154 PICTURING MIRACLES 



beautiful harbor of Pago Pago on the Island of 

 Tutuila of American Samoa. 



To succeed took an enormous amount of prepara- 

 tory work and study. Knowing all the requirements 

 to make pictures, it meant adapting the cameras and 

 myself to the under-sea conditions and a firm resolve 

 to do and get results. The cameras must be pro- 

 tected from salt water, inside a waterproof metal 

 box and still allow me to do all the things necessary, 

 so I designed brass boxes for two motion, and one 

 still, cameras and then a graphite-lined double- 

 trapped stuffing box that was water-tight and still 

 allowed me to crank the cameras, focus them, set the 

 shutter, make the exposure and handle them almost 

 as well from the outside of the brass box as I could 

 on land. The still camera took 36 pictures i" x 1 1/ 2 " 

 on Panchromatic film at one loading, enough for 

 each under-sea trip. One of the cameras was motor- 

 driven, holding one hundred feet, the other was 

 fitted with a double magazine for natural color work, 

 although that special color method I was using at 

 that time was not successful on this trip. This cam- 

 era in its huge brass box weighed 170 pounds. On 

 land I could just lift it an inch or two under-sea 

 it weighed only about thirty pounds, and it was 

 really easier to put on its tripod than merely to lift 

 the camera on land. After the cameras were all 



