galleon to its death. I was much relieved when, at lunch- 

 time, the men decided to try a new solution to our prob- 

 lem. This time they planned to double-moor Sea Diver 

 right where she was within the reefs, so that she would 

 not be exposed to such seas as we had experienced the 

 previous night. 



We were now agreed that with secure anchorage we 

 would be safer in the more sheltered reef harbor than on 

 the open banks. 



By the time we had placed the second mooring in- 

 side the reef harbor and secured Sea Diver between the 

 two, the weather had cleared and the sea was flattening 

 out. We now had two anchors below, attached to chains 

 which in turn were attached to floating buoys, connected 

 to the bow of the ship with heavy line. If the wind blew 

 from one direction, Sea Diver would pull on only one 

 mooring, the other lying slack. If wind or tide shifted, the 

 other mooring would take the pull. If for any reason one 

 set of tackle failed, we would not be suddenly and un- 

 suspectingly carried upon the reefs, but would be held 

 by the second cable. 



With our minds temporarily freed from worry, we 

 went back to the wreck site that afternoon. Ed and Barney 

 had spent the morning digging at the rubble on the bot- 

 tom and examining it with the metal detector. 



Now, as they speculated over the advisability of fur- 

 ther dynamiting, Glenn, who had been searching in the 

 small boat with Vital, arrived to tell us he had spotted 

 another anchor on the ocean floor behind the "wreck" reef, 

 in line with our original yellow-flag buoy. 



Ed swam down in the Scott to examine it. He found 

 a very old anchor, so deeply imbedded in coral it would 

 be impossible to move it intact. It measured six feet in 

 length, with an arm spread of three feet. While it might 



The Silver Shoals 281 



