Monk was disgusted. They had been at this small beachside resort for three days and there was nothing to do. He had already conquered the climbing wall, that was a joke (at least for a monkey). He’d played all the games, explored every square inch of the swimming pool, and knew every grain of sand on the beach. He’d named two hundred of them before running out of names and then counted 16,578 more before lunch time. He wondered why his parents felt this would be a great place to visit. Any teenager could have told you it stunk. Now, he was sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean, trying to figure out what to do.
The sound of a slight rustle, caught Monk’s attention. He perked up. Something or someone was sneaking through the bushes toward him. Monk glanced over his shoulder. Nothing was visible. He waited, every muscle ready to spring. The slightest sound came from the grass behind him. A second later, a lion sprung up and gave a mighty roar.
Monk barely moved. “Is that all you’ve got,” he asked, casually turning around.
“You’re not even a little scared,” the lion asked, obviously disappointed.
Monk shook his head.
“Why not,” demanded the lion, “That usually scares everyone.”
“I heard you coming,” Monk replied, “If you let people know you are coming you can’t scare them. It’s really simple logic.”
“I’ll have to try again,” the lion said, dashing back into the grass.
Monk opened his mouth to say something, but shut it. What point was there in telling this lion that you also cannot scare someone if they know you are going to try. He moved down the cliff and caught hold of a vine. Then, he waited.
It was not long until the rustling of the grass caught his attention. He listened carefully, knowing the lion was getting closer and closer. As the lion pounced, Monk swung off the side of the cliff. In surprise, the lion made a poor landing and slipped on some gravel. He slid frantically toward the edge of the cliff, sending pebbles cascading into the water below. There was no stopping. A second later, he tumbled over the edge of the cliff, legs failing as he plummet toward the water below.
Monk saw this in the second it took him to swing out over the water and back toward a large tree. Below the cliff was shallow water filled with rocks. There was no chance of survival. Without a second’s thought, he grabbed a thicker vine, and dove over the edge of the cliff. Hands and feet close to his body, he torpedoed through the air. Twenty feet above the water, he grabbed the lion’s tail. Monk let the vine draw taunt and swing them back the other way to break their fall. He held on with all his might, gritting his teeth as his arms and legs were stretched to their utmost. He was relieved to see that the vine was long enough to reach the bottom of the cliff. He climbed down to the rocks below. Exhausted, he dropped onto the ground.
The lion also lay there for a few minutes. “Thank you for saving me,” the lion said, shaking a little with the realization of how close to death he came.
Monk waved it off, “Anyone would have done it.”
“I owe you one,” the lion said. “What’s your name? I feel we should be friends or something.”
“Why,” Monk asked with a slight smile, “so I can save you again?”
The lion laughed, “No, I hadn’t thought about that. More because you seem like a quick thinking fun fellow. I’m Racha.”
“I’m Monk,” Monk replied. “Do you live near here?”
Racha shook his head, “No, we are staying at the resort. We arrived yesterday evening. There doesn’t seem much to do around here.”
“There isn’t,” Monk agreed, “There are a few games, a small pool, and 16,800 plus grains of sand on the beach.”
Racha looked surprised at this last one. “Is it that boring?”
“Yes,” Monk assured him.
“Well,” Racha said, “That doesn’t sound hopeful. I wanted some big adventure.”
“You had one,” Monk coolly replied, “You almost died.”
Racha laughed, “Not that type of adventure.”
Monk lay back on the rock, eyeing Racha and the cliff. Suddenly, he jumped to his feet. “Let’s go exploring!”
Racha eagerly followed him. They scrambled over the rocks along the edge of the cliff. Monk continually studied them. It was the perfect location for pirates to hide their treasure. Monk ducked behind one rock. “Do you see that cave over there,” he asked Racha in a hushed whisper.
“Yeah,” Racha said, “What about it and why are we whispering.”
Monk gave him a look that asked, “don’t you know anything?” “This is the perfect location for pirates,” Monk replied in an oh good grief tone of voice, “and if there are any around here and they hear us coming, they will kill us.”
“Do you think that is the pirate’s cave,” Racha asked.
“Could be,” Monk said. “Let’s find out.”
They snuck toward the cave. Monk led the way while Racha followed close behind him. They peeked inside. It was dark. Naturally, Monk thought. He pulled out a flashlight and flipped it on. The cave’s opening was not very big but it went back a ways. Carefully, they entered. Monk ran his light along the walls looking for anything interesting. It was bare rock.
They cautiously climbed toward the back. The cave twisted around. Monk climbed up on some rocks to get a view. A bunch of firewood was piled up just behind the rocks. Someone clearly had been here. Monk motioned Racha to follow him as he climbed into that part. Some bottles were laying around mixed in with driftwood.
They explored into the deeper parts of the cave. It twisted this way and that with a few branches that went off. Monk stopped at the first fork. “We’d better go back,” he said in a hushed tone.
“Why,” Racha wondered. “The cave goes a lot farther.”
“I don’t have string or anything,” Monk replied, “And what type of explorers would we be if we got lost in a bunch of tunnels?”
“Stupid ones.”
“Exactly!”
They retraced their steps. Racha was rather disappointed that they could not go further. He started making plans to return the next day. Monk half listened to him. His flashlight was going over everything as they went out. He wondered if some tourist had found this place and left the bottles or where they actually from pirates?
He kicked over a piece of driftwood and stopped. The name of a ship was written on it. Sweet Anni. The rest was broken off. Monk leaned down to examine it.
“You coming,” Racha called back to him, “It’s almost dinner time.”
“Yeah,” Monk replied, flipping the piece of wood back over.
That evening, Monk headed to the local library. They had all sorts of information on various ships that sailed in that area. He poured over volume after volume, looking for anything about a ship whose name started with Sweet Anni. He found nothing before the library closed that night.
He was waiting at the door when it opened the next morning. Eagerly, he continued his search. It seemed fruitless. He moved the books around in slight frustration. There was no mention of anything about that ship. Maybe it was just a rowboat not worth looking for. He half-heartedly scanned through some old newspaper clippings about ships. Suddenly, he stopped scanning and started reading in earnest. A ship with an unknown name had sunk just off the coast. He carefully studied the drawings about where it had sunk. Could that be near the cliff?
Nothing more could be found about it except that one article. Monk made a few notes and then rose to leave. This was something to explore.
Racha almost pounced on Monk as they came out of the dining hall. “Where have you been,” he demanded. “I’ve been looking all over for you this morning and was incredibly bored.”
“It is boring looking for me,” Monk agreed, “At least that is what I’ve been told, although I don’t have any personal experience in the matter. I can always find myself.”
Racha just shook his head at him. Monk glanced around and pulled Racha to the side, “I’ve been doing research,” he said in a hushed tone. Racha looked skeptical. “Yesterday, in the cave,” Monk went on to explain, “I found a piece of wood with a ships name on it. So I was looking up information about the ship and there is not any. But, I did find out that a ships whose identity was unknown sank off these waters some hundred years ago. It might have been the same ship.”
“And it might have been a pirates ship,” Racha said getting excited.
“Exactly,” Monk agreed. “But don’t say a word about this or everyone will be searching for it.”
Monk gathered some necessary supplies and they headed out to the cliff. The different landmarks were compared with the account of the sinking until Monk had determined his search area.
The sun was barely up, when they launched a rowboat onto the ocean and pulled toward the search area. Monk set up his GPS to track their course and tied a waterproof camera onto a long line. This he lowered into the ocean and adjusted it to get a good view of the bottom of the ocean under them. It was tethered to a tablet which he mounted next to the GPS. They slowly started to row over the search area using the GPS to keep on course.
More than once Racha got bored with the slow pace and wanted to venture off of Monk’s planned route. Monk would not hear of it. He argued that they would miss it if they were not careful. Racha argued that they were wasting time. Monk shook his head. As the afternoon waned the tensions rose. Racha rowed the boat onto the shore.
“I tell you, this thing is a complete waste of time,” Racha stated as they landed. “The boat sank off the point of the big rock. We go there, we find it. There is no need to do this slow zig-zag across the whole water.”
“Things move underwater,” Monk replied calmly. He folded his hands across his chest and tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice and off his face. People could be stupid. Besides, he had experience dealing with impulsive and impatient people or it might be better to say person, as in Magellan.
“Sure,” Racha said sarcastically, “Fish do. But not big things likes ships.”
“Do you have a degree in oceanology,” Monk inquired.
Racha tossed his head, “Do you? I think this whole thing is bogus.”
“You’re free to go and do whatever you want,” Monk said, starting to take down his equipment. “You can go search for it yourself or say the whole thing is bogus and give it up. I, however, am not going to be run on impulse. If the ship is out here I will find it.”
“Hm,” Racha replied. “Have fun with that. You’re on your own. I’m going to find a real adventure!”
Monk watched Racha take off. He was use to people being annoyed with scientific ways of doing things. He finished packing up his things and headed back to the resort. After dinner, he visited the library again and poured over maps of the coast, reports of ship courses, and old newspapers until it closed. He was fairly certain they had chosen the right location for the ship. One-third of it had been covered that day. Nothing much had shown up on his camera, a few things had been spotted that could have been remnants of ships but it was impossible to tell.
The next morning, Monk headed out by himself. Slowly, he rowed back and forth over the open sea. His muscles were aching by lunch time. He lay in the sand eating a sandwiching and watching the waves lap up on the shore.
“Hey,” Racha said coming up by him.
Monk glanced up and nodded in recognition.
“I’ve been thinking,” Racha continued, “I got rather mad yesterday and that was not right. Would you forgive me?”
“Sure,” Monk said, “It’s understandable you were tired.”
“It still wasn’t right,” Racha said. “I had plenty of time to think about it since then and realized I was wrong.”
“Got bored,” Monk aside with a slight smile.
Racha smiled some too. “Yeah,” he admitted, “but that’s not the reason I came to ask for your forgiveness. Honest.”
Monk nodded and said, “I’m not going to be much companionship or make things interesting, my plan is to go back and forth across the water all afternoon.”
Racha laughed at this. “Can I join you? I promise I’ll follow your method, despite what I may think and I can do most the rowing.”
This last one was a strong motivator to Monk and he agreed. They launched the ship and continued to search with about as much luck as the day before. The sun was starting to sink toward the horizon. Monk knew that he would loss light in a few more minutes. “Stop,” he called suddenly. Racha paused his rowing in surprise.
“Look,” Monk said holding up the tablet so he could see it.
There on the bottom of the ocean lay a ship. “We found it!” Racha said excitedly.
Monk shook his head, “Don’t count on it. There have been multiple ships to go down in this area. We will note this location and come explore it later.”
That night they discussed the possibilities that it was their ship and the best way to explore it. They studied depth charts and dive tables that evening and came up with a plan on how to proceed.
Monk enjoyed the feeling of being in the water. He dropped the dive line straight onto the deck of the ship. Slowly, the two of them descended and started to explore around the ship. It was in pretty bad condition. They made a circuit around the outside. Monk was unsure about the safety of entering. He was relieved to read the name, “Harleston.” There would be no need to enter this ship. It was an old merchant vessel he had read about.
They ascended to the surface. Racha was very disappointed that it was not their ship. Monk was not so disappointed, at least it showed they could find a ship on the ocean floor. They continued to search. Another ship was encountered mid-afternoon. Since they had their scuba gear with them, they headed down to search it immediately. This ship was in better condition but provided nothing noteworthy. They came up with a few trinkets and no treasure.
Racha dropped into a chair across the table from Monk. Monk glanced up and saw his woebegone expression. “Cheer up,” Monk said, “we still have just over one-forth of the search area left.”
“And two days,” Racha replied. “I hope you did not forget that.”
“We searched just over a half our first two days,” Monk said pointing with his pencil to part of the map. “We did not cover quite as much today because we explored those two ships. So, as I figure it, we should be able to search the remaining part tomorrow. If we just search it and do not do any diving, we will know what we are dealing with. Then we can go diving the following day on any wrecks that are down there. With the depths we will be working at, we should be able to do quite a bit of diving and use the breaks getting between locations to rest. Unless of course, we find two ships right next to each other.”
“Are you an optimist,” Racha asked.
“I’m a realist. If I was an optimist I’d be saying we are sure to find it tomorrow. All I’m saying is we will be sure to know if there are anymore ships there by tomorrow. Now, let’s go play miniature golf with our siblings.”
When Racha and Monk sat across from each other the following evening, Monk had three locations marked on his map. Each of them held potential. Racha watched as Monk carefully created routes between them, compared the depths, and satellite views to try and determine what ships they might be. They made a plan, with the most likely one being first and the ship Monk was pretty certain was the Earl Faraday, a whaler, being last.
The sea was calm and clear as Monk and Racha descended on the first vessel. It was badly broken up. Debris littered the ocean floor. No name could be seen on the ship. They explored the wreckage and found a few old weapons. Racha perked up at this, but the rest of the debris seemed to just be pieces of wood and ropes of no significance.
The second ship was also in fairly bad condition. The stern had sunk into the mud and Monk could not get a name from it. Connecting a rope to the railing, Monk and Racha slowly entered the hold. They explored passage ways. There were some cannons. Monk would have liked to take those home, but could not figure out how he was going to remove them. “It’s a bummer water ruins paper,” he thought as they explored the captain’s cabin and found where he thought some old maps should have been.
After a break and lunch, they headed into the hold. Racha pushed some old boxes to the side. One fill over and opened up. Monk’s flashlight glistened off something. Gold.
He looked up at Racha with an eager face. They had found it! Carefully, they went through the other boxes. Two were full of gold, the rest contained tools and other wares, many of which were in bad shape. It took five trips to get all the gold up into their row boat, which sat dangerously deep in the water.
“Is there anything else of value on that ship,” Monk asked Racha as they climbed into the boat.
Racha shrugged, “We can always come back for it on another trip.”
“If it’s there,” Monk said, “As soon as word gets out about our find every scuba diving treasure hunter want-a-be will be scouring this ocean floor. Just promise you won’t tell the coordinates. Then we might have a chance.”
“I don’t even know them,” Racha declared, “I won’t say anything except it was out in the ocean.”
They pulled back for land and borrowed a cart from an old sailor. The gold, weapons, and few other things they had recovered were carefully concealed in it and there scuba diving gear put on top. It took both of them to roll it back to the resort.
“What do you have there,” Racha’s dad wondered as they came up.
“Treasure,” Racha said with a wide smile.
“Treasure,” Racha’s dad asked skeptically.
“What did you find this time,” Monk’s dad asked him.
“A ship that went down one hundred and thirty-seven years ago,” Monk replied. “No one really knows much about the ship and I could not find any information on it.”
“We think it was a pirate ship,” Racha put in.
“Anyways, it had gold on it and now we have it,” Monk said. “We’d better report the find with the local police and fill out the proper customs forms. I don’t want another experience like what happened in Croatia.”
There was much excitement and speculation over their find. Everyone in the resort was excited, the owners took pictures of them and throw a party in their honor. It made the front page of all the newspapers in the area. Many investors called Monk and Racha to try and get to their gold. They refused to talk to any of them and parted as best friends.
Oh, and the day they left Monk looked out over the sea and saw dozens of small boats and scuba divers scouring the water. He smiled to himself as they drove away. Everyone was miles away from where the ship had actually sank. Perhaps, it would actually be there and untouched for years.