"Come up to the oflBce as soon as you can. I've got 

 something to show you," he repUed. 



He had indeed. Coral-crusted cannon balls, a bat- 

 tered pewter cup and tanker, ivory tusks that were yel- 

 lowed and flaking, worn and corroded coins and metal 

 buttons — and a tale of diving on the remains of long- 

 disintegrated sunken ships not far from the shores of 

 Key Vaca, on which Marathon is built. 



We sat with Bill and his vivacious wife, Ethel, far into 

 that night, while they regaled us with their story of ex- 

 ploring these sunken wrecks together with a couple from 

 Cleveland, whose hobby was skin diving with their chil- 

 dren during their vacations. Bill said the pair were or- 

 ganizing a full-sized expedition that spring for a thorough 

 investigation of three wrecks within the area, which he 

 had spotted previously while fishing in the offshore waters. 



"They have a cannon that they raised," Bill said, 

 "and you should see the brass basins, and the coins and 

 utensils they took home with them." He lowered his voice. 

 "There are some metal bars out there on one of the wrecks, 

 at Looe key. They look suspiciously like silver bars. We 

 couldn't break them loose from the coral without some 

 equipment." 



Ed and I were both intrigued. We envied these lucky 

 people from Cleveland who had stumbled upon this en- 

 ticing adventure under the sea. I wished that I were a 

 better swimmer. I wished that some such adventure 

 might happen to us. I was only wishing. 



Not so my husband. I had forgotten that, at the be- 

 ginning of the season, Ed had stowed a heavy metal div- 

 ing helmet and a crude hand-operated compressor in 

 the forward hatch. He, too, had begun to consider the 

 possibilities of diving, although I think his main reason 

 at that time was the advantage of being able to make 



The Florida Keys 5 



