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THE RHODES CALCULATOR 89<br />
soles of his boots, the diver at the end of the air tube was on his<br />
way to the deep.<br />
The lead weights which pulled them down were good old<br />
historic metal, mostly from Roman foundries. All Roman ships<br />
used wooden anchors, some as many as six, with lead crossbars,<br />
and the standard Roman galley had as much as 2 or 3<br />
tons of lead. Mediterranean fishermen and divers had divested<br />
the sunken wrecks long ago of every scrap of metal to build their<br />
own boats and anchors, and the Condos vessel was no exception.<br />
The historic moment started when the second in command on<br />
the boat, Mercurio, gave order to one of the oldest divers,<br />
Elias<br />
Stadiatis, to plop into the water. The deck boy called out loud<br />
the air-pump manometer readings, and when the needle indicated<br />
15 fathoms a sand hourglass was turned over to time the<br />
descent for another full minute. When sand ran out, the depth of<br />
the shelf was reached and the pump pressure indicated a depth<br />
of 30 fathoms—the limit at which a diver can work for five minutes.<br />
But Stadiatis did not stay down his allocated time. A few<br />
moments after reaching the bottom he yanked the descent cord<br />
in panic and started his ascent. Condos and Mercurio both ran to<br />
help him get out, because no old, experienced diver would do<br />
such a thing unless there was real danger or emergency. When<br />
Statiatis' face appeared through the visor of the helmet he<br />
looked like a corpse, pale and with bulging eyes. The metal<br />
casque came off and Stadiatis could barely speak. He stammered<br />
something about naked women and horses but was otherwise incoherent.<br />
He mentioned the Holy Virgin in the same breath and<br />
made no sense.<br />
Finally Condos got mad and ordered him to calm down and<br />
tell exactly what had happened. Stadiatis did his best, but that<br />
wasn't much. He insisted that many horses, naked women, and<br />
women in flowing robes were on the bottom and that most of the<br />
pretty faces were pock-marked. Captain Condos was a calm and<br />
practical man and would not buy this fooFs story. So he put on<br />
his own diving suit and went down himself. Mercurio was holding<br />
the descent line, and after a minute of descent he felt one<br />
strong pull—the signal to slacken the cable and that everything<br />
was all right.
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