It seemed scarcely possible that the solid-rock monu- 

 ment which reared itself hke a small fortress from the water 

 on Sea Diver's starboard bow was the only terra firma to be 

 seen in any direction. Yet there it stood, alone in all that 

 vast expanse of ocean. This was Memory rock, designated 

 on Captain Phips's chart as "the Rock"; the same rock 

 which our treasure-hunting predecessor had used as a key 

 to map the locations of the three wrecks we had come to 

 find. 



We had left West End, on the tip of Grand Bahama 

 island, late that morning. Setting a course approximately 

 north-northwest, close to where the turquoise waters of 

 the shallow banks meet the deep blue of the Gulf Stream, 

 we had sailed past a few small cays and reefs which gradu- 

 ally dwindled, then disappeared entirely, leaving only the 

 contrasting color of the deeps and shallows to mark the 

 division between the banks and the deep water of the Ba- 

 hama canal. 



There were six of us aboard — Jane and Barney, en- 

 thusiastic as always over this new underwater adventure; 

 Dick Burrows, part Spanish, part Indian, whom we had 

 picked up at Sandy Point earlier on our trip to guide us 

 to some wrecks with which he was familiar in the vicinity 

 of the Abacos; and Clayton, as much at home beneath the 

 water as in his own back yard. 



Now, as we gazed at the rock, we planned our strategy. 

 According to Phips's chart, the copper wreck lay a few 

 miles north of the Rock, well inside the outer edge of the 

 reef. Eight miles north of it, the Genuees ship had come 

 to grief. Another ten miles beyond, somewhere in the area 

 of Matanilla shoal, lay the plate wreck. Within the line of 

 reefs, our chart showed sufificiently deep water to allow Sea 

 Diver to pass, but we had not traveled these waters long 

 before we realized we must be constantly on the lookout 

 for numerous places where the sandy bottom had shal- 



110 Sea Diver 



