82 CHALLENGER 



and steaming slowly out the way she had come in, the sounding 

 boat feeling her way ahead of the ship. 



Next day the ship's divers were able to report that it had only 

 been a graze and that no lasting damage had been done. It was just 

 another of those hazards to which a surveying vessel is exposed 

 when searching for an anchorage in uncharted waters. 



The 2 I St April saw Challenger returning to England, the survey 

 of Muhammad Qol completed. She did not know it then, but 

 her peacetime surveying was over for many a long day to come. 



