wrong reef after all. Why not try the other one? We care- 

 fully combed the waters in front of it. 



All this time the sea was becoming rougher. The tide 

 was coming in, and great rollers were breaking on the 

 coral, making it more and more impossible to approach 

 very near. Kemp insisted that the ballast was close in on 

 the other reef, but so close that he dared not guide the 

 boat near it for fear of being caught in the breakers. We 

 headed in that direction, and Ed and Captain Weems took 

 a turn at watching the bottom. 



Suddenly there were excited shouts from inside the 

 cabin. Captain Weems and Ed had spotted something. 

 Kemp maneuvered the boat back over the spot as I hurried 

 into the cabin to see what they were looking at. 



"Two cannon," they exulted. We cruised back and 

 forth while they examined them from above. 



"They're not old enough to be from the Santa Maria," 

 Ed said. "Must be another wreck." 



That was disappointing, for if we were near the ballast 

 which we had spotted on Sunday, then it and these cannon 

 could have come from the same wreck. In that case it was 

 probably not the Santa Maria's ballast we had seen previ- 

 ously. We would never know until we located the pile of 

 rocks. By this time it had become too rough to anchor and 

 dive on the cannon, so Kemp marked the location with a 

 yellow buoy and we headed back to Sea Diver. 



Bill and Clayton were waiting at the rail to greet us, 

 but neither appeared very happy. The ship performed a 

 slow rock and roll the rest of the day, the wind building up 

 to thirty knots from the east. Over Cap Haitien the skies 

 became black and stormy. We reluctantly concluded that 

 once more we would have to spend the night behind the 

 reefs. The boys retired to their cabins, not the least inter- 

 ested in preparation for dinner. 



Search for the Santa Maria 191 



