Chapter 29 Chapter 1 The Sound of the Ocean

One early morning in autumn, Yang Jixian got up as usual and went to the sports field of the rescue station to exercise. The salvage station is located in Yulingang, Hainan Island, and is a branch of the South China Shipwreck Salvage and Salvage Company.It has been three years since Yang Jixian came back here from the Three Gorges Engineering Bureau.He inhaled deeply the clean, salty air of the island, and it was very refreshing.After exercising, he wanted to read for a while, so he walked to the office building. The study room is located on the third floor of the office building, at the end of the corridor.When he walked past the door of the newsroom, a rush of "Dididi, Dadada, Dididi" came from the half-closed door.As soon as he heard the familiar voice, he was stunned: Isn't this the emergency call signal SOS!

He gently pushed open the door of the newsroom and walked in. Captain Chen of the "Taishan" tugboat and Ge stationmaster of the salvage station were standing beside the operator, waiting with concern for the result of the operator's contact with the ship in distress.The telegraph operator skillfully pressed the key and asked the other party's direction and difficulty.Although the weather was not hot, there were fine beads of sweat on the operator's forehead. "Our country's scientific research ship 'Xu Xiake' was hit by a strong typhoon near the northern reef of the Yongle Islands in the Xisha Islands and hit the reef." The operator reported to the station manager Ge, "Their position is: 111 degrees 43 minutes east longitude, 17 north latitude Degree 01 points."

Stationmaster Ge took over the telegram, handed it to Captain Chen, and said word by word: "Set sail immediately!" The strong typhoon from the Caroline Islands passed through the Philippines and swept across the South China Sea unscrupulously, setting off huge waves one after another.However, the 20,000-horsepower all-weather tugboat "Taishan" braved the wind and waves, regardless of its own safety, and sailed at a full speed of 21 knots to Beijiao, the place where the "Xu Xiake" died. Three hours later, the "Xu Xiake" was spotted on the radar; after another three hours, its outline could already be seen in the cab of the "Taishan".Suddenly, a rare huge wave, higher than a three-story building, rushed towards the "Taishan". The "Taishan" was lifted high by the huge wave and dropped heavily. , charts, pencils all slid to the floor.Captain Chen stabilized his body and looked at the tilt indicator. The ship had tilted more than 50 degrees.He calmly and resolutely ordered to the helmsman:

"Keep on course, keep going!" The "Taishan" passed through the huge waves safely, and the North Reef was vaguely seen in front of it.On its outer side, the "Xu Xiake" is tossing in the wind and waves.Its stern was already half submerged in the water, and its bow was raised above the water.In the sea around it, there is a small lifeboat, and many people have fallen into the water and struggled in the water. In the cabin and on the deck of the "Taishan", six short and one long alarm bells and sirens were mixed together.After hearing the life-saving alarm, the sailors, divers and salvage workers rushed to the deck to save lives.

The two lifeboats were lowered, and the sailors and divers went down to the lifeboats from the gangway, braving the strong wind and rough waves to rescue those who fell into the water.An hour later, they rescued all those who were killed on the sea to the "Taishan".When the boat was about to be collected, Captain Chen, who was searching with a telescope, suddenly found a black spot bouncing up and down on the sea surface 300 meters away, as if a person was struggling there.The lifeboat that Yang Jixian was on sailed towards the black spot on the sea immediately. After a while, Yang Jixian saw on the lifeboat that the black spot was indeed a person.The waves pushed him, sometimes surfaced, sometimes sank underwater, in a very dangerous situation.The boat hurried to his side, but a big wave pushed him a few meters away.Yang Jixian had sharp eyesight, picked up a life buoy immediately, exhausted all his strength, and accurately threw the life buoy to that person's side.The man was struggling in the water, paddling twice with his right hand for a while, and reaching for the lifebuoy with his right hand for a while.Only then did Yang Jixian see that the man was still holding a square bag in his left hand.Yang Jixian shouted loudly:

"Lifebuoy, lifebuoy!" The man tried his best, and just reached the life buoy, but the square bag on his left hand slipped down.He hurriedly picked up the square bag with both hands, but the lifebuoy floated far away again, and he was bobbing up and down in the water again. The lifeboat leaned in.Yang Jixian thought to himself, this man doesn't know what kind of treasure he is holding in his arms. At the moment when his life is at stake, he would rather give up the life buoy than leave this bag.He jumped into the water and rowed hard towards the man.The man was about forty years old, and he seemed to be a little watery, but he was exhausted after struggling in the water for several hours. Yang Jixian wanted to take his square bag, but he hugged him tightly, mouth He continued to say intermittently: "I...can't...give..." Yang Jixian had no choice but to support his waist with one hand, and use his other hand to paddle towards the lifeboat. In the lifeboat, the left hand was still tightly holding the square bag wrapped in plastic sheeting.Yang Jixian and the sailors escorted him to the cabin and handed him over to the ship's doctor there.He asked in confusion:

"Where's my bag?" "Beside your pillow." Yang Jixian said. "Where's the boat?" "It's being rescued, it won't sink." He smiled slightly, closed his eyes, and stopped talking. In fact, the "Xu Xiake" continued to sink, and the stern was about to sink into the water. Within more than an hour after the arrival of the "Taishan", they tried everything possible to plug the leak in the cabin of the "Xu Xiake", but failed.Captain Chen decisively ordered the divers to carry out overboard plugging.Yang Jixian didn't care about rest, went to the tool room to find his flippers, lead pressure, oxygen back bottle, mask, etc. His set of light diving equipment, as well as a set of underwater welding torches, took a working boat with several other divers, and went to the On the "Xu Xiake".He sat on a hanger, dived into the water, and welded a steel plate overboard to the plank of the ship that had been knocked over by the reef.Several of their divers went into the water in turn, and finally blocked the hole.A few hours later, the accumulated water in the cabin was exhausted, and the scientific research vessel "Xu Xiake" was rescued.After inspection, there was something wrong with the machine and it needed to be returned to Hong Kong for overhaul.Early the next morning, the "Taishan" towed the "Xu Xiake" and sailed towards Tongsui Xingang on the Pearl River.

After breakfast, Yang Jixian came to the cabin to visit the drowning man he rescued.Fortunately, that person was just overtired yesterday, and after a night's rest, his body has recovered.Lying on the bed, he recognized Yang Jixian at a glance, his oval face was full of gratitude.He sat up and laughed: "It was thanks to you that you rescued me yesterday, or else..." "this is what we are supposed to do." "...Otherwise, this package of materials would have sunk to the bottom of the sea!" The rescued person smiled and pointed to the plastic square package next to the pillow.

In Yang Jixian's mind, the scene of yesterday's drowning man clinging to his bag immediately came to mind.He couldn't help asking curiously: "What valuables are in this bag?" "It's a record of tracking fish schools with sonar devices. It's the result of three months of hard work at sea!" "Oh! So that's the case." Yang Jixian asked with admiration, "Which unit do you belong to?" "We were drawn from several scientific research and teaching units to the 'Xu Xiake' to conduct a joint investigation of marine biomechanics in the South China Sea. Let's get acquainted. My name is Fang Yutian, from the Shanghai Institute of Biology." The man who fell into the water The author introduced himself.

"My name is Yang Jixian, a diver from the Yulingang Salvage Station." Yang Jixian shook hands with Fang Yutian warmly while thinking.This name seems to have been heard somewhere, but I can't remember it clearly.He thought, thought, and suddenly exclaimed, "I remembered, so you are Fang Yutian!" "You know me?" Fang Yutian looked surprised. "Three years ago, I heard Xu Zhenyu talk about you at home. He saw you on a boat when he participated in the archaeological work in Xiling Gorge." Yang Jixian explained. "Oh, it's already three years ago! Those are Xu Zhenyu from Nanshan Observatory, Professor Huang, and Ren Sihong who is an archaeologist." Fang Yutian said their names accurately, full of interest. "Sit down quickly! Ah, I am an old acquaintance with them, and their research results have aroused my enthusiasm for extraterrestrial civilizations. Are they still studying that copper ball?"

"I haven't contacted them for a long time, but I heard that the research work has come to an end, and the copper balls have been moved to the science and technology museum in their province, and may have been put on public display." Yang Jixian sat beside Fang Yutian and said. "Can you get in touch with them right away?" Fang Yutian's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Yes. What's your business?" "Before we were hit by the typhoon, I found an ultrasonic signal source underwater from the recordings of the sonar device. This signal is very regular, three groups at a time, each group is short and long. Unfortunately, we can't hear it. When it comes to ultrasound, if it can be converted into an audio signal, then it will be the sound of 'beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep'." Fang Yutian said a little excitedly. "Isn't that the same password as the unearthed copper ball?" Yang Jixian was surprised. "I was also very surprised, because I had read a detailed report on the unearthed code of the copper ball from "Academic Research". I wondered, is there a copper ball on the seabed?" "Where was your ship at that time?" "Unfortunately, before I had time to determine the position, the typhoon blew us off course and crashed into this unlucky North Reef." Fang Yutian said with a sad face, "I only know that the ship was on the north side of Qilianyu at that time. Where." "How far is it from Qilian Island?" "not sure." "I'll send a telegram to Xu Zhenyu immediately, telling him the news." After finishing speaking, Yang Jixian got up and was about to go out. "Wait a minute," Fang Yutian opened the tightly wrapped plastic bag, found the section recording the oscillation curve of the ultrasonic signal in a large pile of records, tore it off, and handed it to Yang Jixian. "You can also fax and telegraph this record map to him." Yang Jixian rushed to the driving deck and sent the recording chart and a telegram to the radio room. The radio waves are sent to a synchronous communication satellite of our country parked above the equator at 70 degrees east longitude through a set of special antennas, and the satellite immediately relays it to the mainland...