area where it would be impossible to provide ourselves 

 with many of the necessities of civilization. There were 

 many special problems which must be solved ahead of 

 time. It would be no easy task to foresee and to equip Sea 

 Diver with all the essentials which would be required for 

 months away from our mechanized civilization. 



For instance, it was necessary to install extra water 

 tanks and to investigate a method of purifying our water 

 supply for the time when we would have to refill our tanks 

 from the questionable water sources to be found in the 

 remote islands. We would need extra parts for engines and 

 machinery. 



Once our supply of fresh meat, eggs and vegetables 

 was used up, we would have to depend upon less perish- 

 able foods which could be stored aboard indefinitely, for 

 we would be far from land for weeks at a time, and only 

 the simplest requirements would be obtainable from the 

 small ports which we might visit in between. We must be 

 provided with medicines and first-aid equipment to take 

 care of any emergency, for at the Silver shoals we would 

 not even have radio communication. 



Ed felt that the newly installed radar and sonar, as 

 well as a Bludworth depthometer which was to be installed, 

 would be of great assistance in our navigation and search. 

 In addition to assembling a complete set of charts of the 

 entire area, he ordered special charts drawn up for the 

 loran, thus making it possible to use this instrument in a 

 section of the ocean to which it had never before been 

 adapted. 



Two large rubber life rafts with escape equipment 

 were added to Sea Diver's gear, and the ever-faithful glass- 

 bottomed skiff was provided with two new outboard mo- 

 tors. But the real addition to our boating equipment was 

 a shallow-draft eighteen-foot cruiser which Ed designed 



148 Sea Diver 



