the detector which would indicate "gold," "silver," "iron" 

 or just "tin cans," and it was imperative to examine each 

 separate indication for fear of missing something of value. 



During the previous month, while Pete was with us, 

 he and Ed had been negotiating with the Navy to obtain 

 the loan of a magnetometer-gradiometer. This instrument 

 had been developed during World War II to aid in the de- 

 tection of wrecked ships and other equipment which had 

 gone to the bottom. It was a very sensitive device, with 

 much greater power than the metal detector we had been 

 using. The hand detector which Ed had contrived per- 

 formed only within a few feet of an object, whereas Ed 

 hoped this new instrument would pick up the presence of 

 wrecks on the bottom when towed on the surface of the 

 water behind Sea Diver. 



The magnetometer finally arrived, a four-foot-long 

 cylindrical aluminum tube, larger at one end than at the 

 other. There was also an indicator box, its face dotted 

 with dials and switches. Ed and BiU spent several days 

 attempting to put it in adjustment. It was a very delicate 

 instrument, one which the Navy technicians had long ago 

 given up in despair, we learned later. No doubt that is 

 why they were so willing to let Ed experiment with it. 

 Had he known then what he knows so well today, he prob- 

 ably would have shipped it right back to them. 



I should have no reason for complaint; I was only an 

 interested bystander. But of all the things that have tried 

 my patience throughout our years of diving, that magne- 

 tometer tlireatened it most. 



In the first place, the weather was stifling hot that 

 summer. Without the magnetometer to delay us, we 

 would have been at sea, where, even though the tempera- 

 ture was high, the winds would have served to evaporate 

 the sticky perspiration which enveloped us constantly at 

 the dock. With the sun beating down upon her painted 



The Florida Keys 71 



