Rival Ocean Divers: Or, The Search for a Sunken Treasure

A juvenile adventure novel written in the early 20th century. It follows teen diver Dave Fearless and his father Amos as they join Captain Broadbeam’s government ship, the Swallow, to locate a fortune lost with the wrecked Happy Hour in the Pacific, while the wealthy Lemuel Hankers and his son Bart mount a rival hunt aboard the Raven. Expect inventive deep-sea gear (notably a new diving bell), fierce marine creatures, South Seas hazards, and a bitter family rivalry over a long-lost inheritance. The opening of this novel sets the stakes and the chase in motion: Dave learns of the treasure and the Happy Hour’s probable resting place; Bart Hankers eavesdrops and his father rushes to get a head start, even planting a hireling to frame Dave in Washington (a ploy that fails). Dave and Amos ship on the Swallow, descend in the bell, and survive a harrowing encounter with monstrous deep-sea fish, followed by a shark attack at the surface. A violent storm strikes; lightning leaves Amos alive but unable to speak. At San Murio Island, Dave and young engineer Bob Vilett go ashore, fall into underground caverns, and Dave is captured after overhearing Lemuel Hankers and his man Rackley plotting to sabotage the Swallow by infiltrating her as a “castaway.” Bob rescues Dave from a jaguar; the pair endure a gorilla attack, then reach the beach only to be seized by islanders occupied with butchering a stranded whale. The section closes with the boys bound inland as a group approaches, including a white man disguised among the natives.