their dead ancestors, gradually building layer upon layer 

 as they labor to create that one particular design to which 

 a Greater Being has assigned them. There has always been 

 great speculation as to how fast coral grows. No one 

 knows exactly, for the rate of growth varies greatly ac- 

 cording to location, temperature, the clarity and move- 

 ment of the water, and the type of coral. It is believed 

 that the coral of the Great Barrier reefs formed at a rate 

 of three feet per thousand years. 



It seemed, therefore, that before a sufficient coating 

 of calcerous growth could form on any part of the wooden 

 ship which we were seeking, unless that part were sohd 

 metal, the structure necessarily would have broken up. If 

 what remained of the wreckage were not washed away by 

 the action of the seas, and if it lay upon or very near the 

 reefs, it no doubt could have been gradually enveloped 

 by these persistently building corals. On the other hand, 

 if it had become buried in the sand and thus protected 

 from coral or worms, there was every possibility that it 

 might survive the centuries. However, there seemed httle 

 likelihood of this, for the coral was too closely spaced upon 

 the bottom, and the sand was too thin to cover much of 

 anything. 



I wondered if perhaps broken sections of the galleon 

 lay imprisoned even now in the coral rock beneath me. 

 For, as the staghoms and more solid types of brain corals 

 had attained their growth in centuries past, heavy storms 

 or earthquakes would have caused them to break from 

 their foundations and collapse into the reef to add their 

 bulk, thus speeding up the process of concealment. 



Even though such a thing might have happened, I 

 doubted that in the number of years which elapsed be- 

 tween the sinking and Phips's discovery of the wreck, 

 any large section of the ship could have become com- 



The Silver Shoals 273 



