the wreck and salvage the pearls, with the Borgheses' balloon conducting an aerial search of shallow waters around Krakatoa, the pearl divers providing a mobile underwater search-and-salvage capability in shallow waters, Rigby in his diving bell searching in deeper water, and Connerly responsible both for recovering the pearls if they are in waters too deep for the pearl divers and for assisting in the heavy work of bringing the Ariannas safe to the surface. Colonial authorities arrive just before the Batavia Queen departs and force Hanson to take 30 convicts and their jailer aboard for transportation to Madura Island, countering his argument that the ship is not equipped to accommodate them and has no room for them by telling him to transport the prisoners in the ship's hold in appalling conditions. Hanson plans to deliver the convicts to Madura after recovering the pearls off Krakatoa. One of the prisoners, Lester Danzig, is an acquaintance of Hanson's, and Hanson allows him to make the voyage on deck instead of in the hold. Aware that Krakatoa has begun to erupt and warned by a colonial official that the island is a "raging volcano", Hanson replies that the volcano had been quiet for the previous 200 years and posed no threat now. During the Batavia Queens voyage to Krakatoa, her crew and passengers observe strange phenomena: They see seabirds swarming in huge flocks by day, witness a series of fiery explosions erupting from the sea one evening, and hear a high-pitched, ear-splitting hissing and whistling sound like that of escaping steam on another night. During a conversation on deck one night, Danzig discovers that Connerly is using laudanum to kill the pain of a lung disease which he is keeping secret from Hanson because it might interfere with his diving abilities. Danzig informs Connerly of Laura's time in the mental institution, calling into question the veracity of her story about the pearls. The Borgheses, Connerly, Charley, Rigby, and Toshi confront Hanson about Laura's mental state, but Hanson assures them that Laura's story about the Arianna is true. Connerly takes so much laudanum that he hallucinates one night, attacks one of the pearl divers, and assaults several crewmen coming to her aid before they can subdue him. On Hanson's orders, the Batavia Queens crew suspends Connerly in a slatted box above the main deck so that he will pose no danger to others aboard