“Indeed we would!” exclaimed Jerry with an enthusiasm that was echoed by his chums.
“Then come with me,” invited their strange host, and he led the way toward the engine room, as could be told by the hum and throb that came from it. “Will you accompany us, Mr. Sheldon?”
“Thank you, no. I will stay with my daughter. It is late, and she ought to retire.”
Indeed it was long past midnight, but in that depth of water time did not seem to count for much. There was perpetual darkness at all hours.
But the boys and Professor Snodgrass, though tired after what they had passed through, were not too weary to view the interior of this marvelous boat.
I do not wish to tire my readers with a technical description of the Sonderbaar, so I will merely say that she was, like most submarines, of elliptical shape, tapering to blunt points on either end, though the stern, where the two propellers were, was wider than the bow.
The boat was about two hundred feet long and about forty feet in diameter, her dimensions being greatly in excess of most submarines. It was this that enabled her to be made strong enough to stand the pressure of five hundred feet of water, which pressure is enormous on every square inch of surface.
This large size also gave more room inside for engines, and quarters for captain and crew. Thus there was much more comfort than in the usual submarine.
There were no periscopes, or tubes, elevated above the deck on the Sonderbaar. Observation, when running awash, was by means of a lens flush in the deck, a peculiar arrangement of mirrors and prisms giving the effect of periscopes without their disadvantages.
There was also an automatic arrangement of diaphragms, similar to those in telephone receivers, so that when the craft was running under water, and approached some obstacle, its presence would be made manifest in time to avoid it. Nor was this all. Dr. Klauss had perfected a powerful lamp which was located in the bow of his craft, projecting its beams through the water. This would also disclose any object that might endanger a collision. But the diaphragms acted over a wider area than the lamp, the beams of which were necessarily dimmed by the density of the water.