Chapter 62

PITT AND GIORDINO WERE THREE HOURS INTO their review of the sonar data when the shipwreck appeared. Giordino had set the viewing speed at double the capture rate, so they were nearly complete with the first grid’s results. The rapidly scrolling seabed images had turned the men glassy-eyed, but they both popped out of their seats when the wreck appeared. Giordino immediately hit a keyboard command that froze the image.

It was a distinct shadow image of a large wreck sitting upright on the bottom, tilted at just a slight angle. The perimeter of the wreck appeared fully intact, except for a mangled crevice running horizontally across the bow.

“She’s a wooden ship,” Pitt remarked, pointing to a trio of long, tapering masts that stretched across the deck and onto the adjacent seafloor. “Looks to have a blunt-shaped bow, characteristic of the bomb ships that the Erebus and Terror were originally built to be.”

Giordino used the computer’s cursor to measure the wreck’s dimensions.

“How does thirty-two meters in length fit?” he asked.

“Like a glove,” Pitt replied, flashing a tired smile. “That’s got to be one of the Franklin ships.”

The door to the viewing room burst open and Dahlgren strode in, carrying a hard drive under his arm.

“Second AUV is back on board, and here’s what she’s got to say,” he declared, handing Giordino the device. He glanced at the screen, then stared with bulging eyes.

“Shoot, you already found her. Mighty fine-looking wreck,” he added, nodding at the clear image.

“Half of the pair,” Pitt said.

“I’ll start getting the submersible prepped. That will make for a sweet dive to the bottom.”

Pitt and Giordino finished reviewing the first AUV’s imagery, then tore through the data from the second vehicle. The remaining data came up empty. The sister shipwreck was somewhere outside the two initial search grids. Pitt decided against expanding the grids until they determined which wreck they had found.

He made his way to the bridge with the wreck coordinates, where he found Captain Stenseth gazing out the starboard wing. Less than two miles away, the icebreaker Otok came steaming north with its empty barge in tow.

“Lo and behold, a match for one of your friend Goyette’s barges,” Stenseth remarked.

“A coincidence?” Pitt asked.

“Probably,” Stenseth replied. “The barge is riding high, so she’s empty. Likely headed for Ellesmere Island for a load of coal, then back through the passage to China.”

Pitt studied the vessels as they moved closer, marveling at the massive size of the barge. He stepped over to the chart table and retrieved the photograph Yaeger had provided of the Goyette barge under construction in New Orleans. He looked at the picture and saw it was an exact duplicate of the vessel approaching off the starboard beam.

“We have a match,” Pitt remarked.