Doc Savage 50

THE TERROR IN THE NAVY

April 1937

The USS Akron (ZRS-4) falls from the sky into the Atlantic in April 1933 during a fierce tempest. There were no life vests on board the craft. Only three of the seventy-six crewmen aboard survived the crash into the ocean Two years later and over another ocean, the Pacific, the airship USS Macon (ZRS-5) is caught in a violent storm and crashes into the ocean. This time only two of the eighty-five men aboard are killed. Despite the fact that the Navy's Court of Inquiry assessed no blame on the airships themselves, Congress suspended the airship program. That effectively ended America's venture with lighter-than-air craft. The mighty airship Zephyr, which debuts in this story, is likely a composite of these two airships.

April 1, 1937 – The eighth gold shipment, valued at $180 million , leaves from Pennsylvania Station headed to the Federal storage vaults at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

April 9, 1937 – The Kamikaze lands in England on its around the world flight.

April 17, 1937 - Cartoon character Daffy Duck hits the movie screens for the first time.

Ranson: The ransom is pegged at $100,000,000 in 1937. That was a “lot” of money then and now. Using “The Inflation Calculator” we find that this is equivalent to $1,481,432,006.96 some seventy years later. That’s $1.5 billion rounded off. No wonder everyone was gasping at the amount.

E-texts: Back in the day, e-texts of many on the stories were available on-line. I read this story on my Palm Pilot and got a little something "extra" for my trouble. Toward the end of the story this is what I read in my etext version:

"Doc Savage took the man by the anus first, and got the gun, then grasped the fellow's neck, and the man became unconscious."

"...and the man became unconscious" I sure as hell bet he did! Imagine my surprise! Was this the "real" terror in the navy? Egads!

Upon a few minutes reflection, it occurred to me that this could be an error caused by the scanning software. I located my paperback edition and found this:

"Doc Savage took the man by the arms first, and got the gun, then grasped the fellow's neck, and the man became unconscious."

So it looks like it's just a typo after all! Phew! For a moment I though Philip Farmer had somehow gotten involved here.

April 26, 1937 - The Spanish city of Guernica is bombed as the Spanish Civil War continues.

April 27, 1937 - Movies A Star is Born opens.

The opening scene in the Doc Savage story is likely based on the Honda Point Disaster which happened mass grounding of seven United States Navy destroyers off Honda Point on the California coast.