a glass-bottomed bucket, soon discovered an anchor ring 

 a short distance away. He shouted that he had found the 

 missing part, but then found that it was the top of a sec- 

 ond anchor, completely embedded in the shoal. More scout- 

 ing revealed a third anchor within the same area. They 

 were all of similar design and period, which Ed informed 

 us was eighteenth-century French. None of them, by a 

 long shot, could qualify as having come from the Santa 

 Maria, but they must have lain there nearly two hundred 

 years, since Haiti was a French possession. 



Our guide then directed us toward the nearby man- 

 grove shore. There, close to the narrow, sandy beach, which 

 was uncovered only at low tide, were the arms of three 

 more anchors jutting from the water, the remainder of them 

 entirely concealed in the sand. We gazed curiously at 

 them. 



Charlie told us that in the past this narrow strip of 

 beach had been a loading place for ships coming in for 

 the products of the countryside. This, then, explained the 

 presence of the quantities of small, round boulders in the 

 water. They were ballast which had been discharged over- 

 board when the ships had taken on cargo. Probably the 

 three anchors on the first shoal had served as moorings for 

 the same purpose. 



Regretfully Ed told Charhe that while these anchors 

 were very interesting, none of them was at all the kind we 

 were seeking. Did he know of any other very old anchors? 



Charlie reminded him that he had already told us of 

 one near the black-can buoy, coming into the harbor from 

 Point Picolet. He did not know whether it was very old. 

 He could only say it was a "difiFerent-looking" anchor. 



Ed said without enthusiasm. "Well, we might as well 

 take a look at it." 



We returned to Sea Diver and got her under way, 

 heading north toward the mouth of the harbor. We found 



Search for the Santa Maria 211 



