THE PIRATE BAY

They upload themselves then download the loot.

We dropped by the post office to retrieve this copy of Conrad Dawn’s 1960 novel Chartered Love accompanied by one of our more literary friends, and when he saw the cover this reader of Vonnegut and Voltaire said, “This looks great!” He meant ridiculous and fun, which was our hope when we ordered it. The uncredited art is both, with its foreground figure holding a pistol in his teeth, yet behind his shoulder in a way that stretches the limits of human physiology. We couldn’t attempt this with a gun because we don’t own one, but we tried it with a dagger we picked up* during a jungle foray in Central America and succeeded in getting the hilt into a similar position as above—though very awkwardly. Therefore, this is objectively a weird painting. We suppose cheapo publishing house Novel Books had to take what they could get.

The book is about a Macao based boat captain named John Darrow who’s hired by beautiful Elizabeth McClain to locate twelve million dollars worth of gold bars that sank in 1938 with a torpedoed ship in the Sulu Sea. Naturally, others have heard about the treasure, most importantly a ruthless pirate named Suto Hayama who travels in a speedy junk and remains on Darrow’s trail throughout the novel. The story leads readers through the expected nautical cat and mouse between ships, tropical typhoon, hairsbreadth salvage operation, and seaborne showdown between protagonists and pirates.

Chartered Love is a deceptive title. The book’s only sex is of the fade-to-black variety. It’s mainly an action tale, and as such it basically works. Authors often focus on a specific aspect of a trade or culture to provide verisimilitude. Dawn chose decompression. Depending on how deep a scuba diver descends and for how long, they need to pause while ascending from the depths in order to avoid the bends—the condition arising from the increase then decrease of pressure on the body that causes dissolved gases to emerge as microbubbles inside body tissues. It’s debilitatingly painful, and sometimes deadly.

Decompression stops can last for hours, which in this case is managed thanks to support personnel lowering fresh oxygen tanks. A couple of times Darrow is literally stuck waiting below while crucial events take place topside. It’s a nice ticking clock device. We suspect Dawn took it from earlier novels, but fine—action literature is built on borrowed ideas. Chartered Love isn’t written at a high level, but the decompression gimmick adds interest and elevates the realism of the narrative. If you find the book for a few dollars, it’s worth buying for a quick and fun read.

*Actually, we didn’t pick it up. PI-1 did. Always thinking of others in her lovely way, she traded a Mickey Mouse watch for it and gave it to PSGP as a gift.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

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