“Mr. Millward,” said I, after we had the smoking fairly started, “I have found the way to the treasure in the sunken galleon.”
“Ah, then you have hit upon a plan of making the air-pump. Well, I am in a mood just now to believe you can do it. Pray let us know about it.”
“No, sir, I have not found any way to build an air-pump. But I have found, I think, that we shall not need one.”
“But how can you get air to breathe under water unless it is pumped to you?” said Miss Alice.
“I do not expect to go under water,” said I in reply. And continuing, “I am inclined to enjoy your perplexity a little, for perplexity is what I have been enduring myself until a very simple idea occurred to me this very afternoon. But it is not fair to expect you will understand without explanation in a moment what another could not understand for months. The simple fact is this: if I cannot go under water to the ship, why should I not bring the ship out of water to me? It is the old case, you see, of the mountain and Mahomet.”
“Yes, I see it is,” said the old man,—“with this difference, that you propose to have the mountain come to Mahomet.”
Thereupon I laid my whole plan before them, which was briefly this: to attach to the hulk, one at a time, sinking them under water, enough empty calabashes to raise it and float it gradually in to shore, where at low tide it would be above water. The mechanical principle was the common one belonging to every device which converts speed into power; as, for example, the lever, the screw, or the inclined plane. Little by little with slight exertion of power each calabash or gourd could be pulled down under water to the wreck, and would continue thereafter to lift as many pounds as were required to pull it down. When this lifting power was multiplied by enough of the calabashes, the wreck would surely be raised. It was, after all, only a modification of the method of raising hulks by sinking and attaching barges partly full of water and then pumping the water out and causing them to rise and lift the wreck. In that case the slow application of the power was accomplished by pumping. In the proposed method it consisted in pulling down the calabashes one at a time.
Mr. Millward likened the operation to the lifting of an entire building by the hod carrier who carried a few bricks at a load up the ladder.
“But how will you attach your numerous calabashes to the hull?” said the old man after a little thought. “It will take a great number.”
“That I will explain to you in detail,” said I, and thereupon set forth minutely the entire plan of operation. The explanation was satisfactory to his mind. He at once said to me that he thought the thing feasible, and was satisfied that it would probably succeed.