spot because of its hundred-foot elevations, whereas the 

 northern part of AckHn was low and flat. 



By constantly checking the position of the two islands 

 on our radar screen, Ed was able to pinpoint the section 

 of water where he figured Columbus might have first 

 sighted Samana. Acklin was then twelve miles distant 

 and Samana thirteen, in almost opposite directions. Then 

 Captain Weems climbed to the crow's-nest, for, at these 

 distances, neither island was visible from the deck. 



"You're right," he shouted down to us. "There's 

 Samana off the starboard bow." He reported that there 

 was no sign of Acklin, even though we were a mile closer 

 to it. 



From there on, the course we had selected led toward 

 Samana and farther away from Acklin. Soon the whole 

 shore Hne of Samana could be seen from the deck by 

 eye. It covered at least 45 degrees of the horizon, and, 

 with its hundred-foot hills, looked like a large island. 



Ed was jubilant at this support of his theory. Even 

 Captain Weems appeared impressed, although he was 

 still unwilHng to grant that Verhoog might be wrong. Pete 

 said, "Well, we've got to admit it would certainly be logi- 

 cal for Columbus to have ended up at Samana." 



As we turned Sea Diver south to inspect low-lying 

 Acklin island, Verhoog's Fernandina, we argued the merits 

 of Verhoog's choice, which had taken Columbus from 

 Acklin to Great Inagua and then across the Columbus 

 banks to Cuba. Ed and I had felt convinced that Verhoog 

 was wrong ever since spring, when we had sailed past 

 Crooked island to Great Inagua on our way to Haiti. 

 Columbus's colorful description of events and the areas 

 involved just did not tally with Verhoog's selections. 



And then before we had sailed for three hours, 

 we saw an island to the east, toward which we 



316 Sea Diver 



