to me in half-concealed excitement, "How would you like 

 to go to the Bahamas?" 



I was amazed; for if it was impossible to dive from 

 Eryholme close to the Florida keys, how did he expect to 

 take her across the Gulf Stream? And did he expect to 

 find the water any less rough once he got there? 



But when he had told me the story behind his ques- 

 tion, I understood his enthusiasm. 



The two men claimed to know positively of a wreck 

 on the north Bahama banks, laden with brass cannon. 

 There were at least fifteen cannon, perhaps many more, 

 buried beneath the sand. They had a lead on a Bahamian 

 who lived in West End, on Grand Bahama island, and 

 who, they were certain, could guide us to the location. 



It sounded too good to be true. 



Old iron cannon were important in point of historical 

 significance, and we had been happy to find them. If prop- 

 erly cared for, they possessed value for the collector. As 

 scrap, they were worth very httle. It appalled us to think 

 of the hundreds of ancient guns which had been found by 

 salvagers in these Florida waters and melted down for 

 scrap during the war years. Not only because we grieved 

 for the loss of the cannon, but because their disappearance 

 also removed the only means of tracing the locations of 

 many ancient wrecks. 



Unlike the perishable iron cannon, which were usu- 

 ally abandoned once they had gone to the bottom, brass 

 cannon were as highly prized several centuries ago as 

 they are today, and every efi^ort was made to salvage them 

 at the time of their sinking. Consequently, today it is al- 

 most unheard of to find any on the Florida reefs. Not only 

 would these brass cannon in the Bahamas be very valu- 

 able to the salvagers as old brass; they would be the 

 choicest of finds for the Smithsonian collection as well as 



The Florida Keys 37 



