Fell's Guide to Sunken Treasure Ships of the World by Riesenber and Mikalow (Signet paperback 1965) is full of accounts of lost pirate treasures and shipwrecks. Included are two small entries on sunken cities that may be of interest.
One is the off
the
The second one
is in Lake Titicaca in
Lester Dent and his wife spent several years living on his boat the Albatross and sailing the Caribbean while treasure hunting. It is possible these tales may have influenced him in writing Mystery Under the Sea.
Mental Telepathy: I was recently reviewing an interesting article by Will Murray, which appeared in Pulp Adventures #11. The article was titled “Was Taz Atlantis.” The basic point was that the editor at Street & Smith deleted the use of Atlantis name in Dent's original manuscript.
Why would they do this? The article suggests that the editor may have removed the reference to make the story more mysterious and that the theme was a little worn out. Perhaps there is another explanation why mention of Atlantis was removed from the published version of the story. One possible reason would be because of a fellow named Edgar Cayce. Who was this person and why would the editors at Street & Smith feel the need to disassociate their magazine with Atlantis? Cayce is often referred to as The Sleeping Prophet and was very active and popular during this time period.
Cayce was born in 1877. Around the age of six or seven he
began experiencing visions. In 1901 Cayce began giving psychic readings. During
1931, Cayce gave a psychic reading in which he first described the "Lost
Continent of Atlantis". Atlantis was a fertile subject. Here, and in
subsequent reports, he described the lost civilization as having existed some
ten thousand years ago in the general vicinity of the
Cayce predicted that the records of Atlantis, "The Hall of Records", would be found in a secret chamber located beneath the Sphinx. He described the Egyptians as descendants of the Atlanteans. At one point in the story Doc Savage amazes Diamond Eve Post by correctly identifying the name of the ship they have been secreted on. Dent may have been giving us a little clue with this bit of dialogue about clairvoyants.
"Oh!" She smiled thinly. "I was beginning to think you were clairvoyant or something."
This is the second time Dent uses that particular word in this novel. He goes on to use it again a third occasion.
Another interesting word Dent uses is "oracle" in a conversation with Diamond Eve Post. In the dialogue, Ham expresses biting sarcasm toward Monk.
"Hah, an oracle!" the young woman said, bitingly.
Oracle is a peculiar choice of words for this sentence. The word usually refers to prophets, visions, divination, revelations and so on. It seems something along the lines of sage or wise man would have been more appropriate here. Perhaps Dent had prophets on his mind?
There is another odd passage about Renny living his life over.
“Renny was destined not to gratify the strange wish which had seized him in the midst of disaster, since it was unlikely that he would live his life over again. “
Moving forward, the reader
finds an Egyptian connection to the lost city of
But the discoveries become even more astounding. Arriving at the Central Science Library of the sunken city, Doc and his men discover a hundred or so stone cases made of hard black stone. Opening one of these cases they find it contains many metal plates. The plates are extremely unusual and are described as some strange black metal, as intensely black and shiny as emerald. Doc translates one of the plates. The treatise purports to explain, in scientific terms, the principles by which mental telepathy operates!
Dent's yarn is running a close parallel to several of Cayce's predictions Atlantis, an advanced civilization, telepathy, The Hall of Records or Central Science Library, along with an Egyptian style design. The Central Science Library is an amazing building and worthy of special attention. The walls are solid stone twenty feet thick. Even more incredible is the roof. Doc Savage describes it as probably the largest single block of stone ever employed in construction work. Strangest of all, this colossal slab seemed not to lie over the top of the room, lid-fashion, but was cut to fit inside the walls. What held it up could not be discerned.
Indeed, what does hold it up? Could Dent be alluding to some type of levitation principle? Cayce described the use of a levitation technology to move the huge stone blocks used in the building of the great pyramid. Another astonishing fact is revealed when Doc Savage translates one of the records in the Central Science Library. Of all the possible subjects that could be covered, this one just happens to deal with mental telepathy.
Near the end of the adventure Doc Savage discusses the disposition of Taz's amazing scientific wealth. As usual, Doc wishes the discoveries be put to use for the public good. Coincidentally, Edgar Cayce steadfastly maintained that his psychic abilities could never be used for personal gain but only for the benefit of mankind.
Needless to say, there was some major controversy around Cayce's predictions and readings that continue to exist unto this day. Could this be the reason the Street & Smith editors did not want to use Atlantis in The Mystery Under the Sea and removed all references to the word? The Atlantis hullabaloo had been permeating the radio and print media for the prior five years. The Mystery Under the Sea was written in 1935 and published in February 1936. It is very possible the folks at Street & Smith did not want the magazine, and subsequently their company, to be linked in the public's mind with such a controversial figure as Cayce. Street & Smith had the reputation of being one of the most conservative publishers in the pulp magazine business.
Dent bought a sailboat, The Albatross, in 1934. He and his wife Norma lived on it for
several years while they sailed the
February 17, 1936 – Comics: The Phantom by Lee Falk begins.
