The divers from that boat descend, intending to free the anchor, then find their way to the wrecksite. But by the time they reach the anchor it has freed itself and they are mid-water, with the bottom visible below but too deep. They free swim, following the slope up to shallower water. Once they are at 35m, they profile along the sand in the hope of finding the site. But after 12 minutes they still haven't found it, although at the edge of their vision something appears to be sticking out of the sand.
Knives are unsheathed and a quick scrape of the protuberance reveals it to be made of bronze.
Not likely, and as it had been the second deep dive of the day, we would have to wait until the following day to confirm the find. Such was the accuracy of our transits that the first pair of divers into the water the next morning confirmed the find within two minutes of leaving the surface, after which another five pairs of divers photographed or cleared away some of the sand around the cannon. Due to the lack of recompression facilities and no prospect of evacuation because the island has no airfield we restricted ourselves to a 40m maximum and no decompression diving, save for precautionary stops. We reported the find to the Governor of the island and after some discussion it was decided that we could recover the cannon an exciting but daunting prospect for us. After all, while we had all carried out lifting exercises before, no one had done one on something so valuable, or under so much scrutiny.