Spain had to resist the coalition, notwithstanding that she was almost entirely without an army and navy. Nevertheless she was not lacking in resources, always assuming that her galleons, with their gold and silver from America, could enter her ports. Now towards the end of 1702 she was expecting the arrival of a rich treasure which, since the Anglo-Dutch fleet was in the Atlantic, was convoyed by a French fleet of twenty-three vessels commanded by Admiral de Chateaurenault. This convoy was bound for Cadiz, but the Admiral, learning that the English fleet was cruising in those waters, determined to make for a French port. But the Spanish command protested against this decision. They meant to be convoyed to a Spanish port, and short of making Cadiz, to enter the Bay of Vigo which was not blockaded. Admiral de Chateaurenault weakly acquiesced in this injunction and the galleons entered the Bay of Vigo.
As it happens the bay consists of an open roadstead which does not lend itself to defence. Consequently it was necessary to hasten the unloading of the galleons before the Anglo-Dutch fleet came up, and there would have been ample time for this but for a wretched question of rivalry which suddenly arose.
Cadiz merchants had a privilege by which they were entitled to receive all the merchandise which came from the West Indies. Now, to discharge the treasure from the galleons at Vigo was to infringe their rights. They made complaint, therefore, to Madrid, and Philip V weakly ordered that the treasure should not be unloaded but remain sequestered at Vigo until the Anglo-Dutch fleet was out of the way. While this decision was being taken, the Anglo-Dutch fleet, on the 22nd October, 1702, arrived in the Bay of Vigo. Admiral de Chateaurenault, in spite of his inferior forces, put up a plucky fight, but when he realised that the Spanish ships would fall into English hands, he burnt and sunk the galleons which with their vast treasure were enveloped in the deep.
“Many vain attempts have been made since, I believe, to recover the treasure from the sea,” I said, when the doctor had finished enlightening my ignorance.
“Yes,” he replied. “Many companies, since then, have obtained concessions from the Spanish Government to search for these engulfed galleons but all have had to abandon the project after ruining themselves. Doubtless they did not possess sufficiently powerful machinery, and they were working at a time when the diver was still a very imperfect instrument.... And now, my dear Herbert of Renich,” continued the doctor, who was slightly elevated and began to rattle his keys in his pocket as he leant back in the rocking-chair, “and now that you have guessed so many things I see no reason why I shouldn’t tell you everything I know.
“As matters stand, we have nothing to conceal from each other. I want above all to be your friend. As soon as I knew that you were in these waters I hastened to call upon you. I have done everything — you can bear witness to that — and will do everything to prevent certain horrors occurring which more than ever threaten us. I joined hands with you by helping you to escape, and you know for what reason. That alliance exists more than ever. It is necessary. So no more secrets therefore... particularly as since you left us the secret has become an open one! True, no one speaks of it, and no one will speak of it officially. But there are too many interests involved for it not to be, under the rose, the principal subject of conversation in the highest diplomatic and military circles.... Spain doesn’t want to know anything,” he went on, after taking a suspicion of cocaine. “Spain is right. She is to receive so much per cent of all treasure recovered from one side as well as the other.... It’s up to us to come out on top.”
“Be more explicit, doctor. Put it more plainly,” I begged.
He shook his head, stopped rocking the chair and rattling the keys in his pocket, and tossing off a small glass of schiedam, went on:
“It’s very simple. It’s not five hundred millions that Chateaurenault sent to the bottom when he sunk the galleons, as was long believed, but two milliards... two milliards in gold. Do you hear... in gold! Not to mention innumerable other precious objects the value of which has never been computed. So as not to excite the already rampant cupidity of the buccaneers, the Spanish Government kept secret the fact that their fleet from America was bringing home a booty four times greater than that which was usually collected in the West Indies in one year. But in view of the war, for which they had to provide, the Government had expressly ordered their officials and commissioners to strip the temples of the Incas from cellar to roof — and some of them were still covered with gold tiles. The Temple of the Sun which had at last been discovered near Cuzco alone yielded gold to the value of twenty millions....
“Mexico was plundered in the same manner. From Vera Cruz to the deserts of Chili, gold was raked together by the shovelful. Twenty times more gold was exported to Louis XIV’s grandson than the followers of Atahualpha, the last of the martyred kings of the Incas, paid for the ransom of the Son of the Sun to Pizarro’s soldiers, who carried away in the first two months of their conquest one hundred millions....
“The ships convoyed by Chateaurenault not only contained gold and silver, but marvellous works of art which the goldsmiths of Peru had no time to melt into bullion of a uniform standard and weight in accordance with the general practice. So that,” said the doctor, who rose to his feet to the best of his ability, impelled by a sudden enthusiasm, “this sand and this mud” — he pointed to the black depths of the bay—” are paved with ewers, goblets, plates, vases and ornaments for temples and royal palaces such as the old world was never rich enough to offer to them.... Yes, in that liquid mud are two milliards in gold, that is to say — listen to this — sufficient to rebuild Germany’s financial power. Sufficient to enable the Huns to carry on the world war until the world is exhausted, and then to impose their own victorious treaty.”
The doctor stopped for a moment to take breath, but he was not so much exhausted by the fatigue of talking as by the weight of his imagination, while I stood before him ready to drop, overwhelmed, crushed. I thought of what I had seen that night, of all that gold, and I asked myself with unutterable anguish whether the gold that still remained in the bay was to follow the same path to the cellars in Goya Castle. Giving the table a bang with his fist that made the two little bottles on it dance, the doctor went on:
“This fabulous sum of two milliards in gold sunk in Vigo Bay has not been known very long. The fact was discovered in the archives of the British Admiralty quite by accident not more than a year ago. The accounts of a king’s commissioner who was on board a galleon and taken prisoner by the English were unearthed.... I cannot tell you how those papers came under Captain Hyx’s notice,” went on the doctor, shaking his head, “because I don’t know, and I understand that the Captain has no relations with the British Admiralty; but the fact remains that some weeks later our Captain, represented by the Canadian engineer Mabell, entered into negotiation with the Spanish Government for a concession to search for the millions. The Spanish Government was in no way perturbed, and was on the point of granting Mabell the required permission, convinced that this new company would soon waste its resources, like so many others, when a German company entered the lists secretly with the demand to be accorded this famous privilege. Obviously Berlin must have got wind of the affair. The Hun espionage service learnt of the discovery of the king’s commissioner’s papers at the very time that their agents in Spain acquainted them with the negotiations between the Canadian engineer Mabell and the Spanish Government.
“Here, as everywhere, the allies and the Huns were fiercely contending face to face, in a business which would help tremendously to give the victory to the side which succeeded. As I said before, the possession of the gold spells victory much more for the enemy than for us. That is well understood on both sides. The Spanish Government, much exercised, declared that it would remain neutral in this matter as in the war itself, and would not grant any concession unless the two parties could come to an understanding between themselves.... At length the deadlock was adjusted in this way. A line was drawn on a plan of the Bay of Vigo passing thr
ough the centre of that part which might be called the battlefield of the galleons — assuming we can call the ocean a field — from Sulrido Point in the north to Serrai Point in the south. The treasure which was recovered east of this line was to be the property of the Germans, and that which was recovered west of the line was to belong to the Canadian company....
“This was the utmost that Mabell could obtain notwithstanding his undoubted right of priority. Moreover, he suddenly found a spirit of conciliation in the Huns which he hardly expected, but which, it was made clear to him later, was due to their confidence that once they were established in the bay they would succeed in seizing everything.... Mabell had already, on behalf of Captain Hyx, taken a lease of the Cies Islands. It was here that the office of the Canadian company was situated....
“The Spanish Government allowed the rival company to install itself in Barra Bay, east of the line, where, of course, they were as free as if they were in their own country. All the parties agreed to keep the matter secret, and at the request of the concessionaires, the permissions were disguised under different significations: seaweed cultivation; manufacture of high explosives. Each company was master of its own house, and so as to protect itself from prying eyes, had at its disposal a somewhat narrow but clearly defined strip of territorial waters over whose police they exercised authority. In this way both sides began to work, and in this way both sides began to fight. Of course the Huns began operations first....
“Their work proceeded slowly because they had to do with a muddy bed in which the galleons were buried at great depth, while the Canadian company left the mud to be dealt with later, concentrating their search on the granite and stony sea-bed.
“It so happened that in the early months Mabell’s workmen discovered two vessels, the St. Simon and the St. Luke, filled with gold, while the Huns were still bringing up to the surface old cannons like those which are exhibited in the Artillery Museum in Paris and which themselves were picked up in the Bay of Vigo by a French company that at one time attempted to recover the treasure.
“I need not say that they employed the latest scientific devices. The most powerful air pumps obtainable prepared the way for the work of the divers by drawing up, through large tubes, rocks and hard mud previously demolished by melanite. Mabell’s work, however, was the more advanced for the reasons which I have already stated, and his divers were shipping the gold in boxes in the “Vengeance” which lay behind the Cies Islands. So that one fine day the Huns, who had prepared the blow with minute care, came rushing up in great numbers; and a body of divers, armed specially for this surprise attack with submarine torpedoes and rifles that fired electric bullets, fell on Captain Hyx’s divers, killed half of them, put to flight the remainder, and seized the St. Simon and St. Luke. When these proceedings were reported to Captain Hyx, he did not betray any anxiety. On the contrary, he declared that the news was good news and he partly expected it. He stated that he would serve the Hun divers in the same way as they had treated his men, and he was confident that since the enemy had determined to seize all the treasure by force, he would obtain the mastery before long, which would be strict justice I...
“The next day he brought up his weapons of attack as well as special divers, and the battle started again. It has continued ever since. No one complains. Neither side will give way. The troops are inured to war and have learnt to fight under water just as men have learnt to fight in the air....
“The risks, of course, are serious. But the German General Staff are not accustomed to spare their men, and these men are hardly more to be pitied than the wretched creatures who have been seen chained to their machine guns, and dread their officers’ revolvers more than the enemy’s projectiles. As to Captain Hyx’s troops, these are men who have been ‘ failures,’ who have nothing much to hope for in this world, and who are on the way to become rich unless, of course, they have their heads blown off by some infernal newfangled torpedo in Barra Bay. All this, as you will understand, is conducted quite properly with the least possible noise. They have discarded the old deafening gunpowder and other such-like explosives, for they often made more noise than mischief....
“Electricity and pneumatics.... These are the two forces with which the fight is fought, not forgetting, of course, cold steel, the usual weapon of brave foemen on land and under water. We have had some brilliant bayonet charges; and several memorable fights with boarding-hatchets...
“Look here, my dear fellow, if I were not so tired I would show you, on this map, the windings of our trenches and those of the enemy, and you would see where we stand in this Battle of Vigo Bay. I believe, for that matter, that a decision is at hand. In any case we may henceforward rejoice. We’ve got the right end, that is to say, we’ve got the galleons. Their new square artillery arrived too late; the half dozen galleons in our territory which they have battered with their guns had already been cleared by us. I undertake to say that, as far as they are concerned, if they have managed to recover sixty millions from St. John the Baptist, that is the utmost they have got. And they’ve just lost St. Mark. But everything of course... everything will be decided round Mark six metres eighty-five.”
So saying the doctor stepped forward, quite steadily indeed, to the wall on which a chart of the Bay of Vigo was pinned, and he pointed to a spot which was a little to the south-west of the agreed line of demarcation.
This point was marked R13, that is to say, Rock thirteen metres, the meaning of which was that at something over forty-two feet below the sea-level there was a rock. And he explained that the chart was drawn twenty years before at least, and in the meantime wreckage had accumulated round this submerged rock, so that the sea-bed at that spot was raised by several feet. At that moment six metres eighty-five centimetres only separated the sea-level from the summit of the little crag which commanded the entire submerged valley, and constituted a wonderful position from which to embarrass the enthusiasm of the under-sea workers. The Huns so fully appreciated the importance of the rock that they had done their level best to capture it, and their trenches were encircling it more and more closely. The night before they once more advanced their first lines to the south-west by several yards, at the cost of unprecedented losses. But it would all end disastrously for them because Captain Hyx had “a rod in pickle” for them of a very special nature which had long been talked about under water.
“First lines... trenches... bayonet charges,” I cried, when the doctor gave me a chance to get a word in to express my bewilderment. “Why, they are fighting under water as they are fighting on land in Champagne.”
“Obviously... obviously. How do you expect them to fight? The principle is the same... everywhere! Only they are obliged to keep lights going all the time. There’s no light underwater for the combatants but what they make for themselves....”
“Yes, I know. I have seen some peculiar lights flashing like reflected lights under the sea.”
“Reflections of the moon and stars,” grinned the worthy doctor. “These visions are imagination. You cannot see anything and you must not see or know anything above water, my dear Herbert of Renich.”
“I understand.... I won’t enlarge upon it. But imagination is a poor thing in truth, by the side of such realities. Imagination is outdone, surpassed, killed.” And after lifting up my arms in enthusiasm I let them fall in dejection.
“What else do you expect me to imagine after what you have just told me, my dear doctor?” I returned, shaking my head. “What eke do you expect, I ask? Tell me one thing,«however, only one. Is it still imagination on my part — as you suggest with such nice sarcasm mingled with prudence — when I say that I heard gaspings in the bay, the wails of the wounded doubtless, which seemed to come from dark hulks stationed on the dark waters?”
“Oh, I say.... You’ve been in Vigo twenty-four hours and you’ve seen and heard a thing or two. You don’t waste your time, Herbert of Renich.... Well, yes, between ourselves, you did hear them. What else is possible, the bat
tle is in full swing... and there are bound to be wounded men somewhere...
“If you told me the contrary I shouldn’t have believed you. Remember that some weeks ago I myself helped to land your wounded in the Cies Islands, and to carry them to your Black Cross hospitals.... But I say, doctor, here is a point which puzzles me very considerably. How is it that there are wounded men above, wounded men who seem to have come out of an ordinary combat above water, while the battle is in full swing below?”
“Well, that’s very simple. The wounded are brought up from below, and that is the work of the black hulks. These black hulks are not only used to receive the boxes filled with gold underwater, but also the wounded divers, those who are in mortal agony, my dear Monsieur Herbert. You understand that by degrees the Black Cross service has been admirably organised. At first, the wounded divers dragged themselves, or allowed themselves to be dragged, assisted by the ambulance divers, until they came alongside the lighter. That was a long job.... That was a long job. Moreover, an injury to the copper helmet or the breathing apparatus was fatal. So think a moment. It meant suffocation. It was then that they devised the black hulks stationed above the combatants. These hulks have special machinery inside, and they drag a number of cables to which the wounded men are attached and hoisted by means of tackle; in most cases before death has supervened from suffocation or drowning. I say in most cases. I don’t say always, of course. As to ordinary wounds on the body, since the head is isolated, in any case, from the pressure of the water, the wounded men manage to M recover. And then war is war, and the conditions of fighting in the air and on land with poison gas are sometimes more terrible than those of the struggle under the sea... from all accounts.”
Collected Works of Gaston Leroux Page 373
