FROM MARINE LEGEND TO REAL MONSTER
The giant squid has been known as a creature of fantasy since ancient times. Homer, in the Odyssey (900 A.D.), tells of a confrontation Ulysses has with a ferocious creature named Scylla "with twelve deformed legs, that would frighten even a god." Pliny the Elder (Natural History) tells of a "polyp" of uncommon size that was caught off the Spanish Atlantic coast. It is mentioned as a real animal for the first time in 1555, with the name of "Kraken": the archbishop of Sweden, Olaus Magnus (History of the Northern Peoples) mentions that in Norwegian waters, among the coastal caves there lived "serpents of seventy meters long and ten meters thick, possessing a long mane, eyes like flames, and covered with sharp scales of a blackish hue. They often chase the ships and rise up like columns to sweep the sailors from the deck and devour them." Renaissance zoologist Ulises Aldrovaldi spoke of "enormous octopi with ferocious instincts." In 1734 the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede reported a sighting of a marine monster off the coast of Greenland. According to his description "the beast's body was as thick as a ship, and three or four times as large, and the monster rose up out of the water with an agile leap and then sunk down again." In 1856, the first credible witness of the existence of the Architeuthis was presented when the Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup officially exhibited the beak of one of these giants. Until that year, science was reluctant to accept the existence of these invertebrates, branding any reported sightings as legends and stories.
ENCOUNTERS WITH AN ELUSIVE GIANT
On November 17, 1861, the crew of the French warship Alecton had an encounter with a giant squid off the coasts of Tenerife (Canary Islands). In spite of the sailors' efforts to hoist it on board, the specimen broke into two pieces, and the harpooners could only preserve the enormous tail, which measured some eight meters long.
Between 1871 and 1876, twenty Architeuthis specimens washed up on the beach at Thimble Tickle, in Newfoundland, which allowed the naturalist Addison Verril to study them. The largest of these measured a little less than ten meters from the end of the tail to the mouth. Its arms had a span of almost twenty meters long and had the thickness of a man's body. The tentacles were equipped with powerful suckers with teeth, the circumference of its body was two meters, and its weight was calculated at several tons.
In 1943 there was an encounter between a giant squid and a fisherman, on the open sea around the Maldives (Indian Ocean). The fisherman (Mr. J.B. Starkey) indicated that he was fishing in the middle of the night when a giant squid passed next to his boat. The first thing he saw was a greenish, luminous halo, which lit him up in the darkness. In the center of the halo, he could make out an unblinking eye the size of a dinner plate. He could see its tentacles, which measured over sixty centimeters thick. Minutes later, the gigantic squid shot off and disappeared in the darkness.
AN EXTREME ENVIRONMENT
"In this area, fishermen have captured specimens fourteen meters long, so it seems to us more than promising that we might find a giant squid and film it in its natural state," explains Sergio Mansur, biologist, adventurer, and director of the project. Mansur has a sound knowledge of the area and its possibilities. The technical difficulties, however, are numerous. "It's problematic to try to capture images in an area without light and with a pressure of eighty atmospheres. But if a squid appears, the cameras are ready to capture it," he says confidently. These freezing marine depths are the last terrestrial frontier. "These animals live in an environment that is very hostile to life as we know it, and its adaptations to that environment are also extreme. It has three hearts, vision that is a hundred times stronger than that of humans, and a very developed brain. To manipulate its flotation in an environment with very high pressure, its body is permeated with ammonia. Eating a few slices of this squid would be like taking a long drink of drain cleaner."
Architeuthis Dux captured in the Ross Sea, close to Antarctica. It was found at four hundred meters deep, eating hake, which can be up to two meters long.
ENDANGERED?
(caption) Beached adolescent giant squids along the Cantabrian coast
Medium frequency waves, used to search for oil beneath the continental shelf, could be affecting the giant squids, and could even be causing their deaths. Beachings have been reported along the Cantabrian coast, coinciding with the operations of ships exploring the Bay of Biscay using the technology of medium frequency shock waves. Necropsies of these animals found damage to their circulatory, nervous, and auditory systems.
First published as Bajo este sol tremendo in Spain in 2009 by Editorial Anagrama
This translation originally published by Frisch & Co. Electronic Books.
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Carlos Busqued, 2009
Translation copyright © 2013 by Megan McDowell
The moral right of Carlos Busqued to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781911420798
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Support for this translation was provided by Programa Sur. Work published within the framework of "Sur" Translation Support Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic. Obra editada en el marco del Programa "Sur" de Apoyo a las Traducciones del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto de la República Argentina
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Under This Terrible Sun Page 13