and quantities of fresh water to rinse the salt from our 

 diving equipment. 



Ed had installed a loran, a long-range radio air- 

 navigation instrument developed during the war, in the 

 wheelhouse. Although it was used chiefly in airplanes at 

 that time, Ed figured it would be helpful in our searches 

 of waters beyond the sight of land, because with it we 

 would be able to pinpoint a spot and return to it within 

 very close limits. This instrument would augment the 

 Bendix fathometer installed the previous year. 



The diving paraphernalia now included a twelve- 

 cubic-foot air compressor, its 120-pound capacity enabhng 

 us to use air-driven tools either on board or underwater, as 

 well as providing ample air for three divers at one time. 

 Ed had put considerable thought into choosing and ar- 

 ranging his diving equipment so that it could be put into 

 operation quickly, Mdth a minimum crew. The air hoses 

 had been wound on reels so that, after attaching the div- 

 ing mask, the diver could go overboard and without as- 

 sistance from the deck pull out any length of hose he 

 might require up to two hundred feet. He could reach a 

 still greater distance by connecting the hose from the 

 permanent reel on deck to a second reel on one of the 

 small boats, which could be anchored two hundred feet 

 from Sea Diver. This reel, in turn, would allow two 

 divers to operate from it with air supplied from the first 

 hose. 



Sea Diver now carried a pair of small, flat-bottomed 

 boats, sixteen by four feet, with a high freeboard. Each 

 boat was equipped with a two-foot-square glass panel for 

 underwater observation. The smaller of the two boats 

 nested perfectly inside the larger one when stored on deck, 

 and it was fully equipped with a diving reel, air tank and 

 reduction valve, so that with the addition of a compressor 



78 Sea Diver 



