A few days later, Sea Diver was back at her dock in 

 Marathon. Pete and Nelhe had left for home; and Ed, 

 Robby and I, with Bill and Ethel Thompson, were about 

 to start out on an exploring trip to the ivory wreck. As 

 soon as Robby had finished filling the two gasoline barrels 

 on top of the deckhouse, we would be ready to take off. 



Ethel and I were chatting on the aft deck when we 

 heard a muffled shout forward. I looked up just in time to 

 see Robby tumble head first from the deckhouse roof. He 

 struck the outer rail as he fell and crumpled on the deck. 

 We rushed to him to find him grimacing with pain as he 

 tried unsuccessfully to rise. An hour later our unfortunate 

 helper was on his way to a hospital in Miami. Later that 

 day we learned that Robby had broken three ribs, close 

 to the spine, and would be laid up for some time. So, 

 minus our helper, we left Marathon that evening and 

 anchored behind Little Sister island, where we would be 

 only a short distance from the wreck site and could make 

 an early start the next morning. 



We found the location without any difficulty, thanks 

 to Bill's knowledge of the bottom in this area. The two 

 men first made a thorough search of the now-famihar 

 spot with the metal detector. They had worked out quite 

 a system for their explorations, Ed swimming along with 

 the detector while Bill followed behind, marking each 

 spot that showed the presence of metal with a brick. 

 When they had thus charted many places, they started 

 imcovering them one by one, digging into the sand with 

 a crowbar, or if they suspected something fragile, scoop- 

 ing it out with their bare hands. 



In the course of their survey they came across an 

 ivory tusk which had been overlooked the year before. 

 They also brought up the bronze shoulder plates from two 

 old muskets. All that could be found of the guns them- 



The Florida Keys 69 



