Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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We left the teapot there on the deck for posterity and started to move forward towards the Hold. As I reached it I could see that there was a silt-covered cargo heaped in it, the heap rising to a high peak in the middle. Dropping down onto the heap I landed on my knees and pushed my hand into the heap – I felt roughly hewn pieces of stone. I pulled out a piece - and as it came towards me, the covering of silt trailed off it like a wake to reveal shiny black coal. It was a coal barge we had found.

We kicked our feet and moved along the side of the hold, keeping away from the silty cargo, which was also billowing up black coal dust when disturbed. After about 20 or so feet, the Hold ended and there was a small strip of decking. Passing over this strip another Hold of similar dimensions was found similarly filled with coal. This Hold gave way very abruptly to a snub bow.

At the bow we dropped over the side and down onto the seabed. Looking out my torch I swept it along the gap beneath the sweep of the keel and the seabed and found it jam-packed with more conger eels, a few lobsters, squat lobsters and a host of crabs. In all I estimated that this barge was about 75 to 90 feet long with a beam of 15 – 20 feet. (I subsequently returned to dive this barge again in 2001 after a gap of some 15 years and found that both holds had been cleared of their cargo of coal very professionally. Hardly a single lump of coal was left on the wreck).