hama passages to the reef-bound shores of Cuba? How 

 could he have been so careless as to enter a reef-strewn 

 harbor at midnight, knowing only that on the far side he 

 would find an anchorage near a low, sandy shore? 



Had he celebrated too freely the past few days as he 

 entertained Guacanagari and his people in quiet Acul bay? 

 Could he and his men have been sleeping off the effects 

 of late hours and too much liquor, that he would risk his 

 ship in such a fashion? Ed and Captain Weems could offer 

 no other explanation. 



I proffered the lame excuse that perhaps Santa Maria 

 was following Nina, and that only the lead ship had car- 

 ried any pilots. Because she was a smaller ship with less 

 draft, Nina had either sailed over or skirted the reef with- 

 out her crew being aware of it, while Santa Maria, only a 

 few yards to port or starboard of her course, was unlucky 

 enough to go aground. 



We ceased our speculations as Ed checked the harbor 

 chart and then turned Sea Diver to follow the eastern shore 

 of the peninsula into the bay, where we could just discern 

 a white blotch at the base of high green mountains which 

 was the city of Cap Haitien. About three hundred yards to 

 our starboard the rocky hillside sloped steeply into the sea. 



Fortunately we saw the two black buoys on our star- 

 board bow in time. Checking with our chart, we found 

 that they marked the western edge of Le Grand Mouton 

 bank, a large shoal area directly in the center of the har- 

 bor entrance. How easy it would have been in the days 

 before the shoal was buoyed, to strike it, for the terrain, 

 with its steep banks leading down to the water's edge, 

 promised deep water for some distance out. Had Columbus 

 erred by striking this bank in the night, it would be un- 

 derstandable. But according to all accounts we had read, 

 the Santa Maria had been headed in a more easterly di- 

 rection across the harbor. 



168 Sea Diver 



