that Sea Diver's position was south of Turks island and 

 west of the Mouchoir banks. It was an inescapable fact that 

 Sea Diver had cut a course directly through the northern- 

 most part of the Mouchoir banks, which are strewn with 

 ugly reefs similar to those on the Silver banks. 



After verifying his position and putting Sea Diver on 

 a corrected course for her destination at Turks island, Ed 

 turned the watch over to Kemp and set out to discover 

 what had occurred to put Sea Diver in such a near- 

 disastrous position. 



The autopilot had acted up several times since the 

 start of the long voyage, and, because the ship was so far 

 from marine service of any kind, Ed had been obliged to 

 repair it himself. So far, he had been able to remedy the 

 trouble each time. He had noted that an iron drive chain 

 had been used in its assembly and wondered at it. While 

 they were on the Silver shoals, he had taken the autopilot 

 apart once again. This time, unknown to him, the iron 

 drive chain had magnetized the compass, causing a fifteen- 

 degree error in its reading. 



The more he considered the situation, the more he 

 reahzed how narrow had been their escape. For, had they 

 plowed upon one of these rocky heads in the dark, Sea 

 Diver would have sunk almost instantly. It would have 

 been impossible to launch Reef Diver from the listing 

 deck, and although there were adequate rubber rafts and 

 escape equipment, the crew would have found themselves 

 adrift fifty miles from the nearest land, with little chance 

 of being rescued in these little-traveled waters. 



Fortunately Sea Diver had been spared to carry out 

 the remainder of our plans for the expedition — to revisit 

 Cap Haitien and to trace the course which Columbus may 

 have pursued on his first voyage through the Bahama is- 

 lands. We were indeed lucky. 



296 Sea Diver 



