COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
16
FOR
JULY
1941
more feet into the murky gloom of the deep
void.
I had now prepared myself for the des·
cent by donning an old sweater, heavy
woolen socks and moccasins. I crawled into
the eighteen·inch aperture or trap of the
huge device. Swiftly the watertight door
was closed on me, locked and bolted down.
A moment more and the ungainly device
was lifted from the deck as the winches
groaned, swung up and over the side of the
craft and slowly sank into the sea.
Down- -down--down I went.
As they lowered me toward the bottom,
and played out the length of cable, from
out of the robot's vision plates I caught
glimpses of curious fish. They slipped up
to me and then drifted easily away. Down,
down I continued to 1(0 through the still,
green water. Gradually the light grew
fainter, the water duller, darker. Within
the robot it was as still as the inside of a
locked vault; somewhat like being within
the hollowed·out interior of a gigantic golf
ball.
Presently the electrician on deck began
to talk Into the phone, the other end of
which was attached to my head by a snap·
band. Over this phone I was in touch with
him every moment.
"How far down am I?" I inquired into
the phone as I touched the bottom of the
sea bed.
The watchman sang out: "Sixty fath·
oms!" and stopped his engines.
After a while I again talked into the
phone and sent up this message: "I am
standing amid some wreckage . . . it ap·
pears like some bulky mass of barnacled
and shell· encrusted vessel."
At that depth the formation seemed to
be almost black in color, while the fish
were multi·colored, hundreds of them. I
was moved along at my request, and as I
did so I noticed the bulky mass, hidden
as it was by the accumulation of the sea
growths, and half buried in the sand. Yet,
as I examined the mass, the hulk showed
up to be the remains of a very ancient
ship, a ship such as I had never seen ex·
cept In pictures, a craft whose rotted and
broken timbers still presented the traces
of a lofty sterncastle with high bluff bows.
As I poked along with my iron·beclawed
hands I came upon two ornate, shell·en·
crusted cannon. There was not a doubt
that I had stumbled upon the wreck of a
Spanish or Portugese galleon of the Six·
teenth or Seventeenth Century. Only by
striking every object wi th the iron claws
was I able to determine which were natural
growths and which were portions of the
shattered and wrecked hulk.
Tearing away the masses of weeds and
barnacles upon the gaunt timbers and
shattered ribs, I was dropped between the
massive frame of the wreck, where I dug
away the sand that half· filled the old hulk.
Bit by bit the wreck was worked over.
After breaking off the encrustations of
shell and other sea growths, accumulated
debris which had adhered over a period of
nearly three hundred years, there appeared
a bundle of rent and twisted ironwork,
hatch bands, chain, iron plates, toggles, a
massive iron ring that had once held the
water sail-yard beneath the ancient craft's
bowsprit.
Next was discovered a kettle, crudely
made- no doubt hand forged- with five riv-
eted, pronged legs. Then a shell-encrusted
iron grapnel, some metal plates on which
the galleon's crew had once been fed;
a grindstone, worn and out of shape, on
which possibly many a knife and sword
had once been sharpened, or perhaps some
Spanish don's halberd. Many other articles
were recovered, unearthed from the sand
and encrustation, many of whose original
purposes were a mystery to me.
The descent down the next morning, the
twdfth day at the reefs, caused some ex-
citement on board the schooner. While be-
low, I uncovered almost immediately upon
reaching the bottom a huge lump which I
sent up by the cable in the steel sling. I
reported over the phone that I thought it
might be treasure of some sort. When it
was swung onto the deck of our sal-
vage schooner, deck chisels and hammers
smashed into the formation with which it
was thickly encased. There was the dull
gleam of yellow in the broken crust.
That strange madness that grips men
when gold and silver treasure in untold
amounts is at stake seemed to permeate
the surroundings on the deck above. They
Anti- A!rcraft. Black ______ ______ $49.50
Seeburg'. Chi cken Sam ........ 52.50
S eaburg's J a ilb ird .... _ ... ___ ..... 69.50
FREE PLAYS
FREE PLAYS
PHONOGRAPHS
CONSOLES
I'AYTABLES
COUNTER GAMES
SKILL GAMES
BELLS
New & Used
I
Seeb urg' s Sh oot th e ' Chu te. 84.50
Mutoscope'. Sky Fiuht er ...... 169.50
S cientific Battin g Practi c8 .. 159.50
PHONOGRAPHS
BAllY' S
S EEBUR G' S
Bea uty _______________ _ $29.50 Model C (12
Record.) __ __ ________ $34.50
lim eli ght . __ . __ . ____ . 27. 50
Mascot ___________ ..... 27.50 Comm a nd er ________ 2 14.50
Play Ball __________ . 67.50 Marlair. 1939 ____ 144. 50
Pl aza. 1939 ________ 134. 50
CHICA GO COIN ' S
Commod ore ________ $24. 50 Roya le __________________ 82.50
Roxy ____ . ____ _____ ___ ... 27.50 Rega l
__ ______ 124.50
Skyline ________________ 42.50
WURllTZER
'S 50
EXHIBIT 'S
24 _______________
__ _______ _ $94.
l a ncer _______ ________ ___ $27.50
l a nd slid e ___________ . 29.50 50. 1937 ____ __________ 49.50
Win g. __________________ 29.50 5 1. 1938 ____________ 49.50
61. 1939 ____________ __ 79. 50
GENCO ' S
600. Keyboard ____ 142.50
Ban dwagon _______ __ _ $44.50 SOOA
__________ __________ 134. 50
Blond le . _______ ________ 29.50 616 ________________________ 54.50
Ca dill ac __ ____________ 36.50
Dud e Ranch ______ 42.50
ROCK · OlA 'S
Mr. Ch ip. __ __________ 21.00 Monarc h ________ ______ $84.50
WI nd sor ______ ________ 79.50
GOTTLIEB 'S
Big S how ________ ___ $26.50 Count. Mod . '39 __ 84.50
Dr um Major ______ 32.50 '39 De lu xe __________ 139.50
Gold Star ________ ____ 42.50 Rhythm Kin g.
16 Rec .. ____________ 44.50
Parad ise __ ....... __ .. 52.50
CONSOLES
Big Ga me. F. P.
Watl ing'. __________ $84.50
Faft T ime. J en~
n ln gs. Skill . Fl.
S a mple ______________ 139.50
Ju mbo Parad e
Mill., F. P. _______ 94.50
li berty Bell .
Flat Top _________ 34.50
Ga llop ing Domi ·
noes, Bl ack
Ca binet ____________ . 52.50
Paces Races,
Black Cab . . ______ . 69.50
Squa re Bell ________ 69.50
Tanforan .............. 32. 50
S ug ar Ki ng ________ 59.50
25c Bu ckl ey T rack
Odd.. '39 __ ______ __ __ 159.50
SEND FOR COMPLETE PRICE LIST TODAY!
Terms : 1/ 3 with Order, Bal. C.O.D.
grabbed each other and danced, and yelled
madly. But fortune was not so easily
found, for as the find was finally uncov·
ered fully, it turned out to be an immense
kettle made of copper with huge bronze
legs and a long spout, built of many sheets
of thin copper varying in thickness and
riveted together, as many such utensils
were in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cen-
turies. Possibly this copper was from the
Peruvian mines at Potosi, and smelted in
ores that were ri ch in silver and gold.
I was now on the spot where the stern
of the galleon, for galleon it was frOB! all
the evidences shown by the various finds,
had at one time rested, and I now felt that
luck was with me and th e jinx that had
seemed to guard sunken treasure in the
ships was gone. Outside, one of my divers
in a conventional observation bell was
making photographs of the myriad vari-
colored fi"sh.
Suddenly, through my vision plates there
showed in the searchlight's powerful beam
a dark cleft in the jagged, slime·covered
rock formation on my right. A sort of
commotion was under way, for the finny
denizens scurried for safety. And then,
gradually coming into the rays of the
bright beam, there showed a grey, repul.
sive·looking mass with long snaky arms,
that dreaded creature feared by all divers,
suited or robot. It was a hug,e octopus!
What fol lowed seemed like a bad dream.
Indee~, to those who have never been un-
der the sea the story sounds incredible,
almost like a night-mare, or a passage
from some particularly lurid dime novel or
movie.
The octopus, which was one of the larg-
est I had ever seen in all my underwater
experiences - and I have had many-
crawled along a sort of natural trough lead-
ing from the rocks, raising itself on its
many-cupped tentacles like some gargan-
tuan tarantula. Almost immediately it spot-
ted our observation bell.
From my vantage point behind some of
the timbers of the old hulk I was able to
pho tograph the creature through the half·
inch vision plate of the robot in which I
was encased, by means of a camera spe-
cially designed for underwater work of
this sort. Powerful lights attached to the
head of the robot and the two arms illumi-
nated the scene of action before me.
Abruptly the octopus raised itself on its
long, snaky arms, moving quickly toward,
as I remarked before, the observation bell
like a boxer circling his opponent. Sud·
denly one long arm lashed out madly, curl-
ing around the bell. Then another and an·
other. Furiously the huge creature shook
the steel bell as a terrier would a rat.
Conscious of the opportunity to get some
pictures that possibly never had been
filmed before I kept my camera going,
realizing that in spite of its size there was
no way the boneless octopus could break
inside the great steel diving chamber in
which my diver was encased.
'
But it was time for action.
The giant creature seemed infuriated
and was thrashing madly in an apparent
attempt to crush the shell or get inside
to the man within. The bell had beeH so
shaken by the monster that the observer,
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