and there keep it about a quarter of a minute," was prob- 

 ably one of the first records of an attempt to find a method 

 to compensate for sudden changes of pressure on the hu- 

 man body. 



A night of wind and storm followed our discovery of 

 the tantalizing bits of ship's wreckage. Sea Diver rolled 

 and bucked at her mooring, threatening to wrench her- 

 self free from the coral-head anchorage on the banks. Her 

 unrest finally led Ed to set a watch for the remainder 

 of the night. Those of us who stayed in bed struggled to 

 keep from being tossed out and slept but fitfully. When 

 morning finally came, the seas were still rolling in great 

 waves, while the wind blew out of the northeast at twenty- 

 five knots. We decided it would be useless to try to pre- 

 pare breakfast, to say nothing of attempting to eat it, un- 

 til we had moved into the shelter of the reef harbor. 



While we were freeing the heavy hawser which held 

 Sea Diver to the mooring buoy, there was a sudden ex- 

 clamation from Glenn. He held up a section of the moor- 

 ing hne. Two badly frayed places within a few feet of 

 each other revealed near tragedy. Upon closer inspection 

 we found that in both spots only one strand still held. Al- 

 though the length of chain had protected our anchor 

 line from the coral, the constant sharp tugs of the heavy 

 boat in the rolling seas had almost severed the thick rope 

 which joined the chain to Sea Diver. 



As we headed toward our reef anchorage, where the 

 turbulent seas could be seen breaking clear over the pro- 

 tecting reefs, and the usual blue-green waters were trans- 

 formed to a steely blue-gray under the overcast skies, we 

 were very sober. The discovery of the damaged hawser 

 brought home to us anew what a close game we were 

 playing with the same fate that had carried the Spanish 



280 Sea Diver 



