Under the command of Captain Lee Crane and with Admiral Harriman Nelson, Vice-Admiral B. J. Crawford, Congressman Llewellyn Parker, and psychologist Susan Hiller aboard, the nuclear-powered submarine USOS. Seaview goes under the Arctic ice for a shakedown cruise. Partway through the cruise the crew find that the ice is melting and when Seaview surfaces they see that the sky appears to be on fire. Radio communication is extremely difficult, but they get a request to come to New York, where the UN is holding a meeting of top scientists. After rescuing a man, Alvarez, from an ice floe, they head south. With help from Vice-Admiral Crawford, Admiral Nelson collates observations and carries out calculations whose answers tell him what he needs to do. He determines that the inner Van Allen radiation belt has caught fire, pulling air up from the overheating atmosphere. To stop the fire, to save all life on Earth, Seaview must launch a missile at a precise moment from a point NW of Guam and have the missile spew electrically-charged lampblack into the outer radiation belt. But first the admiral must attend the meeting in New York. At the United Nations the world-renowned scientist, Dr. Emilio Zucco, insists that the fire will simply burn itself out and should be left alone. Nelson disagrees, but there’s no time to argue and recalculate the figures. While Congressman Parker distracts the audience, Nelson and his crew make a break for it and take Seaview out to sea. South across the Atlantic Seaview drives, pausing only long enough for the crew to tap an undersea telephone cable in a failed attempt to get through to the President. Then Seaview charges onward, through the Straits of Magellan and into the Pacific. On their way to the launch point they have to contend with a freshly-laid mine field, a hostile destroyer, an attack sub, and a gargantuan octopus, not to mention an onboard saboteur. Nonetheless they reach the launch point in time, thwart the saboteur, and succeed in carrying out their mission. They launch the missile and Earth is saved.
Publication history
1961, USA, Pyramid Books, Pub date Jun 1961, Paperback
1962, Germany, Pabel Verlag, Paperback, as Die Feuerflut
1964, USA, Pyramid Books, Pub date Sep & Oct 1964, Paperback
1967, USA, Pyramid Books, Pub date Apr & Oct 1967, Paperback
1967, The Netherlands, Het Spectrum, Paperback, as Reis naar het Diepste van de Zee
The book was adapted from the screenplay for the movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett from a story conceived by Irwin Allen. The movie also inspired a TV seriesVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which ran on ABC from 1964 September 14 to 1968 March 31.
