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Knight's eyes took on a foxy look "What are you cooking up?"

"Will you go along?" Pitt crowded him

"Yes," Knight stated firmly "But only if you prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that's a thousand-year-old shipwreck "Then it's a deal"

"How are you going to do it?"

"Si to dive under the ice and come up into the hull"

Cork Si an access hole through the one-meter-thick ice sheet with chain saws They quarried multiple squares until they reached the final layer They broke through with a sledgehae

When he was satisfied the hole was clear, Simon walked a few steps and entered a small canvas-covered shelter The interior was heated and war equip away, its exhaust vented to the outside

Lily and the other archaeologists were sitting at a folding table in one corner of the shelter,them with Pitt as he suited up for the dive

"Ready when you are," Simon announced

"Another fivethe valve asseulator on a Mark I navy diver's mask

Pitt had slipped a special dry suit over long underwear made of heavy nylon pile for thermal insulation Next he pulled on a hood and then a quick-release weight belt while trying to absorb a cram course in ancient ship construction

"In early hts favored cedar and cypress, and often pine, for the planking," lectured Gronquist "They mostly used oak for the keel"

"I won't be able to tell one wood from another," Pitt said

"Then study the hull The planks were tightly joined by tenons and mortises Many ships had lead plates laid on their underwater surface

The hardware may be of iron or copper"