Beresford, J.D. Beebe, William

Collier’s tag line: “Here is a story few men could imagine and perhaps only one could write – the story of what happens when a ship makes its final voyage into the fantastic world at the bottom of an ocean.” Beebe’s tale is a well thought out mixture of science + fiction: how a disabled Japanese submarine (the TAI) and its intended victim, an American merchant vessel (the BROOKLYN BELLE) sailing out of convoy in the South Pacific, are both lost at sea after a furious gun battle erupts between the two. The story then continues with a highly interesting look at what physically will happen to both submarine and freighter as they sink to and settle upon the bottom of ocean, and then continues on to tell of their gradual disintegration as the years go by. Beebe’s emphasis is on how the remains of both vessels (as well as of their former human occupants) are merged into and become part of the ocean’s ecology, with fish and other marine life interacting with the gradually disintegrating vessels.