14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 48 



to prove to the writer that this island was the original Guanahani ; 

 the topography and archeological findings did that. 



2. The expedition 



Four hundred and sixty-seven years after the historic discovery 

 of Christopher Columbus, as the sun set at 5 :27 p.m. on October 

 21, 1959, a small Columbus Expedition had coasted southwest by 

 south from the harbor at the north, on the outside of Bolas Reefs 

 along the entire eastern shore of San Salvador. Aboard the 110-foot 

 M.V. Drake, 11 was the regular crew with the late Capt. Claudia 

 Storr at the wheel ; Capt. Enos Collie was in charge of the logsline ; 

 Lt. William Mohin, Commander of the United States Coast Guard 

 Loran Station on the island, sighted latitude shots with Capt. Claude 

 D. Stephenson, AAF, Commander of the United States Guided 

 Missile Range there. Also on board was Pastor Paul Ward, a native 

 who, although 80 years old, has never missed a trip with the writer. 



Staying 3^ miles from shore, then west by south until High Cay 

 was abeam to starboard, we sighted latitude shots to establish the 

 position of the M.V. Drake by means of a quadrant similar tO one 

 Columbus might have used in 1492, 18 but compared and checked with 

 an aircraft A8A bubble sextant. At High Cay, position was estab- 

 lished, taking the average of shots sighted, which was 23°56±1'. 19 

 In an hour and three-quarters, from Sea-Dog Channel at the north 

 to High Cay, the logsline had read 16 knots. From this point the 

 course was due east in order to be 28 nautical miles 20 from shore at 

 10 o'clock (Bowditch, 1958. p. 26). 



The M.V. Drake was estimated to be 2\ miles offshore at the 

 beginning of the run-out, 21 and at 9:45 p.m. the logsline read 2A\ 



17 The Government boat that comes to San Salvador once a week, owned by 

 Sir George Roberts. 



18 This quadrant was made by Lt. William Mohin, USCG, from solid ma- 

 hogany found on San Salvador, and is on view at the New World Museum. 



19 Lt. William Mohin, USCG, used a Marine quadrant; four readings gave 

 him 23° 54'. Capt. Claude Stephenson, AAF, checked this with an Aircraft 

 A8A bubble sextant; three readings gave 23° 57'. 



-"Captain Stephenson worked with the writer (1959-60) in several projects of 

 exploration, one of which was to determine the length of mile Columbus could 

 have used when he referred to 4 miles in a league in the two logs he is supposed to 

 have kept. It is hoped that a pamphlet will be published in the future with charts 

 explaining the two logs: one using the Roman mile of 4,858.59 US feet; the 

 other using the Mediterranean mile of 4,035.42 US feet attributed to the Greeks. 



23 From the ship's Log. 



