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It would take another twentythere, with ainst the ship’s s It was as if the ship itself had been buried in sorave

Paul looked through every drawer and cabinet “No charts, no logbooks, nothing of value”

“Just like the storeroom,” Elena said “Someone cleaned this ship out”

Finally, Paul found so that was too heavy to carry: a bell the size of a laundry basket, lying on its side He rolled it over until he found another engraving This tis were deeper, and once he’d scraped the corrosion and tarnish away, Paul could see the letters clearly A nanized, a name that all those who’d ever studied shipwrecks knew quite well

“The Waratah,” Paul said out loud “I can’t believe it This ship is the Waratah”

He showed the engraving to Gamay, who seemed as surprised as him

“Why do I know tha

t name?” Elena asked

“Because it’s famous,” Paul said “The SS Waratah, of the Blue Anchor Line, vanished with the crew and passengers in 1909 She was believed to have gone down in a store was ever found Not so much as a life jacket or a buoy with the name Waratah stenciled on it”

Elena narrowed her gaze at the two of the this ship we’re on, covered in mud and wrapped in vines, is actually a hundred-year-old derelict that’s supposed to be sitting on the bottom of the sea?”

Paul nodded “Sitting on the botto way from here”

“I told you those stoves were old,” Gamay said

Paul laughed and considered the irony “Everyone who is anyone in undersea exploration has searched for this ship at one time or another Treasure hunters, naval historians, adventurers NUMA even took a stab at it with the help of this faht we’d found it, but the wreck turned out to be a different ship called the Nailsea Meadow”

“No wonder no one could find it,” Elena said “It never actually went down”

“Which begs the question,” Ga out all these years? And since she seeers and crew?”