Three years later, in 1911, another expedition more powerfully equipped than any of its predecessors resumed the search which had been going on for over a century. Notwithstanding the fact that the position of the _Lutine_ was fairly well known, the obliteration of a landmark by a violent gale made it very difficult for the salvage men to find the wreck. The divers went down and searched the seabed vainly for a single sign of the old frigate. Not a spar was to be seen, not a rib of the hulk. Captain Gardiner, who was in charge of the treasure-seekers, was a man of resource. He realized full well what had happened. The sand of the treacherous banks had completely buried the _Lutine_, and before he could make the slightest attempt to salve the treasure he would have to locate her and dig her out of her grave. The problem of finding a wreck that lay buried deep in the silt would prove too much for any ordinary man, but Captain Gardiner was equal to the occasion. Among his equipment were some of the most powerful sand-pumps in existence, pumps capable of removing nearly a thousand tons of sand an hour. Dropping the end of one of these pumps to the seabed, he began sucking up the sand at a prodigious rate, cutting a deep channel right across the area in which the wreck lay. Slowly the pumps of the salvage ship devoured the sand and at last the salvors found the wreck buried 36 feet deep under a bank. The finding of the wreck was in itself a wonderful feat. If only the other difficulties could have been overcome as easily, the treasure by now would have been won. But all the time the divers had to contend with the most difficult set of currents in the world. A strong tide, always running, plays incredible pranks with the bottom hereabouts. The submerged sandbanks are almost like cliffs some thirty feet high, and the tide moulds them and remoulds them almost day by day. A vessel at dawn may anchor in a deep channel, and by night the tides in one of their playful moods may have poured tons and tons of sand into the channel, completely filling it and building up a sandbank on the very spot where the channel existed only a few hours previously. It will be realized how difficult this made salvage operations. The strong currents tended to wash the sand back directly it was removed, and the salvors were faced with what seemed like an endless struggle with the sea. They did not shirk the struggle; they went on dredging whenever the weather allowed, and they fought the tides most brilliantly by dumping the sand in such a position that it deflected the current right across the wreck. Thus there was a continual flow of water over the wreck to keep the site fairly clear and prevent the sand settling.