“It’s the most wonderful thing I ever heard of,” Brandon declared.
“They are wonderful boats, as you will declare, yourself, when you see Number Three, tomorrow,” Adoniram returned. “My whaleback is 265 feet long, 38 feet beam, and 24 feet deep. She is warranted to carry 3,000 tons of grain on a sixteen and one half foot draft. You see, for her size, she carries an enormous cargo, for between the collision bulkhead forward, and the bulkhead in front of the engine room aft, the whole inside of the craft is open for lading.
“But my scheme—the reason I bought this vessel, in fact—is this,” went on Mr. Pepper.
He hesitated a moment, and looked just a little doubtfully at Caleb.
“I presume this is what you will call a ‘crazy idea,’ Caleb,” he said. “Several months ago my attention was drawn to the fact that great numbers of these derelicts now afloat in the Atlantic, north of the equator, are richly laden merchant vessels on whose cargoes and hulls a large salvage might be demanded by any vessel towing them into port.
“Now and then, you know, it happens that somebody does recover a derelict with a valuable cargo. In these times, when the crews of American ships, and even many of the officers, are ignorant and untrustworthy fellows, lacking altogether the honor arm perseverance which were characteristics of sailors forty years ago (I don’t say that all are so, but many) under these circumstances, I say, many a vessel which might be worked safely into port, is abandoned in mid ocean by the frightened crew.
“With a vessel like Number Three one could recover and tow into port many of these hulks, and net a large salvage from the owners. Vessels which would not be worth saving themselves, might still contain articles which it would pay to transfer to the hold of the whaleback, before they were sunk; for it was my intention to have Number Three destroy all the wrecks which are not worth saving.
“I have even sounded the Washington officials in the matter of aiding me in the work of destroying these derelicts; but I find that the Hydrographic Office is trying to get an appropriation from Congress to build a vessel of about 800 tons burden, especially for the work of blowing up these wrecks. Until that matter is decided, of course I can get no bonus on what I do.
“Nevertheless,” Mr. Pepper continued, “I believe that there is money enough in it to amply reward me for my outlay. Why, look at that New England whaler which found the British ship Resolute fast in the ice of Melville Bay in the summer of ’55.
“She was one of three vessels sent out by the British government to find Sir John Franklin. She was ‘nipped’ by the ice in the winter of ’51 and was abandoned. The whaler brought her to New London, and Congress bought her for $200,000 salvage and sent her to England. Of course, I shouldn’t expect to get many such prizes as that,” and the little man laughed, “but I do expect to make a handsome profit on the venture.”