Review: Horror Story: "Bimini" by Bassett Morgan

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Commander Crayne doesn’t want to call the old man a liar. He’s just going to ask Lieutenant Murphy to take down a few notes and check a few… historical dates. Captain Ek doesn’t mind. “Shows you’re takin’ int’rest,” old Ek says. “I’ve told some of this to several people. They think I’m crazy like you do, only they never got as far as takin’ notes.” Crayne and Murphy have made a name for themselves, having just returned from a flight around the north magnetic pole, still something of an adventure in the 1920s. Ek wants to finance an expedition north. He not only has the money to back them, but the experience to accompany them. His first trip north departed Fort Chipewyan [in northern Alberta] in early spring 1789— “Murphy, you’ve got the date, 1789,” Commander Crayne interrupts. “Remember Chicago wasn’t born then; I’m not sure, but I don’t believe even Fort Dearborn was in existence on the site of Chicago. [This is correct. Fort Dearborn was established 1803. Gods bless the net.] Seventeen-eighty-nine…” And a paragraph follows, placing the year in context for the presumably young reader’s benefit. Even though he’s not quite convinced of Ek’s sanity, Crayne decides to take him north. From the start, the old man seems uncannily aware of danger, sensing ocean ice even before their sounding equipment does. What follows is an adventure story with a bit of mysticism. Captain Ek goes north to the “Bowl” to meet the “Children of Light.” He faltered once in the past. The bowl is also the source of the all the radioactivity on earth as well as a source of “pitchblende” (uranium minerals) and radium, which was then thought to be healthful. The dangers of radioactivity were not understood. The auroras are portrayed as a phenomenon with a source at the “bowl” rather than a disturbance of the earth’s magnetic field by the solar wind. As might be expected, there’s a high body count (and the dogs, sadly, go down with the ship) and a lot of sadness, a lot of longing. The author, Grace Ethel Jones, who used the penname Bassett Morgan, was a Canadian of English parentage. She eventually settled in Altameda, California. In addition to her Weird Tales stories, she published a few mainstream novels under her own name, including and autobiography of her father. This story is available in Wikisource: _____ Title: “Bimini” Author: Bassett Morgan (Grace Ethel Jones) (1884-1977) First published: Weird Tales January 1929 Source: ISFDB