to grow."
Lindsay noted the empty bags of sugar in the trash barrel. He
nodded.
"Adding sugar to the water increases the specific gravity.
Voila-the plant remains float and we don't have to use chemicals
toxic to the environment."
"Interesting. I hadn't heard of using sugar. I thought you were
making whiskey."
He laughed. "It's a relatively recent method. A good thing for this place, otherwise we'd have to do the chemical floatation somewhere else." He grinned. "The biology people are kind of picky
about their island."
"I'll bet. By the way, I'm Lindsay Chamberlain."
"Isaac Jones, not related to the lady pirate. I heard she came to
the site."
Lindsay nodded. "She has a presence, for sure. Where are you
from?"
"University of South Carolina, same place as Nate and Sarah.
You're from UGA. I've heard of you. Jeff calls you the Angel of
Death."
"Yes, but I'm on holiday."
Isaac laughed and scooped out a sieveful of carbon remains and
placed them on a drying rack.
Lindsay wandered a few feet to where three tanks sat by the
wall. Two tanks contained a barrel each. They were whole, made
with slats of wood with an iron hoop around the top and bottom.
What was in them? Water? Wine?
In another tank was the sea chest. Lindsay guessed it was about
two feet, by one foot, by one foot-not very big, but very heavyabout two hundred waterlogged pounds. She stooped down to get
a closer look and peered through the brine. There was a carving on
the lid-worn, beautiful, and faintly familiar-a crest perhaps? It
looked like some kind of bird perched in the vee of a tree. And
what was in this one? Lindsay wanted to reach in, open it, and dig
through the contents. A paper taped to the tank indicated where it
was from-the unit next to hers. It had been near where Lewis
found the chess pieces.
"I'll bet you want to open it, don't you?"
Lindsay glanced sideways at Bobbie, who had come in from the
dock. "You read my mind. What do you think's in it?"
"Probably decayed wet rags that used to be clothes," said
Bobbie. "You think it could be gold coins or something?"
"I don't know. Could be anything. It has a crest, so it might
belong to one of the officers."
They walked together to the house for the debriefing. Trey gave
a summary of the day's progress and discoveries. Francisco Lewis
himself uncovered the second human skeleton and, of course, the
twelve chess pieces, each possessing a magnetic base.
"A chess set like this was described in the diary as belonging to a passenger on the Estrella named Valerian. All of us need to keep
an eye out for this kind of matchup between the diary and our
finds." He paused and grinned. "This is one of the things that
makes this site so unique."
Trey also reported that the crew sifting the fill found amphibian
bones, part of a comb, a thimble, glass beads, numerous undistinguishable pieces of wood, and hundreds of small iron concretions.
Steven Nemo reported that they had taken up several planks of
deck and inner-wall timber in the stern.
"Considering the age of the ship, the timber is in remarkably
good condition," he reported.
Nate Hampton, who was grounded from even being topside
crew on the diving boats until he healed, and a couple of other
crew members had opened up a new section that they thought
might be the sterncastle.
Gina had found a silver filigreed object among the stone ballast
that Trey believed was a pomander, a device for holding spices to
be sniffed to mask disagreeable odors.
"Interesting that it was in the hold," he said. "It's definitely not
a sailor's personal property. It would have belonged to a higher
ranking officer or well-to-do passenger, and they didn't frequent
the hold. But a pomander is certainly something they would take
with them when they did."
Jeff grinned with pleasure, an expression Lindsay hadn't seen
in him before, as Trey told about him finding a helmet and sword
lying next to each other. Other finds included more
Lindsay noted the empty bags of sugar in the trash barrel. He
nodded.
"Adding sugar to the water increases the specific gravity.
Voila-the plant remains float and we don't have to use chemicals
toxic to the environment."
"Interesting. I hadn't heard of using sugar. I thought you were
making whiskey."
He laughed. "It's a relatively recent method. A good thing for this place, otherwise we'd have to do the chemical floatation somewhere else." He grinned. "The biology people are kind of picky
about their island."
"I'll bet. By the way, I'm Lindsay Chamberlain."
"Isaac Jones, not related to the lady pirate. I heard she came to
the site."
Lindsay nodded. "She has a presence, for sure. Where are you
from?"
"University of South Carolina, same place as Nate and Sarah.
You're from UGA. I've heard of you. Jeff calls you the Angel of
Death."
"Yes, but I'm on holiday."
Isaac laughed and scooped out a sieveful of carbon remains and
placed them on a drying rack.
Lindsay wandered a few feet to where three tanks sat by the
wall. Two tanks contained a barrel each. They were whole, made
with slats of wood with an iron hoop around the top and bottom.
What was in them? Water? Wine?
In another tank was the sea chest. Lindsay guessed it was about
two feet, by one foot, by one foot-not very big, but very heavyabout two hundred waterlogged pounds. She stooped down to get
a closer look and peered through the brine. There was a carving on
the lid-worn, beautiful, and faintly familiar-a crest perhaps? It
looked like some kind of bird perched in the vee of a tree. And
what was in this one? Lindsay wanted to reach in, open it, and dig
through the contents. A paper taped to the tank indicated where it
was from-the unit next to hers. It had been near where Lewis
found the chess pieces.
"I'll bet you want to open it, don't you?"
Lindsay glanced sideways at Bobbie, who had come in from the
dock. "You read my mind. What do you think's in it?"
"Probably decayed wet rags that used to be clothes," said
Bobbie. "You think it could be gold coins or something?"
"I don't know. Could be anything. It has a crest, so it might
belong to one of the officers."
They walked together to the house for the debriefing. Trey gave
a summary of the day's progress and discoveries. Francisco Lewis
himself uncovered the second human skeleton and, of course, the
twelve chess pieces, each possessing a magnetic base.
"A chess set like this was described in the diary as belonging to a passenger on the Estrella named Valerian. All of us need to keep
an eye out for this kind of matchup between the diary and our
finds." He paused and grinned. "This is one of the things that
makes this site so unique."
Trey also reported that the crew sifting the fill found amphibian
bones, part of a comb, a thimble, glass beads, numerous undistinguishable pieces of wood, and hundreds of small iron concretions.
Steven Nemo reported that they had taken up several planks of
deck and inner-wall timber in the stern.
"Considering the age of the ship, the timber is in remarkably
good condition," he reported.
Nate Hampton, who was grounded from even being topside
crew on the diving boats until he healed, and a couple of other
crew members had opened up a new section that they thought
might be the sterncastle.
Gina had found a silver filigreed object among the stone ballast
that Trey believed was a pomander, a device for holding spices to
be sniffed to mask disagreeable odors.
"Interesting that it was in the hold," he said. "It's definitely not
a sailor's personal property. It would have belonged to a higher
ranking officer or well-to-do passenger, and they didn't frequent
the hold. But a pomander is certainly something they would take
with them when they did."
Jeff grinned with pleasure, an expression Lindsay hadn't seen
in him before, as Trey told about him finding a helmet and sword
lying next to each other. Other finds included more
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