Strong northeast winds and heavy seas had made 

 our last trip to these northern reefs a wild experience. 

 This time, too, the winds were blowing vigorously, but 

 fortunately from the southeast, thereby promising calmer 

 waters in the vicinity of the reefs. We soon had Reef 

 Diver launched and the three of us set out in the compell- 

 ing heat of the July noon to cross the intervening five 

 miles of water. In place of the terrifying, breaker- 

 drenched reefs which had frightened me so on our previ- 

 ous visit, we now found ourselves approaching innocent- 

 looking patches of brown rock immersed in the clearest of 

 turquoise waters. Ed guided Reef Diver among them, 

 sometimes over them when there was sufiGcient depth. 

 Soon we were heading toward a scattering of dry rocks 

 which I remembered only as one forlorn coral head that 

 had appeared and disappeared in foaming masses of waves 

 and spray. 



Then we were in the open ocean, but this time it was 

 calm, for the reefs behind us acted as a barrier to the 

 southeast wind. We were even able to open the forward 

 ports without danger of a salt-water deluge while Ed and 

 I watched the bottom through the glass plates. Willy, at 

 the wheel, steered Reef Diver straight toward the area 

 we had searched before, a large clear expanse about two 

 hundred yards from the dry rocks, bordered with coral 

 heads just beneath the surface of the water. 



Reef Diver circled and circled. Ed and I concentrated 

 our gaze upon the wide ridges of pure white sand which 

 patterned the bottom beneath us. Occasionally, angular 

 edges of coral rock, well decked in living green-brown sea 

 growth, tricked us into imagining cannon shapes, so long 

 and narrow were they. We searched for nearly an hour 

 before concluding that any remains of a shipwreck here 

 could only be buried deep beneath the sand. 



So we anchored Reef Diver, and Ed and Willy went 



328 Sea Diver 



