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National Geographic : 1960 May
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year when we dynamite the stuff for salvage, I'll save you a piece." On an impulse I turned to Kemal. "Prom ise me you won't touch the bronze wreck until I get to see it," I blurted. "I'll pay you double the scrap value, by weight, of everything we recover from her." Where I'd get the money I didn't know. Nor had I any idea, at the moment, how I'd be able to promote the expedition to hunt for the underwater wreck. Summer passed. I returned to the United States, thoughts of the bronze wreck and my impulsive promise to Kemal a nagging voice in the back of my mind. Then, through an archeologist friend in New York, I met Drayton Cochran. Air Hose Makes a Necklace Cochran is a New York yachtsman who owns the Little Vigilant, a steel-hulled, 70 foot auxiliary ketch (page 700). His son, John, and a friend, John Righter, were experienced skin divers. Another friend, Stan Waterman, was a true professional and an underwater photographer as well. So we formed a team. Objective: a cruise in Turkish waters, with the hope of finding the bronze wreck at Cape Gelidonya. In June of 1959 we outfitted the Vig in Piraievs, Athens's ancient and still bustling seaport. From Miami, Boston, and New York came crates of air tanks, rubber suits, and the endless minutiae of diving paraphernalia. From Germany there was a new and power ful Bauer air compressor and a special Drager portable decompression chamber that was a bit of insurance everyone chipped in on willingly. The Cochran party stepped off a plane at Athens with airline flight bags filled with spare parts-and with 50-foot coils of air hose draped over their shoulders as necklaces. And an attractive last-minute arrival was Susan Phipps, a Floridian whose family knew the Cochrans. At last the Little Vigilant moved out of the harbor at Piraievs, her crew hosing the Ankle-deep in Ooze, John Cochran Reclaims Two Perfect Amphorae Standard container for the ancient wine trade, each amphora held seven or eight gallons. A Rhodian vessel foundering here some 2,000 years ago carried an estimated four thousand jars to the bottom. 698 SUSANPHIPPS
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