I learned at dinner that the "silver" bars in the tempt- 

 ing pile had turned out to be only iron ballast. Ed said that 

 the wreck was that of an early paddle-wheel steamer with 

 sails. The square, boxlike object had turned out to be the 

 boiler. Because of the large amount of brass and copper to 

 be seen, he figured the ship must have been British, these 

 finer metals being a well-known characteristic of English 

 shipbuilding. 



Captain Weems was much intrigued by a copper ob- 

 ject which he had tentatively identified as a strange kind 

 of depth finder. Using a small charge of dynamite to free 

 it, he had emerged with what appeared to be a lead sound- 

 ing weight and a cluster of copper rods, each two feet 

 long, and hooked, so that they folded back and forth upon 

 each other. His interest was aroused more than ever when 

 he found that there were sixty-six of these rods, measuring 

 an exact twenty- two fathoms. He could scarcely wait to get 

 it back to Annapohs to seek help in identifying the depth 

 finder. 



There was no doubt from their eager conversation 

 that Sea Diver's crew had had a most satisfactory after- 

 noon, although their morning search of the reefs had still 

 failed to produce any signs of the Santa Maria. 



Peter Stackpole urged that they return to the wreck 

 the next day, for he wanted to get some underwater-camera 

 shots of the divers in action. How about raising one of 

 the anchors? he suggested. M. Beck thought this would be 

 a fine idea, for the prefect had already expressed a desire 

 for an old anchor to decorate the park by the sea wall. 



I Hstened to their talk enviously, for although we had 

 been in Haiti for two weeks at this point, I had not yet 

 been underwater. I wondered if my bandaged side would 

 allow me to make a dive the next day; then desperately de- 

 termined to make the attempt. 



Search for the Santa Maria 205 



