Undersea Fleet: Release the Craken!

Undersea Fleet by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson

At the tail end of Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson’s Undersea Quest (1954), our narrator, 18-year-old Jim Eden, has been reinstated into the U.S.S.A. (U.S. Sub-Sea Academy), after having been forced to resign under mysteriously trumped-up charges. The authors’ fans would have to wait a few years to find out what, if anything, might happen next, but ultimately they were rewarded with a follow-up volume that was, if anything, even more action packed and exciting than the first had been! And that second novel, Undersea Fleet, would soon turn out to be merely the centerpiece of the triptych known today as THE UNDERSEA TRILOGY.

Undersea Fleet, released in 1956, first saw the light of day, as had its predecessor, as a hardcover book from the U.S. publisher Gnome Press, and with another charming cover by the great Ed “Emsh” Emshwiller. Ballantine/Del Rey would reissue the novel in paperback form in 1971, ’77 and ’83, while internationally, the authors’ book would see editions in Germany (’59 and ’79), Italy (’60), the U.K. (’67) and Mexico (’70). In 1992, the U.S. imprint Baen would release the trilogy in one compact 501-page paperback … a most economical deal for readers today. And for those readers who like that kind of thing, I believe an ebook of Undersea Fleet was released by Gateway/Orion in 2013. (Personally speaking, those ebooks usually wind up giving me both eyestrain and a headache!) The bottom line is that this book and its trilogy companions should pose no great difficulty for prospective readers to acquire today … a happy state of affairs, indeed!

Although released several years after its predecessor, Book #2 kicks off just a few weeks following the events of the first. Returning are Book #1’s four lead characters: our narrator, Jim Eden; his best friend and roommate, Bob Eskow; Stewart Eden, Jim’s uncle and the genius inventor of the Edenite shield, which has allowed domed cities to be built upon the ocean floor, and subs and diving gear to plumb depths previously unreachable by man; and Gideon Park, Stewart’s African-American, right-hand man. Jim’s story in this Book #2 captivates the reader’s attention from the very first page. Right before skin-diving trials, he and Bob meet a new exchange student, David Craken, who tells them of his belief in sea-serpents, after a lifetime of having lived in one of the domed cities of Marinia. And wonder of wonders, while diving at a depth of 900 feet during his exam, Jim does indeed seem to see the form of a huge saurian creature in the inky waters! David, unfortunately, is lost during the trials, never returning to the Academy’s submarine gym ship, although perhaps being the fittest diver of them all. Many months later, however, following another Academy sea trial (a very long-distance, underwater swim), several bizarre things transpire almost at once. Jim, Bob and their cadet captain Roger Fairfane find a bag of superrare – and ultraprecious – Tonga pearls washed up on the Bermuda shore, not far from the Academy. And then, a man with pallid skin and glowing eyes emerges from the surf, claiming that the pearls belong to him. This man, who calls himself Joe Trencher, shows marked difficulty at breathing out of the water, but is still quick enough to grab the pearls, dive back into the surf, and disappear. And then, to startle the boys even more, who should wash up onto the beach but David Craken himself … still alive, after having been presumed dead for many months. And what a story Craken has to tell!

His father, eccentric benthologist Jason Craken, was the original discoverer of the Tonga pearls, which are to be found in only one location in the world: at the bottom of the Tonga Trench, the second-deepest on Earth after the Mariana. Dr. Craken has built a private, domed residence for himself (protected, of course, by the Edenite shield) on the lip of the Tonga Trench, and has trained both the prehistoric saurians, as well as the amphibian race to which Trencher belongs, to do his pearl mining for him. But now, both the amphibians and the sea-serpents are in revolt, and Craken the elder is helplessly besieged in his dome beneath 20,000 feet of water.

Thus, Jim, Bob and Roger, in addition to David’s friend Eladio Angel, a Peruvian exchange student, pledge their assistance. But what to do? When Jim contacts his Uncle Stewart, he learns that his uncle and his father owe their lives to Jason Craken, who had once rescued them in the Tonga deeps. Stewart thus gives Jim enough money to purchase a very fit sub-sea cruiser, a surplus vessel by name of the Killer Whale. But due to a mix-up caused by Joe Trencher, the boys instead take possession of the aged rust bucket called the Dolphin … an unarmed vessel whose Edenite shield is so old and undependable that deep-sea cruising will be very problematic. Still, off the five youths go, accompanied by the adult Gideon, trailed all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific by Trencher in the Killer Whale, as well as some of the sea-serpents. And when/if they finally do reach Dr. Craken’s domed laboratory retreat four miles beneath the surface, it seems that their problems would only be getting started…

As you might have gathered, Pohl & Williamson add considerably more fantastic content in this Book #2 of their trilogy. Whereas Undersea Quest had been mostly centered on a criminal organization intent on stealing Jim Eden’s shares in a subsea mining company, and Jim’s efforts to rescue his Uncle Stewart from the abyss of the Eden Deep, here, the authors give their readers not only living dinosaurs (the sea-serpents are said to be the descendants of the Plesiosaurs from 100 million years ago!) but also a race of humans who have somehow adapted to life under the waves! No wonder Jim, thinking of it all, tells us “that would make it pure fantasy”! But similar to Book #1, Undersea Fleet, though purportedly written for teens, has a very strong appeal for adults, as well. (Then again, what teen could possibly resist a book in which five other teens, only guided by one very cool adult, take possession of an undersea cruiser and go off on a secret mission?) Again, the book is unfailingly intelligent, and the authors do not talk down to their younger audience. And really, can any book that sports such words as “hydrostatic,” “narcosis,” “mahout,” “keelson,” “azimuth,” “diatom,” “radiolarian,” “autoclave,” athodyd” and “vernier” be considered one solely intended for kids? Again similar to Book #1, this sequel is compellingly readable, its cliff-hanger chapters propelling us irresistibly on. And it gives us new information regarding the U.S.S.A., while also revealing a slightly more capable cadet in Jim and Bob. Futuristic touches not spotlighted in that first installment are to be had in abundance here, among them tubeways “running like subways under the ocean floor,” a deep-sea diving electrolung that “generates oxygen by the electrolysis of sea water,” an “automatic watchman” for protecting one’s house and property, and the (perhaps to be expected) vision-phone and stereovision TV (both of which we already have today, but this was written almost 70 years ago, right?). At bottom, the book is just flat-out fun; another novel that could be converted into a big-screen Hollywood blockbuster!

To wit, once again, Pohl & Williamson pepper their novel with wonderfully well-done sequences and action set pieces. Among them: that early sea-diving exam, during which the cadets are made to swim at increasing depths with no Edenite protective gear … only a wet suit and oxygen tank (Jim, as mentioned, succeeds at the 900-foot level; Roger almost doesn’t survive at 1,100 feet); the follow-up swimming test, during which the cadets, similarly equipped, are compelled to swim 10 miles at a depth of 60 feet (and you thought SEAL training was tough!); the walk on the ocean floor that our heroes are forced to endure, in failing Edenite suits and with insufficient oxygen, after the Dolphin’s nuclear reactor goes blooey; the initial meeting with the half-demented Jason Craken; the concerted attack that the amphibians and saurians make on Craken’s dome; Jim and his pals trying to scare the sea-serpents off outside the dome, armed only with flashlights, gongs and old-fashioned hand grenades; and finally, Jim and Bob’s plight when they are captured and brought aboard the Killer Whale. Again, to quote young Jim Eden, “It was like a wonderful adventure story, and it was happening to us…”

For the rest of it, Undersea Fleet compels us to realize, once again, that the world far beneath the ocean’s surface is as unknown – and every bit as dangerous – as deep space itself. Readers today will perhaps see parallels between the trilogy’s United States Sub-Sea Academy and the international Sub-Sea Fleet (for which the Academy is the preparation) and Star Trek’s Star Fleet Academy and Star Fleet of a decade later. And again, to the authors’ great credit, we are again given a black character (not exactly a common feature of 1950s sci-fi) who just happens to be the ablest technician here, as well as the coolest dude under (often literal) pressure. Gideon Park is a wonderful character, simply put. And this Book #2 even reserves some surprises for the reader, as regards Bob Eskow’s hidden agenda this go-round, and Joe Trencher’s relation with Maeva, an amphibian girl loyal to the Crakens and their work.

Still, again as in Book #1, despite the undoubted fun, some problems do manage to crop up. There are a good five “oopsie moments” to be had here; oversights on the part of the authors. Thus, Jim is embarrassed early on about all the dismissive comments he’d made to David Craken regarding sea-serpents, although it had been Bob who’d made those statements. Later, Jim tells his commandant that he’d seen a sea-serpent when he was at a depth of 1,100 feet; again, that was actually at 900 feet. The commandant mentions that Jim had earlier reported the sea-serpent to his Sea Coach Blighman, whereas in fact, Jim had decided not to. At one point, that sea-serpent is said to have “a very long neck [and] wicked fanged flippers,” although it is fairly obvious that the authors meant to say “taloned,” not “fanged.” And finally, we are told that Maeva’s pet saurian (whom she rides on top of like a horse!) is named Old Ironsides, whereas later that name changes to … Old Faithful? And while I’m carping, is it really credible that a race of Polynesians – even a race of Polynesian pearl divers – could become amphibians, and able to withstand the titanic pressures of the deep sea, after their island home slowly subsided beneath the waves? Somehow, I was more willing to buy into the notion of domesticated Plesiosaurs than that! But quibbles aside, Undersea Fleet remains a tremendously entertaining piece of work from a team of future sci-fi Grand Masters. Upon finishing it, I immediately cracked open Book #3, Undersea City (1958), as I believe any rational person would have done. Where in the world – or, more to the point, where under the sea – will Jim Eden, an upperclassman by Book #2’s conclusion, wind up next? Let’s, uh, dive in and see…