Beyond the Barrier Reef
The Navy Cadets
C.R. Cummings
Also By CHRISTOPHER CUMMINGS
The Green Idol of Kanaka Creek
Ross River Fever
Train to Kuranda
The Mudskipper Cup
Davey Jones’s Locker
Below Bartle Frere
Airship Over Atherton
Cockatoo
The Cadet Corporal
Stannary Hills
Coast of Cape York
Kylie and the Kelly Gang
*Beyond the Barrier Reef
Behind Mt. Baldy
The Cadet Sergeant Major
Cooktown Christmas
Secret in the Clouds
The Word of God
The Cadet Under-Officer
Through the Devil’s Eye
The Smiley People
Barbara at her Best
Beyond the Barrier Reef
The Navy Cadets
C.R. Cummings
Copyright © 2018 by Christopher Cummings
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Published 2018 by DoctorZed Publishing
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ISBN: 978-0-6483871-0-7(hc)
ISBN: 978-0-6484096-9-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-0-6484096-8-7 (ebk)
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Cummings, C. R., author.
Title: Beyond the Barrier Reef/Christopher Cummings.
ISBN: 9780648387107 (hardcover)
Series: Cummings, C. R. The navy cadets.
Target Audience: For young adults.
Subjects: Adventure stories, Australian.
Military cadets--Queensland--Fiction.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and dialogues are creations of the author or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any individuals, alive or dead, is purely coincidental. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Cover image © Joanne Weston | Dreamstime.com
Cover design © Scott Zarcinas
Printed in Australia, UK & USA
DoctorZed Publishing rev. date: 21/11/2018
Dedication
The Officers of Cadets and Instructors of Cadets of the Australian Navy Cadets
This book, while a work of fiction, is respectfully dedicated to all the Officers of Cadets and Instructors of Cadets of the Australian Navy Cadets who have done such a magnificent job in preparing young people for life as good citizens. By being good role models and by delivering such useful nautical training, and by mentoring and inspiring young people to be useful citizens of Australia, you have provided a magnificent volunteer service.
Thank you.
Chapter 1
RESEARCH PROJECT
April school holidays
The Great Barrier Reef
Between Cairns and Townsville, North Queensland
1030hrs. A bright, sunny day
Andrew Collins, sixteen, sat in the inflatable rubber boat and fidgeted with adjusting the straps of his Buoyancy Control Device or BCD. This is the inflatable vest that SCUBA divers wear to adjust their depth control and to which their compressed air tanks are secured. There were three other divers and a crewman in the boat and Andrew was hoping that they had not noticed how scared he was.
Particularly Carmen, Andrew thought glancing at his seventeen-year-old sister beside him.
It was her doing that had placed him in this predicament, but he was not going to let on that he was hating almost every minute of it. Carmen had been asked by her friend Ella if they would help her big brother Tristan with his university thesis in marine biology by taking part in a survey of marine organisms. Carmen, who obviously loved diving, had thought it was a wonderful idea and had agreed, then asked Andrew to make up the numbers.
So here I am, and I wish I was anywhere but here, Andrew thought as he looked around.
Not that he minded being in the boat. Andrew loved sailing and was a very accomplished and experienced small boat handler. It was below the water that his courage evaporated. Partly this was the way he had always felt but it was the traumatic experiences of being trapped underwater in the wreck of the Merinda with the skeleton of his grandfather that had really consolidated his fear.
That had been eighteen months ago and the only diving that Andrew had done since had been almost as traumatic. That had been three dives during their expedition to look for the wreck of a Dutch World War 2 Dornier flying boat the previous January. During that Andrew had been with Carmen when they had found a dead body in a wrecked launch after a cyclone.
And Andrew knew he only had himself to blame. When Carmen asked if I would go I should have said no or told her the truth, he mused. In fact, he suspected she knew the truth and had hinted that a dive trip might help him regain his nerve. Like people who fall off a horse getting straight back on one, he decided.
But it had still taken a real effort to hide his fear and to act normally. The first dive had been a real ordeal but since then familiarity had helped to ease the terror back to a nagging anxiety.
I hope there are no problems this trip, Andrew thought.
So