Horror fiction takes many forms – from the long, slow build-up to the short, sharp shock. Much of what I have commented on previously has been of the longer, more detailed variety. And, while I will continue to examine such works, I turn now to the pages of Amazing Stories magazine for a dose or two of the short, sharp shock.
This post looks at another of H. F. Arnold’s writings. When Atlantis Was is a wild, far-reaching tale, full of the utterly unexpected.
“We’ve been moved! Some force or other has snatched us up and moved us, ‘McGinty’ and all. But where—well that’s another story. There’s only several guesses I can make. We’ve either been moved to some spot on earth where conditions are different than anything anybody ever encountered before; we’ve been taken from the earth to somewhere else; or we’ve been moved in time. And by golly, I’ll swear the last is the answer.”
“Aw,” McSaunders muttered, “you’re nuts.”
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First published as a serial in the pulp magazine, Amazing Stories, “When Atlantis Was” appeared in the October 1937 and December 1937 issues.
Amazing Stories is an American pulp magazine dedicated to science fiction stories; its first issue initially appeared in 1926. Amazing Stories was the first magazine devoted exclusively to publishing sci-fi tales.
More impressively, despite going through changes including some breaks in print, Amazing Stories is still in publication! Recently the magazine ceased after 2005 and returned in 2012 as an online magazine. In late 2018, Amazing Stories became available in print again.
The Pulp Magazine Archive at archive.org is a truly comprehensive source for pulps. In addition to countless other pulp magazines, it contains a goodly portion of the Amazing Stories print run in pdf format.
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The day was May 1, 1934. The U. S. Navy fleet is conducting military exercises in the south Atlantic. USS Farragut a.k.a. “McGinty” is the lead vessel of a destroyer squadron scouting ahead of the main battle line. Emerging from a smoke screen following a tricky maneuver, the “McGinty” and her crew find themselves alone in an empty ocean. The fleet is gone!
And it only gets weirder from here…
•By various means, the crew determines that by some mysterious process they have been transported 50,000 years into Earth’s past.
•In a seemingly unrelated aside, the crew notices that the moon is much larger in the sky, because it is so much closer. They are able to see clouds on its surface. They also noticed that the moon was moving away from Earth rapidly and losing atmosphere.
•While exploring potential campsites, the crew battles pterodactyls and even a huge T-Rex type of creature.
•They witness an enormous object roaring out of the sky and see it crash in the distance. Initially believing it to be a meteor, they realize quickly that the quarter-mile long thing is actually a vessel!
•Members of the crew of the “McGinty” explore the massive rocket ship and meet survivors. The survivors are Lunarians—closely related to humans, but more technologically advanced—from the moon. “McGinty” crew determine that the rocket ship is an ark from the Lunar civilization.
•The Lunarian survivors are comprised of 80 female Lunarians. Coincidently, the crew of the “McGinty” also just happens to be made up of 80 males. Quite the coincidence, indeed.
•The men reconcile themselves to a new life in the deep past; especially now that the sailors have begun to pair up with the Lunarian women.
•The combined crew struggle to find a site to establish a permanent home. They settle on searching for an island in the Atlantic that 20th century mythology informs them should be inhabited at this time—Atlantis.
•On arriving at what they are certain is the island of Atlantis, they are pleased to find it very hospitable, but perplexed to find it completely uninhabited. Where are the early Atlanteans?
•One of the officers works out that there are no Atlanteans . . . Yet. The men of the “McGinty” together with the Lunarian women would, at some point in the future, become the Atlanteans.
•Epilogue—Back in the present time (1935), a bathysphere sinks down exploring the south Atlantic depths. At 25,000 feet, it hits bottom. Neither the man in the sphere or the researchers on the surface realize that mere feet below the bathysphere rest the remains of what was Atlantis.
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“When Atlantis Was” is amazing!
It combines:
-U.S. Navy
-time travel
-dinosaurs
-Moon people
-Atlantis
and presents them in a wild-ride of a story.
I firmly believe that “When Atlantis Was” was, at least in part, inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot published in 1924. The Land That Time Forgot itself was part of a long-tradition of ‘lost world” tales.
In addition, I also firmly believe that “When Atlantis Was” was an influence upon the 1980s movie The Final Countdown.
This film centers on the carrier USS Nimitz. While on maneuvers, a mysterious storm sends Nimitz back to December 6, 1941. And everything that that date implies.
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I really loved this wacky story.
References
Print Resources
Digital Resources
Arnold, H.F. “When Atlantis Was.” Amazing Stories. Teck Publications, Inc. October 1937. Volume 11 Number 5. [PDF file]. https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v11n05_1937-10
Arnold, H.F. “When Atlantis Was.” Amazing Stories. Teck Publications, Inc. December 1937. Volume 11 Number 6. [PDF file]. https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v11n06_1937-12
Online Resources
Frye, Todd. “Amazing Stories (1926-1939) (complete).” Pulp.Retro-Scans.Com. Web. 19 February 2019. http://pulps.retro-scans.com/Pulps-A/Amazing-Stories-1926-1939/Amazing-Stories.php
Von Ruff, Al. “Summary Bibliography: H. F. Arnold.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 22 January 2019. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?18253
Wikipedia contributors. "Amazing Stories." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 08 February 2019. Web. 14 February 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Stories
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