners" were seeking vents to provide steam power to a secret research camp later to be named Port Martin, France's first declared Antarctic research site.

As the vessel steamed towards the destinations of both the investors and Sir Steven, the crew were full of bravado as they shared tales of the deep and the reported sightings and tragedies of ship encounters with mighty beasts of the sea.

Sir Steven recalled the vivid description given by Ned Land, after an evening of drinking.   He thought sailors had been exaggerating for centuries about the size and aggressiveness of supposed sea monsters.  Sir Steven's vent locating services had seen Great Whites, giant clams, and twelve- foot tentacles on giant squid, but never something that unnerved him while aboard his submersible.  His submersible was capable of traveling 1,000 feet below the surface, into the darkness Ned had encountered on some dives aboard the  Nautilus.  Sir Steven dismissed these tall tales, even the one Ned told.   Perhaps that was his undoing.

Stef imagined the ferocious battle poor Sir Steven might have endured.    Likely, the giant creature took hold of him as he slipped down the side of the ship to land near the submersible's hatch.    The submersible would have been lowered quietly to the surface of the water so that it could be released at the very last and Sir Steven would enter the hatch and motor it away in the dark.  Perhaps he had no time to get safely onboard.   Considering the description of Ned Land's attack aboard the Nautilus, Stef thought of the possibility of Sir Steven struggling against the mighty strength of a giant squid's whipping tentacles with painfully sharp suckers, and then drowning or being attacked by its enormous beak, all for pursuing the adventures he loved.   The thought of such a battle sent shivers down Stef's spine.  Stef would have a hard time falling asleep after imagining the possible outcome of Sir Steven.   The thought of a monster lurking near the research vessel right now, would keep everyone on edge tonight.

The ship, sailing from Melbourne to Antarctica that Sir Steven was  aboard (incognito) reported the disappearance of the submersible and one of the deck hands.  The owners called for the capture of the thief (rumored to be Sir Steven) and the recovery of the stolen submersible, and offered a sizeable reward for the recovery of said submersible.  Had Ned Land not learned of the news of the theft and the offer of the reward as it was advertised in popular newspapers worldwide, he might never have suspected that it was his partner who had attempted such a dangerous mission.

Although advertisements appeared for years offering substantial rewards in major newspapers throughout the world, no claim was ever made. (Many years later, pieces of the submersible were found embedded in a glacier within the Antarctic coastline and announced to the public as evidence of a previous visit to the remote area.  The scraps were of a unique material and created many unanswered questions.  But no one ever considered that this might have been the unusual submersible lost to posterity.)