Twenty Fathoms Down

By L. Ron Hubbard

As daring and defiant as Kirk Douglas journeying 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, there’s no stopping diver Hawk Ridley as he takes the plunge into a briny world of untold riches and danger.

The Caribbean is a fortune hunter’s dream, salted with the gold of galleons long ago claimed by the deep. Now Hawk’s headed for the Windward Passage of Haiti to stake his claim. But a rival team has also picked up the scent, and they’re willing to turn the sea red with blood to get to the gold first.

Fighting off ruthless competitors is nothing new to Hawk…but fighting off a beautiful woman is a different story. Is she an innocent stowaway or a seductive saboteur? Between the cool millions lying on the bottom of the ocean, and the boiling-hot race to grab it, Hawk’s about to find the answer and make a discovery Twenty Fathoms Down that will blow you out of the water.

When it came to research, Hubbard was not one to head for the library. He always went to the source—in this case a U.S. Navy deep-sea diver who agreed to show him the ropes and the danger. Hubbard admits it was daunting—even frightening—but he returned from the experience with all the first-hand knowledge he needed to fathom the true nature of life and death underwater.

“Primo Pulp Fiction.” — Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galaxy Press
• Release date: May 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781592126286

L. Ron Hubbard

With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

Book preview

Cover image of Twenty Fathoms Down

SELECTED FICTION WORKS

BY L. RON HUBBARD

FANTASY

The Case of the Friendly Corpse

Death’s Deputy

Fear

The Ghoul

The Indigestible Triton

Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep

Typewriter in the Sky

The Ultimate Adventure

SCIENCE FICTION

Battlefield Earth

The Conquest of Space

The End Is Not Yet

Final Blackout

The Kilkenny Cats

The Kingslayer

The Mission Earth Dekalogy*

Ole Doc Methuselah

To the Stars

ADVENTURE

The Hell Job series

WESTERN

Buckskin Brigades

Empty Saddles

Guns of Mark Jardine

Hot Lead Payoff

A full list of L. Ron Hubbard’s

novellas and short stories is provided at the back.

*Dekalogy: a group of ten volumes

Title Page Art

Published by

Galaxy Press, LLC

7051 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 200

Hollywood, CA 90028

© 2013 L. Ron Hubbard Library. All Rights Reserved.

Any unauthorized copying, translation, duplication, importation or distribution, in whole or in part, by any means, including electronic copying, storage or transmission, is a violation of applicable laws.

Mission Earth is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library and is used with permission. Battlefield Earth is a trademark owned by Author Services, Inc. and is used with permission.

Horsemen illustration from Western Story Magazine is © and ™ Condé Nast Publications and is used with their permission. Fantasy, Far-Flung Adventure and Science Fiction illustrations: Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction copyright © by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Penny Publications, LLC. Story Preview illustration: Argosy Magazine is © 1936 Argosy Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission from Argosy Communications, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-59212-628-6 ePub version

ISBN 978-1-59212-251-6 print version

ISBN 978-1-59212-346-9 audiobook version

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007927534

Contents

FOREWORD

TWENTY FATHOMS DOWN

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

STORY PREVIEW:

SEA FANGS

L. RON HUBBARD

IN THE GOLDEN AGE

OF PULP FICTION

THE STORIES FROM THE

GOLDEN AGE

GLOSSARY

FOREWORD

Stories from

Pulp Fiction’s

Golden Age

AND it was a golden age.

The 1930s and 1940s were a vibrant, seminal time for a gigantic audience of eager readers, probably the largest per capita audience of readers in American history. The magazine racks were chock-full of publications with ragged trims, garish cover art, cheap brown pulp paper, low cover prices—and the most excitement you could hold in your hands.

Pulp magazines, named for their rough-cut, pulpwood paper, were a vehicle for more amazing tales than Scheherazade could have told in a million and one nights. Set apart from higher-class slick magazines, printed on fancy glossy paper with quality artwork and superior production values, the pulps were for the rest of us, adventure story after adventure story for people who liked to read. Pulp fiction authors were no-holds-barred entertainers—real storytellers. They were more interested in a thrilling plot twist, a horrific villain or a white-knuckle adventure than they were in lavish prose or convoluted metaphors.

The sheer volume of tales released during this wondrous golden age remains unmatched in any other period of literary history—hundreds of thousands of published stories in over nine hundred different magazines. Some titles lasted only an issue or two; many magazines succumbed to paper shortages during World War II, while others endured for decades yet. Pulp fiction remains as a treasure trove of stories you can read, stories you can love, stories you can remember. The stories were driven by plot and character, with grand heroes, terrible villains, beautiful damsels (often in distress), diabolical plots, amazing places, breathless romances. The readers wanted to be taken beyond the mundane, to live adventures far removed from their ordinary lives—and the pulps rarely failed to deliver.

In that regard, pulp fiction stands in the tradition of all memorable literature. For as history has shown, good stories are much more than fancy prose. William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas—many of the greatest literary figures wrote their fiction for the readers, not simply literary colleagues and academic admirers. And writers for pulp magazines were no exception. These publications reached an audience that dwarfed the circulations of today’s short story magazines. Issues of the pulps were scooped up and read by over thirty million avid readers each month.

Because pulp fiction writers were often paid no more than a cent a word, they had to become prolific or starve. They also had to write aggressively. As Richard Kyle, publisher and editor of Argosy, the first and most long-lived of the pulps, so pointedly explained: The pulp magazine writers, the best of them, worked for markets that did not write for critics or attempt to satisfy timid advertisers. Not having to answer to anyone other than their readers, they wrote about human beings on the edges of the unknown, in those new lands the future would explore. They wrote for what we would become, not for what we had already been.

Some of the more lasting names that graced the pulps include H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Max Brand, Louis L’Amour, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein—and, of course, L. Ron Hubbard.

In a word, he was among the most prolific and popular writers of the era. He was also the most enduring—hence this series—and certainly among the most legendary. It all began only months after he first tried his hand at fiction, with L. Ron Hubbard tales appearing in Thrilling Adventures, Argosy, Five-Novels Monthly, Detective Fiction Weekly, Top-Notch, Texas Ranger, War Birds, Western Stories, even Romantic Range. He could write on any subject, in any genre, from jungle explorers to deep-sea divers, from G-men and gangsters, cowboys and flying aces to mountain climbers, hard-boiled detectives and spies. But he really began to shine when he turned his talent to science fiction and fantasy of which he authored nearly fifty novels or novelettes to forever change the shape of those genres.

Following in the tradition of such famed authors as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, Ron Hubbard actually lived adventures that his own characters would have admired—as an ethnologist among primitive tribes, as prospector and engineer in hostile climes, as a captain of vessels on four oceans. He even wrote a series of articles for Argosy, called Hell Job, in which he lived and told of the most dangerous professions a man could put his hand to.

Finally, and just for good measure, he was also an accomplished photographer, artist, filmmaker, musician and educator. But he was first and foremost a writer, and that’s the L. Ron Hubbard we come to know through the pages of this volume.

This library of Stories from the Golden Age presents the best of L. Ron Hubbard’s fiction from the heyday of storytelling, the Golden Age of the pulp magazines. In these eighty volumes, readers are treated to a full banquet of 153 stories, a kaleidoscope of tales representing every imaginable genre: science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, thriller, horror, even romance—action of all kinds and in all places.

Because the pulps themselves were printed on such inexpensive paper with high acid content, issues were not meant to endure. As the years go by, the original issues of every pulp from Argosy through Zeppelin Stories continue crumbling into brittle, brown dust. This library preserves the L. Ron Hubbard tales from that era, presented with a distinctive look that brings back the nostalgic flavor of those times.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Stories from the Golden Age has something for every taste, every reader. These tales will return you to a time when fiction was good clean entertainment and the most fun a kid could have on a rainy afternoon or the best thing an adult could enjoy after a long day at work.

Pick up a volume,

Reviews for Twenty Fathoms Down

[mrsbaty · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this from Goodreads giveaways. Thanks to Goodreads and the author for letting me listen to this for free!

This is a very reminiscent of Old Time Radio broadcasts which I happen to love! The story is a interesting but pretty tame. Since this came from the Golden Age of Sci-fi, the blood and gore are almost non-existant which is fine with me.

It's just an interesting story about salvaging treasure from the bottom of the sea done by good voice actors. If you're a fan of the modern sci-fi genre, this will be far too tame for you. If you're a fan of Old Time Radio type sci-fi, this should be right up your alley!

[strogan_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reasonably written story and fast paced.While not entirely to my taste at this point in time, it can be appealing in the sort of almost "mindless" break sort of way.

[punchout_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received this book in audio format on two cd's from the publisher to provide them with a review. I want to start by pointing out the wonderful way this audio book is packaged, brilliant artwork on the cover, and nice author background info was also included, very very nice.As far as the story goes, well, to put it as nice as I can, I didn't like it. This audio book is only two hours long, so I actually listened to it twice. The first time I thought it was horrid and barely was able to make it to the end. The story is so very old school and I believe I wasnt ready for that. So the second time I listened to it I approached it as such, a short story written in 1934. This approach did improve the experience. The main issue I had with the book was character background, there isn't any. Even if this book is a series and I missed the previous versions, some character background should be provided that would make the story more interesting. Also, I believe in the 1940's this story could have been a nice addition to a magazine or such, but in my opinion it's days have passed it by. Its just hard to listen to a story where the author is writing about a 1940's submarine as a state of the art piece of machine. My suggestion is to turn this into a gradeschool read, young children would enjoy the story if it were made age appropriate.Overall, it should be named "Two Thumbs Down".

[tpmcnulty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Twenty Fathoms Down is another reminder that our vast cultural history should be preserved for future generations. This nifty pulp tale was published in 1934 in Five Novels magazine. In many ways it is typical of the pulp era; a short novelette with a romantic angle and a stalwart hero; but it also features some fine writing by L. Ron Hubbard whose work is receiving positive attention from scholars and pulp fans alike. These reprints of Hubbard’s work by Galaxy Press are themselves collectors items. In the recent batch of releases (The Devil-With Wings, Gunman’s Tally, Red Death Over China) I think this one is my favorite. Deep sea diver Hawk Ridley (I love that masculine, hardboiled name) has discovered a sunken Spanish galleon bearing millions in gold. But just before diving on the wreck Ridley and his crew discover a stowaway is aboard – Vick Stanton, daughter of his rival. Ridley isn’t convinced the girl’s sudden appearance isn’t part of a set-up to foil their plans, and the situation becomes deadly as they lose a crew member under mysterious circumstances. And the discovery of some rare emeralds suddenly turns this adventure into a deadly cat and mouse game with everything at stake. Hubbard’s natural talent as a writer is evident in the prose; and the flourishes he adds are a delight. For example, Both Ridley and Vick enjoy deep sea diving because it opens up another world; a world of mystery and beauty. “It’s the kick you get out of it.” Hawk tells Vick. “You know what I mean. It’s rather grand.” And Vick understands her man perfectly. “I know. It gets you.” She tells him. But the sea is also dangerous, and this is, after all, an adventure story. Peril awaits Hawk Ridley at every turn: “It was a strange world of blackness, where trees waved slowly and gently and unsuspected hillsides rose up and fell away with appalling suddenness.” Twenty Fathoms Down is a fine piece of adventure writing by L. Ron Hubbard. Galaxy Press is at about the halfway mark in this landmark reprint series and Twenty Fathoms Down is all the evidence I need to continue reading.