The Stanhope Trilogy Book Three: the Wreck: Two Misplaced Southern Girls Search for Treasure and Discover Love

By Patti O’Donoghue

Hey there! This is Cecilia Anne Celia Stanhope and my life is about to get really exciting! My buddy, Regina Goldie OBrien, and I are about to find us some treasure! I know youre laughing at that idea, but this is where it gets really interesting. Goldie and I met a couple of guys, Mark and Nick, who have in their possession a sword hilt from the S.M.S. Cormorana German shipwreck that dates to World War One. Mark found the beautiful brass hilt while metal detecting on the beach on Rota, an island just north of Guam in the Marianna Island chain. The thing is the Cormoran is located in Guams Apra Harbor. Did a typhoon wash treasure from Guam to Rota? Seems unlikely.

Mark and I put two plus two together and discover that there are two ships named Cormoran. The one were after was filled with treasure and spirited away from Germany before the end of the war.

Welcome to the island of Rota. Were at a place called the Devils Jawthe final resting place of The Wreck.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 2, 2008
• ISBN: 9781456727277

Patti O’Donoghue

Patti O'Donoghue is the author of two previous books, The Stanhope Trilogy, Book One, Celia and The Stanhope Trilogy, Book Two, Where America’s Day Begins (America’s day begins in Guam, USA, in case you didn’t know). The Wreck is the third in the series and a fourth book is percolating. Ms. O’Donoghue holds an advanced SCUBA rating which she received at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Her diving experiences include sites in the tropical waters of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Ponape and the islands of Palau. She has explored wrecks of ships and aircraft of World War Two that can still be found in the waters off these western Pacific Islands. Fact and fiction of numerous wrecks have fed her imagination to create the Trilogy stories. Ms. O’Donoghue has served as Director of Public Information at Mount Olive College, Mount Olive, NC and as President of the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce. Her writing and photography have appeared in magazines and newspapers. Her husband's 33-year Air Force career took the family to Germany, Turkey, Guam and bases in the United States. Patti and Greg O’Donoghue are the parents of five children and the servants of one cat, Miss Kitty.

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all my family members and friends. Thank you for your love, friendship, and encouragement. I’ll never forget.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many resources helped me discover the S.M.S. Cormoran and the wonderful spirit of the islands:

•   Mel Howard, my PADI dive instructor on the island of Guam. Mel explored the Cormoran shipwreck and told his students stories that fueled the imagination.

•   The book Flight of the Cormoran by Herbert T. Ward

•   The books The Pictorial History of Guam, The Sacrifice: 1919-1943 and The Pictorial History of Guam, Liberation-1944 by Don A. Farrell

•   Articles published in the Pacific Daily News

•   Maps and information distributed by the Guam Visitors Bureau

•   Information published by the U.S. Navy

•   Conversations with islanders of Guam, USA, and throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

PROLOGUE

My name is Cecilia Anne Stanhope, Celia to my friends. I had to go to Germany to live with my aunt, Air Force Captain Anita Carter, even though I wanted to stay in eastern North Carolina where I’d lived my whole life. Why? My parents died in a plane crash, and I became the poor orphan. Aunt Nita was my only living relative. And, well…

Anyway, I did move to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and I met Regina O’Brien at the pool. I called her Goldie because she had long blond hair and sparkled in her yellow bathing suit. She called me Cee. We did everything together, which included getting into trouble.

Mostly I battled my aunt and didn’t see that she was trying to do what was right. She finally sent me stateside for something that wasn’t my fault. Oh well, that’s water under the bridge.

What’s interesting is that Goldie’s parents sent her back stateside as well and made sure we didn’t know how to make contact. I lived with the Stanhope College librarian, Miss Mildred, and her husband Jonathan Southerland, who was mayor of Sandy Run, North Carolina. I worked in the library with Miss M. and also enrolled as a freshman at Stanhope. Then, one day, there was Goldie! She had enrolled at Stanhope, too. What luck. I thought we’d die of happiness.

Now it gets interesting. I found out that my parents left a trust fund, and my lawyer, Mr. Paul Dudley, said that there was more than one hundred thousand dollars in the trust. My aunt was the trustee of the funds, which meant she had control of the money. Aunt Nita insisted that I wait until I turned twenty-one—as stipulated in my parents’ will.

I came up with a way to get the money, and I must confess that my way of doing it was really mean. My aunt let me have the money, but she also declared that I was dead to her. I can tell you that it scared me some and I was kind of sorry I did it the way I did. But, more water under the bridge. Can’t change it now.

Goldie and I ended up on the island of Guam—where America’s day begins—a place we decided to go by spinning the globe in the library. I’m excited because while I worked at the library I read about shipwrecks and gold and scuba diving in the warm waters of tropical islands. I have it in my head that there is treasure to be found. I read about one wreck in particular, a German ship the S.M.S. Cormoran.

‘Course we’re struggling here on Guam, because I had no idea what it takes to live in the adult world. You have to pay the rent and the electric bill. You have to buy food and household items. You have to have transportation, which means for us two cars. You have to have insurance. You have to wash your clothes and iron your clothes. You have to cook your meals and clean up your own mess. There are consequences for everything you do or don’t do.

You have to be especially careful about how much money you spend, because it can go very fast. We had to get jobs. Goldie works at McDonalds, and I work for Ron Weston as a photographer. I’ll keep enough of my trust fund in the bank so that someday we can find that shipwreck and get rich.

I know you’re laughing at that idea. But this is where it gets really interesting. Goldie and I met a couple of guys, Mark and Nick, who have in their possession a beautiful brass sword hilt from the Cormoran. It dates to World War One. Mark found it while metal detecting on the beach on Rota, an island just north of Guam in the Mariana Island chain. The thing was Mark knew that the Cormoran was located in Guam’s Apra Harbor, but try as he might he could not find any more treasure from the Guam wreck.

From my reading, I guessed there was a second Cormoran. We shared what we both knew and realized that the original ship was filled with treasure and spirited away from Germany before the end of the war. We believe we know the location of the original Cormoran.

Welcome to the island of Rota. We’re at a place called the Devil’s Jaw and we intend to find The Wreck.

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

THE COVENANT

CHAPTER 2

DID I MENTION THAT WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SCUBA?

CHAPTER 3

THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF WHAT?

CHAPTER 4

MOVING DAY

CHAPTER 5

DEVIL’S JAW

THOSE SWEET LITTLE CUTTLEFISH

EMMA

CHAPTER 8

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

CHAPTER 9

LOST POND

CHAPTER 10

A NOT-SO-SMALL SURPRISE

CHAPTER 11

NOT THAT YOU’RE INTERESTED, BUT…

CHAPTER 12

THE WRECK

RESCUE

CHAPTER 14

DOWNHILL SLIDE

CHAPTER 15

HOSPITAL

CHAPTER 16

HOW DID WE GET IN THIS FIX?

CHAPTER 17

TDY

CHAPTER 18

A GIRLFRIEND

CHAPTER 19

THE MESSAGE

CHAPTER 20

THE PROPOSAL

CHAPTER 21

ESCAPE

CHAPTER 22

DUMPED

CHAPTER 23

THE REAL UGLY

CHAPTER 24

DANNY

CHAPTER 25

THE SUNDAY MORNING SOCIAL

CHAPTER 26

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

CHAPTER 27

TODAY’S THE DAY

CHAPTER 28

BEER BUST

CHAPTER 29

A MOONLIGHT FIND

CHAPTER 30

THE CAVE

CHAPTER 31

A ONE-PERSON KISS

CHAPTER 32

THE PROMISE

CHAPTER 33

NEWS

CHAPTER 34

WHAT IF…

CHAPTER 35

SWAPPING STORIES

CHAPTER 36

VISITORS

CHAPTER 37

NO MAYBE ABOUT IT

CHAPTER 38

STUCK

CHAPTER 39

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH

CHAPTER 40

LITTLE BROTHER

CHAPTER 41

BELIEVE

CHAPTER 42

INNER EARTH

CHAPTER 43

DISCOVERED

CHAPTER 44

THE FAVOR

CHAPTER 45

BURIAL AT SUMAY

AFTERWORD

BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

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CHAPTER 1

THE COVENANT

The white oblong Celia had seen from the air occupied a portion of a thin stretch of beach Mark and Nick referred to as the camp. Nick drove the borrowed truck down to the site through rutted roads. Rocks crumbled under the weight of the truck.

We built this shack after Mark found the sword hilt, Nick said. One of my cousins owns the land. Nobody bothers us.

So, even then you were thinking the wreck was here? Celia asked.

Not really, Mark answered. "I knew the Cormoran was in Apra Harbor on Guam. But since we found something here, we figured there might be more. Maybe stuff got kicked over during a typhoon."

We didn’t want anyone else to stumble onto something, Nick added.

We had no idea what to make of the find, Mark said. They stood and listened to the waves hit the reef. What is out there? Celia thought. Mark broke the silence.

Nick and I put together what you see, he said. A little bit here and a little bit there. It seemed like a good idea.

Yeah, Nick said. We scrounged all the wood, tore this metal off some boonie shacks, and got the cement blocks cheap from my cousin. It doesn’t look like much, but it keeps the rain out.

Is there room for the four of us? Goldie asked.

Look for yourselves. Nick pushed the door open.

There are three rooms! Goldie said. I can’t believe it’s so big. The kitchen contained a sink with wood cabinets underneath and a card table and two chairs. A hot plate and a small camp refrigerator sat on a slanted wooden counter.

The main room and the bedroom were divided by wood paneling.

And where were you thinking we’d sleep? Celia asked.

You and Goldie take the bedroom. Nick and I can bunk in here, Mark said.

Where did you guys get this furniture? Celia asked as she inspected the bedroom. It smells funny.

Salvaged from a trailer that caught fire, Mark answered. They threw this stuff out and left it. Got the whole ball of wax for twenty-five dollars.

Mark seemed pleased with the bargain, so Celia didn’t say anything. If we had a smoke detector, it would go off, she thought.

Off the side of the shack and propped on cement blocks, like an afterthought, was a makeshift outhouse.

That thing needs a door, Celia said. And needs to be moved another hundred feet away.

We leave that detail to you lovely ladies, Nick said. Real men don’t care. Celia rolled her eyes.

I wonder what we’re getting ourselves into, Celia whispered to Goldie when they walked outside. She and Goldie strolled beneath the tall palms to the edge of a sparkling white beach.

I don’t know, Cee, Goldie said. It’s scary and exciting all at once.

And beautiful, Celia answered. She looked out across the horizon where blue met blue. Closer to the beach white water raced along the reef in cross currents.

Cut’s called ‘Devil’s Jaw,’ Nick said. He and Mark came up behind Celia and Goldie. Some good lobster holes, good spear fishing. Dangerous, though.

That cut is to our advantage, Mark said, because no one comes around much.

"If the Cormoran is out there, how in the world are we supposed get through the cut?" Celia shivered.

We’ll figure a way, Mark said.

What do you say about our palace? Nick asked.

The ‘palace’ needs fixing up before we can stay, Celia answered.

Women! both men said at the same time.

You can’t live with us, Goldie said, and in this case, you sure can’t live without us.

At this moment, Mark said, dancing Celia around the beach, I am reminded of that tender old love song, ‘If You Got the Money, Honey, I Got the Tiiiime.’ The four of them hooked arms and sang the country tune at the tops of their voices.

After a while Celia and Mark sat and watched Goldie and Nick splash each other in the surf.

Celia found a stick and drew pictures of fish and turtles in the sand. Then she wrote her name. Mark took the stick and added Mark loves in front of the Celia.

What kind of thing is that to write?

I think I’m falling in love with you, Mark said. You’re just plain wonderful. And smart and funny.

I believe I could love you, too, Mark, she whispered. It might take some time.

We’ve got all the time in the world, Mark said. Silence filled the air between them. They gazed toward the ocean, lost in their own thoughts.

Let’s eat! Goldie yelled. Nick and Goldie had a fire started down the beach to cook the hot dogs they’d brought. The adventurers slipped their hot dogs on straightened coat hangers and sat in the warm sand. Meat juices sizzled in the fire. Celia remembered other hot dog roasts at the Mill in her beloved North Carolina.

How far away, she thought. No frogs or crickets but somehow the same.

How often can we get over here? Goldie asked.

Good question, Nick said. We’re not exactly free. The United States Air Force owns us, at least for a while longer.

I can’t quit my job and leave Ron in a fix, either, Celia added.

"Celia has offered to finance our search for the Cormoran, Mark said. But we all need to be contributing partners.

We have a lot to do, anyway. So why don’t we leave things as they are? We can fly over on long weekends. Maybe during the week, as well.

I think Ron will be good about time off, as long as I’m taking pictures, Celia said.

I’m not sure about McDonalds, Goldie said. But, hey, I’ll worry about it when I have to.

Nick popped the cork on a bottle of German wine and filled four plastic cups. He handed them around.

It is appropriate, Mark announced, as he lifted his cup, that we offer a toast. They all stood.

"To the Cormoran! May she be resting peacefully in calm and shallow water. And to our crew: May we be courageous in our search and, above all, steadfast in our friendship." They lifted their cups.

Hear! Hear! They answered in unison. For the longest time the adventurers sat around the fire in silence. The covenant was sealed.

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CHAPTER 2

DID I MENTION THAT WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SCUBA?

The adventurers sipped their wine, each lost in thought. Celia broke the silence.

We’ll need to come up with a valid reason for the four of us to be here. I mean, it could get to be Grand Central Station if the locals get curious.

We could be doing some kind of research, Goldie said. "There’s this older haole guy who comes into McDonalds for coffee every morning. Smokes. You wouldn’t believe it. Anyway, he’s photographing and observing cuttlefish. Got a grant from National Geographic. That man can talk cuttlefish."

When we get back to Guam, Gold, follow up on that, Celia said. See if he’s had anything published, maybe some extra pictures and slides he’ll let us have. Tell him you have a friend who absolutely adores cuttlefish. We could spread the stuff around in a mock lab here in the kitchen.

Bet I could catch a few, Nick said. We could keep them in an aquarium.

That’s another thing, Mark said. "We’ll need to repair the generator so we can have electricity. That’d keep pumps going for our cuttlefish bowl and give us light at night, and we can cook and keep food refrigerated.

Nick could tap into the local power, but it’s unreliable. Besides, we’ll have to run a compressor to fill our tanks when we need them. Okay, Celia thought to herself, put a compressor on the list.

Does anyone know how to conduct a proper underwater search? Celia asked.

During advanced scuba class we did search and salvage, Mark said, "and I’ve been all over the Cormoran, but to answer your question, basically, no." Nick shook his head, too.

"I fell off