Vital was sitting in Wee Diver's stem, holding his 

 oar like a paddle, guiding the httle boat through the tre- 

 mendous waves which chased us astern. On his face was 

 the rapt look I had seen him wear when shooting rapids 

 in a canoe in his native Canada, while the boat coursed 

 from side to side hke an aquaplane. I marveled at this 

 French-Canadian, who, until a few years before, had 

 never been out of the northern bush. How quickly he had 

 made the transition from forest to sea, accustoming himself 

 to life on a heaving deck, and mastering the mechanics of 

 the intricate equipment aboard Sea Diver. He was indis- 

 pensable to the success of our voyage. 



Captain Weems was not to be seen. He was evidently 

 on his stomach again, looking through the glass, deter- 

 mined not to miss a square inch of bottom. 



By the time we had rounded the end of the reef and 

 returned to Sea Diver, the sea was too rough to risk work- 

 ing the outer reef any more that day. Back in port, Ed and 

 Vital set out in Reef Diver to make further tests with the 

 magnetometer, which they hoped to use on Le Grand 

 Mouton reef tlie next day. Captain Weems and I, escorted 

 by M. Beck, hunted up the Dominican consul in order 

 to secure papers for our eventual arrival in Puerto Plata, 

 for we planned to leave the following week for the Silver 

 shoals. 



We returned from this errand just in time to welcome 

 aboard Ambassador Davis, who, with his wife and party, 

 was making an official visit to Cap Haitien that weekend. 

 The ambassador had heard about our discovery of the 

 Columbus-type anchor and evidently wanted to see it. 

 That night we had dinner with the Davises and their group. 



We started out the next morning on our final day of 

 search. It was our last opportunity to locate the Santa 

 Maria before leaving for the Silver shoals. Since we had 

 found the ancient anchor on Le Grand Mouton reef, we 



220 Sea Diver 



