Dave Fearless after a Sunken Treasure
Dave Fearless, the seventeen-year-old son of master diver Amos Fearless, learns that his father's cousin's fortune—a million dollars in gold shipped from China aboard the steamship *Happy Hour*—lies at the bottom of the Pacific, two miles down, where the vessel sank years earlier. The Fearlesses' distant, wealthy relatives, Lemuel Hankers and his son Bart, also claim the fortune, and Bart overhears Amos and Dave discussing their plan to recover it using a government diving expedition led by Captain Paul Broadbeam aboard the *Swallow*. A fight breaks out between Dave and Bart, and the Hankers immediately race to San Francisco to charter their own wrecking vessel, the *Raven*, to beat the Fearlesses to the wreck. Amos and Dave secure positions on the *Swallow* as master diver and assistant. En route, a Hankers henchman named Pete Rackley tries to frame Dave for theft in a Washington hotel to delay him, but the plot is exposed. Aboard ship, Dave and his father test diving equipment against monstrous deep-sea creatures—the Eurypharynx Pelecanoides ("Sea Devil") and the Devil's Needle—and survive a shark attack and a violent Pacific storm, during which lightning strikes Amos, leaving him temporarily mute. At the island of San Murio, Dave and shipmate Bob Vilett go hunting and fall through a concealed sinkhole into an underground river system, nearly drowning before finding their way into a cavern. There Dave overhears Lemuel Hankers plotting with Rackley: Rackley will pose as a shipwrecked castaway, join the *Swallow's* crew, and secretly sabotage the ship to delay its rivals in exchange for $10,000. Discovered eavesdropping, Dave is captured and bound in the cave by Hankers, Bart, and Rackley, then left to be found by a jaguar, from which Bob (who escaped separately) rescues him with a rifle. The pair, fighting off a gorilla, encounter hostile South Sea natives who capture them alongside Bob's injured ankle. A marooned, half-mad Irish castaway named Pat Stoodles, adopted as a "king" by the tribe, helps free Dave, Bob, Captain Broadbeam, and Doctor Barrell (also captured while searching for the missing men). The group hides in a cave behind a waterfall, lures pursuing natives into a fatal bog, and flees to the coast, only to watch the *Raven* deliberately sail away rather than rescue them, since Hankers fears exposure of Rackley's sabotage plot. Commandeering an abandoned rowboat, the castaways survive native attacks, a hurricane, shipwreck on another island, gorilla assaults, giant spiders, and a venomous water snake before being rescued when the *Swallow*, having discovered Rackley's treachery and imprisoned him, drives off a war-canoe assault with cannon fire. With Rackley in the brig, the *Swallow* reaches the wreck site. During test dives, Amos is nearly strangled by a bioluminescent "ray of fire" fish and Dave narrowly saves him after air and rescue signals fail when a shipboard fire distracts the crew. The rival *Raven* arrives with professional divers Cal Vixen and Sam Walton, setting up a race to the ocean floor. Diving two miles down, Dave and Amos discover a fantastical submarine forest and are surrounded by grotesque humanoid "demons of the deep," barely escaping with their diving bell. Vixen and Bart also descend and find the wreck of the *Happy Hour*—now empty, its treasure vanished, leaving both parties bewildered and the Hankers enraged. Returning to search further, Dave and Amos discover the missing gold hidden in a shell-covered mound on the seafloor, evidently gathered there by sea creatures. As they load it into the diving bell, the demons return; Amos wounds one and detonates a torpedo among them, destroying many and allowing father and son to escape with the treasure and even capture a stunned demon specimen. The Hankers' diving bell is nearly destroyed by a wounded sea monster during their own ascent, leaving Vixen, Hankers, and Bart injured and their expedition ruined. Amos's voice, lost since the lightning strike, gradually returns. As the *Swallow* sets course for home following a storm, Lemuel Hankers vows to contest the treasure, setting up further conflict to be resolved in the sequel, *Dave Fearless on a Floating Island*.
By Roy Rockwood · First published 1918 · Genre: Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Science Fiction · 31 chapters · 52,039 words
First lines
"A million at the bottom of the sea, father?"
"That is what I said, Dave."
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Genres
- Adventure — The narrative follows a series of dangerous expeditions including deep-sea diving, tropical island exploration, encounters with indigenous peoples and wild animals, and continuous quests through hostile environments.
- Juvenile Fiction — Protagonist is a 17-year-old boy facing coming-of-age challenges; the writing style, moral framework, and emphasis on heroic action target young readers of the era.
- Science Fiction — Features speculative technology including advanced diving bells with electric lighting, deep-pressure diving suits, submarine weapons, and underwater exploration at scientifically unprecedented depths.
- Action — Sustained action sequences permeate the narrative: fistfights, battles with indigenous populations, chases, underwater combat with creatures, and physical struggles for survival.
Tags
adventure · treasure · nautical · ocean · exploration · mystery · action · underwater · sunken ship · quest · discovery · sea adventure
What this Textopian page supports
Dave Fearless after a Sunken Treasure is listed on Textopian as a novel by Roy Rockwood, dated 1918 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: Roy Rockwood
- Date: 1918 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Science Fiction, Action, Nautical/Maritime
- Length: 52,039 words
- Structure: 31 chapters, 2,317 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Dave Fearless after a Sunken Treasure by Roy Rockwood
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Contents
- Punishing a Sneak
- The Hankers' Move
- A Strange Hotel Adventure
- An Ocean Monster
- From One Danger into Another
- Struck by Lightning
- "I Cannot Talk!"
- A Disastrous Hunt
- A Prisoner Underground
- Dave Overhears a Plot
- Facing a Jaguar
- Well-Timed Shots
- Surrounded by Savages
- Another Capture
- A Door of Water
- The Escape to the Coast
- A Dash for a Rowboat
- On the Bosom of the Ocean
- Fighting a Gorilla
- An Attack in the Dark
- Dave and the Water Snake
- What the Storm Brought
- On the Ship once More
- Attacked by a Fire Fish
- Left to Perish
- The Battle of the Fishes
- The Rival Divers
- The Demons of the Deep
- The Escape from the Demons
- In a Diving Bell
- The Treasure at Last -- Conclusion