Iceberg: Delftware saucer

pg 150

"Your face is as blue as a windmill on a Delftware saucer."

Delftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around Delft in the Netherlands and the tin-glazed pottery made in the Netherlands from the 16th century.
Delftware in the latter sense is a type of pottery in which a white glaze is applied, usually decorated with metal oxides. Delftware includes pottery objects of all descriptions such as plates, ornaments and tiles.

 His heart began pounding like a bass drum

Bass drums are percussion instruments and vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished.

• The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum. It is the largest drum of the orchestra.
• The kick drum, struck with a beater attached to a pedal, usually seen on drum kits.
• The pitched bass drum, generally used in marching bands and drum corps. This is tuned to a specific pitch and is usually played in a set of three to six drums.

He was greeted by a small rosefish

The rose fish (Sebastes norvegicus), also known as the ocean perch, Norway haddock, red perch, golden redfish, or hemdurgan, is a species of rockfish from the North Atlantic. Misleadingly, it is sometimes called bergylt, bream, or snapper, though it is unrelated to all of these. In the past the scientific name Sebastes marinus was frequently used, but this is actually a synonym of Serranus scriba.^[1]

This food fish lives off the North Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America.

Iceberg: dives of one hubdred forty feet and more

pg 147

Enough for fifteen minutes diving, and even that was stretching precious time for dives to one hundred and forty feet.

Cussler has got something screwed up here. Pitt is wearing two tanks - which is more than 15 minutes of air.

But, in no way could he dive down to one hundred and forty feet in just fifteen minutes. The maximum depth for sports divers is 60 feet, after that there is nitrogen narcosis (the bends) especially if you dive down to 140 feet, so he'd have to do decompression stops on the way up.

New posting schedule

Now that I've got this new full-time job, I'll be posting in this blog twice a week - on Monday's and Wednesdays.

So the next post for this blog will be on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

Posts resume this Wednesday

I got a new job (I'm a freelance writer) and am way far behind, so I've got to do some serious work today and tomorrow. 

Posts therefore resume Wednesday.

Thanks for your patience!

Iceberg: Gold Cup hydroplane and more

pg 141

It was a strange sight indeed to see the ungainly hull skipping over the waves like a Gold Cup hydroplane.

The APBA Gold Cup is a hydroplane boat race and is the second official race of the 2012 H1 Unlimited season.

History
The Gold Cup is the oldest active trophy in all of motorsports. The trophy was first awarded in 1904. Hydroplane racing became a tradition in Detroit when designer Christopher Columbus Smith (of the Chris-Craft boat company) built a Detroit-based boat that would crack the 60 miles-per-hour speed barrier, capturing the Gold Cup in 1915.

Sandecker's mind clicked like a Burroughs adding machine.

The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company and after the 1986 merger with Sperry Univac was renamed as Unisys. The company's history paralleled many of the major developments in computing. At its start it produced mechanical adding machines, and later moved into programmable ledgers and then computers. And while it was one of the largest producers of mainframe computers in the world, Burroughs also produced related equipment as well, including typewriters and printers.

In September 1986, Burroughs Corporation merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys.

pg 142
The "comedy" scene with Sandecker's suddenly accelerating to cause her to fall with 3 cups of coffee. Sandecker thinks its menopause, Pitt says, "Women rarely offer an explanation."

Slap 'em both!

he checked the old single-hose US Diver's Deepstar regulator.

U.S. Divers is the sporting goods division of Aqua Lung America, makers of scuba diving equipment.
They were the first firm in the United States to make Cousteau-type aqualungs, in 1951 or earlier. They were one of the five original American diving gear makers — U.S. Divers, Healthways, Voit, Dacor, Swimaster.

(This message forum discusses vintage scuba equipment, makes for interesting reading.
http://vintagescuba.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=2596&page=1#19480)

Iceberg: Chris Craft and more

pg 138

"You mean we ignored that beautiful Chris Craft simply because it doesn't have a fathometerr?"

Chris-Craft Boats, formerly Smith and Sons Boat Company, is a defunct manufacturer of wooden boats. It was sold in 1960 to NAFI which would take the Chris-Craft name.

Chris Smith built his first wooden boat in 1874 at the age of 13. Years later, he built a duck hunting boat. His friends liked the way he built them, and they asked him to build them one. This was technically the start of the Chris Craft Boat Co. He soon began to build more boats and joined his brother Hank in 1881 to begin producing boats full time. In 1922, the brothers joined with other partners to form the Smith and Sons Boat Company. The company name was changed to Chris-Craft in 1930.
The Detroit area company became well known for their sleek racing boats in the 1910s and 1920s. Chris-Craft sold high end powerboats to wealthy patrons such as Henry Ford and William Randolph Hearst. In the late 1920s, Chris-Craft extended its market into the middle class when it became one of the first mass producers of civilian pleasure boats. The company began assembly line production at their Algonac, Michigan plant, dramatically lowering production costs. Formerly, most powerboats had been hand-built.
In 1927 the company introduced the Cadet, an affordable 22' runabout. At the time, the domain of speedboats was largely confined to the wealthy. Its innovative advertising campaign promised a piece of "the good life" to the growing American middle class. The company sold its boats on the installment plan, making them among the first powerboats available to the general population.
The Great Depression robbed many Americans of discretionary income, and Chris-Craft sales suffered. The company introduced a line of low-priced powerboats to stay solvent. By 1935, a 15.5' Utility boat sold for as little as US$406. During World War II, the company produced small patrol boats and launches for the U.S. Navy.
After the war, Chris Craft introduced a new lineup of civilian pleasure boats in time for the massive American consumer expansion of the 1950s. That decade marked the height of company prestige and the brand name Chris-Craft became virtually synonymous with pleasure boating. The company offered 159 different models and was the sales leader in many categories of small civilian powerboats.
The company sold high-end boats to famous customers such as Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. Their boats were often made from the finest mahogany and were considered to be among the best available. They were easy to operate, a must for their "weekend sailor" owners. In some circles, owning a Chris-Craft was considered de rigueur. Even their lower-priced boats were considered to be of high quality, often featuring such luxury items as a liberal use of mahogany, teak, and brass.
In 1957, Chris-Craft Corporation added a metal boat division, designated the Roamer Steel Boats Division (RSBD)—founded upon its purchase of the Roamer Boat Company, now known as Chris Craft Roamers.
The company continued to be independent until it was acquired by Shields & Company's NAFI Corporation in 1960 and merged with NAFI. They renamed the company Chris-Craft Industries, Incorporated in 1962

 A pair of Sterling 420 hp gas-fed engines gleamed in the dim twilight.

So okay - I'm sharing info about a Stirling engine - *not* a brand named Sterling which I think Cussler made up, but this info is pretty interesting so I thought I'd share.
A Stirling engine is a heat engine operating by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the working fluid, at different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.Or more specifically, a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a permanently gaseous working fluid, where closed-cycle is defined as a thermodynamic system in which the working fluid is permanently contained within the system, and regenerative describes the use of a specific type of internal heat exchanger and thermal store, known as the regenerator. It is the inclusion of a regenerator that differentiates the Stirling engine from other closed cycle hot air engines.
Originally conceived in 1816 as an industrial prime mover to rival the steam engine, its practical use was largely confined to low-power domestic applications for over a century.
The Stirling engine is noted for its high efficiency compared to steam engines, quiet operation, and the ease with which it can use almost any heat source. This compatibility with alternative and renewable energy sources has become increasingly significant as the price of conventional fuels rises, and also in light of concerns such as peak oil and climate change. This engine is currently exciting interest as the core component of micro combined heat and power (CHP) units, in which it is more efficient and safer than a comparable steam engine.

The boat was named The Grimsi.
Unable to find any Icelandic mythological creature called Grimsi.... Grimsi is a man's first name.

Iceberg: bon vivant and more

pg 128 "I have an uncle who is San Francisco's leading bon vivant."

 A bon viveur is a person who enjoys the good things of life. The phrase is derived from the French bon vivant, meaning good living, a bon viveur being a "good liver", or one who lives well.^[1] The phrase is not derogatory but conveys a sense of overindulgence. In his book, Mind the Gaffe, professor Larry Trask advised that the phrase is pretentious

Two hours later, during a strawberry and ice cream flambe...

 Flambé  is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means flamed in French (thus, in French, flambé is a past participle; the verb is flamber).
Flambéing is often associated with tableside presentation of certain liqueur-drenched dishes, such as bananas flambées or cherries jubilee, when the alcohol is ignited and results in a flare of blue-tinged flame. However, flambéing is also a step in making coq au vin, and other dishes and sauces, using spirits, before they are brought to the table. By rapidly burning off the volatile alcohol, flambéing can infuse a dish with additional aroma and flavor, and moderates the harshness of raw, high-proof spirits. The flames result from the partial combustion of the flammable alcohol, which is quickly consumed, while some residual flavor remains.

"Does it have a fathometer?"
"A Fleming six-ten, top of the line."

 Was unable to find any mention of Fleming as a maker of fathometers.

Echo sounding is the technique of using sound pulses to find the depth of water. The interval from the emission of a pulse to reception of its echo is recorded, and the depth calculated from the known speed of propagation of sound through water. This information is then typically used for navigation purposes or in order to obtain depths for charting purposes. Echo sounding can also refer to hydroacoustic "echo sounders" defined as active sound in water (sonar) used to study fish. Hydroacoustic assessments have traditionally employed mobile surveys from boats to evaluate fish biomass and spatial distributions. Conversely, fixed-location techniques use stationary transducers to monitor passing fish.
The word sounding is used for all types of depth measurements, including those that don't use sound, and is unrelated in origin to the word sound in the sense of noise or tones. Echo sounding is a more rapid method of measuring depth than the previous technique of lowering a sounding line until it touched bottom.

 A fishfinder or sounder (Australia) is an instrument used to locate fish underwater by detecting reflected pulses of sound energy, as in SONAR. A modern fishfinder displays measurements of reflected sound on a graphical display, allowing an operator to interpret information to locate schools of fish, underwater debris, and the bottom of body of water. Fishfinder instruments are used both by sport and commercial fishermen. Modern electronics allow a high degree of integration between the fishfinder system, marine radar, compass and GPS navigation systems.

Iceberg: flashes in the eyes and more

pg 126

"Miss Fyrie's eyes, like mine, have rays that spread out from the pupil of the iris.. They're sometimes called flashes."

Everyone has rays spreading out from their pupils. They are just easier to see depending on the color of the eye.

"Are you clairvoyant?"

The term clairvoyance (from French clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "vision") is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clearly").

Claims for the existence of paranormal and psychic abilities such as clairvoyance have not been supported by scientific evidence published in high impact factor peer reviewed journals. Parapsychology explores this possibility, but the existence of the paranormal is not accepted by the scientific community.

"The species of shark found in colder waters can't be eaten fresh." Hákarl or kæstur hákarl (Icelandic for "shark") is a food from Iceland consisting of a Greenland- or basking shark which has been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for four to five months. Hákarl is often referred to as an acquired taste and has a very particular ammonia-rich smell and fishy taste, similar to very strong cheese slathered in ammonia.

Hákarl is served as part of a þorramatur, a selection of traditional Icelandic food served at þorrablót in midwinter. It is readily available in Icelandic stores and is eaten year round.

Consumption
The Greenland shark itself is poisonous when fresh due to a high content of urea and trimethylamine oxide, but may be consumed after being processed (see below). It has a particular ammonia smell, similar to many cleaning products. It is often served in cubes on toothpicks. Those new to it will usually gag involuntarily on the first attempt to eat it due to the high ammonia content.[1] First-timers are sometimes advised to pinch their nose while taking the first bite as the smell is much stronger than the taste. It is often eaten with a shot of the local spirit, a type of akvavit, called brennivín. Eating hákarl is often associated with hardiness and strength.

It comes in two varieties; chewy and reddish glerhákarl (lit. "glassy shark") from the belly, and white and soft skyrhákarl (lit. "skyr shark") from the body.

Preparation
Hákarl is traditionally prepared by gutting and beheading a Greenland or basking shark and placing it in a shallow hole dug in gravelly sand, with the now-cleaned cavity resting on a slight hill. The shark is then covered with sand and gravel, and stones are then placed on top of the sand in order to press the shark. The fluids from the shark are in this way pressed out of the body. The shark ferments in this fashion for 6–12 weeks depending on the season.

Following this curing period, the shark is then cut into strips and hung to dry for several months. During this drying period a brown crust will develop, which is removed prior to cutting the shark into small pieces and serving. The modern method is just to press the shark's meat in a large drained plastic container.

Iceberg: New Guinea and more

pg 121

"Just before we were attacked, Hunnewell said that Fyri's sister was a missionary in New Guinea."

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of sending" or mittere, meaning "to send". The word was used in light of its biblical usage; in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word when sending the disciples to preach in his name. The term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology.

New Guinea (also, Dutch: Nieuw Guinea or Indonesian: Irian; and historically: Papua ) is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km². Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago. Geologically it is a part of the same tectonic plate as Australia. When world sea levels were low, the two shared shorelines (which now lie 100 to 140 metres below sea level), combining with lands now inundated into the tectonic continent of Sahul, also known as Greater Australia. The two landmasses became separated when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the end of the last glacial period. Anthropologically, New Guinea is considered part of Melanesia. Politically, the western half of the island comprises two Indonesian provinces: Papua and West Papua. The eastern half forms the mainland of the country of Papua New Guinea. The island has a population of about 7.5 million, with a very low population density of only 8 inh/km².
New Guinea is differentiated from its drier, flatter, and less fertile southern counterpart, Australia, by its much higher rainfall and its active volcanic geology, with its highest point, Puncak Jaya, reaching an elevation of 4,884 m (16,023 ft). Yet the two land masses share a similar animal fauna, with marsupials, including wallabies and possums, and the egg-laying monotreme, the spiny anteater, or echidna. Other than bats and some two dozen indigenous rodent genera,^] there are no pre-human indigenous placental mammals. Pigs, several additional species of rats, and the ancestor of the New Guinea Singing Dog were introduced with human colonization.
The human presence on the island dates back at least 40,000 years to the oldest human migrations out of Africa. Research indicates that the highlands were an early and independent center of agriculture, with evidence of irrigation going back at least 10,000 years.
Because of the time depth of its inhabitation and its highly fractured landscape, an unusually high number of languages are spoken on the island, with some 1,000 languages (a figure higher than that of most continents) having been catalogued out of an estimated world-wide pre-Columbian total of 6,000 human dialects. Most are classified as Papuan languages, a generally accepted geographical term which a minority of authors hold to be a genetic one. A number of Austronesian languages are spoken on the coast and on offshore islands.
In the 16th century Spanish explorers discovered the island and called it Nueva Guinea. In recent history western New Guinea was included in the Dutch East Indies colony. The Germans annexed the northern coast of the eastern half of the island as German New Guinea in their pre–World War I effort to establish themselves as a colonial power, whilst the south eastern portion was reluctantly claimed by Britain. Following the Treaty of Versailles, the German portion was awarded to Australia (which was already governing the British claim, named the Territory of Papua) as a League of Nations mandate. The eastern half of the island was granted independence from Australia as Papua New Guinea in 1975. The western half gained independence from the Dutch in 1961, but became part of Indonesia soon afterwards in controversial circumstances

"You say hands off, yet I get the distinct impression I'm supposed to play Prince Charming."

Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress, and stereotypically, must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all.
These characters are often handsome and romantic, a foil to the heroine, and are seldom deeply characterized, or even distinguishable from other such men who marry the heroine.
In many variants, they can be viewed more as rewards for the heroine rather than characters^.

History of term  
 Charles Perrault's version of Sleeping Beauty, published in 1697, includes the following text at the point where the princess wakes up: "'Est-ce vous, mon prince?' lui dit-elle, 'vous vous êtes bien fait attendre'. Le Prince charmé de ces paroles... ne savait comment lui témoigner sa joie". ("'Are you my prince?' she said. 'You've kept me waiting a long time'. The prince charmed by her words... did not know how to express his joy.") It has sometimes been suggested that this passage later inspired the term, "Prince Charming", even though it is the prince who is charmed (charmé) here, not who is being charming (charmant).

"She's beginning to sound like a cross between Catherine the Great and Aimee Semple McPherson."

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (May 2 [O.S. April 21] 1729 – November 17 [O.S. November 6] 1796), was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from July 9 [O.S. June 28] 1762 until her death at the age of sixty-seven. She was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and came to power following a coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, at the end of the Seven Years' War. Russia was revitalised under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognised as one of the great powers of Europe.
In both her accession to power and in rule of her empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favourites, most notably Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Pyotr Rumyantsev and Alexander Suvorov, and admirals such as Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish wars, and Russia colonised the vast territories of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russia started to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.
Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas, and many new cities and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of reliance on serfs. This was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachev's Rebellion of cossacks and peasants.
The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire and the Russian nobility. The Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the Empress, changed the face of the country. A notable example of enlightened despot, a correspondent of Voltaire and an amateur opera librettist, Catherine presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

 Aimee Semple McPherson (October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles, California evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She founded the Foursquare Church. McPherson has been noted as a pioneer in the use of modern media, especially radio, and was the second woman to be granted a broadcast license. She used radio to draw on the growing appeal of popular entertainment in North America and incorporated other forms into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple.

Iceberg: Snorri's Restaurant

pg 120

If Snorri's Restaurant in Reykjavik could be picked up and placed down in any of the epicurean cities of the world...

There's a Snorri's Guesthouse in Reykhavik, but not a restauraunt. (Though of course there might have been one 30 years ago!)

The restaurant was perhaps named after a famous Icelandic person:
Snorri Þorgrímsson or Snorri Goði (; 963-1031) was a prominent chieftain in Western Iceland, who featured in a number of Icelandic sagas. The main source of his life is the Eyrbyggja saga, in which he is the main character, although he also figures prominently in Njál's saga and the Laxdæla saga. Snorri was the nephew of Gísli Súrsson, the hero of Gísla saga, while his son Halldórr was the subject of two tales detailing Halldórr's service in the retinue of the Norwegian king Haraldr Sigurðarson.
Eyrbyggja Saga says of him "He was a very shrewd man with unusual foresight, a long memory and a taste for vengeance. To his friends he gave good counsel, but his enemies learned to fear the advice he gave."
Njál's saga says of him "Snorri was reckoned the wisest man in Iceland, not counting those who were prescient"

Its one great hall, with open kitchen and earthen ovens only a few feet from the dining area, was designed in the Viking condition.

The Vikings (from Old Norse víkingr) were the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.
These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as Nekor. This period of Viking expansion – known as the Viking Age – forms a major part of the medieval history of Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland and the rest of Medieval Europe.
Popular conceptions of the Vikings often differ from the complex picture that emerges from archaeology and written sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as Germanic noble savages began to take root in the 18th century, and this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival. The received views of the Vikings as violent brutes or intrepid adventurers owe much to the modern Viking myth which had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations are typically highly clichéd, presenting the Vikings as familiar caricatures

"I took a walk in the Tjarnargardar Gardens and lost track of time."

 This sounds like it should be an actual place, but there is no mention of Tjarnargardar Gardens on the internet at all!

Iceberg: Mayday and more

pg 115

I've probably shared the definition of Mayday before, but I'll do it again.

"Mayday! Mayday!" [Note Cussler uses it only twice!]

Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me".
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by mariners and aviators, but in some countries local organisations such as police forces, firefighters, and transportation organizations also use the term. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual Mayday call from a message about a Mayday call.

"Surtsey. Surtsey, by the way, is Icelandic for Submarine."

Surtsey does not mean "submarine." It's most famous use is as the name for an island that appeared off Iceland in the 1960s.
Surtsey (Icelandic, meaning "Surtr's island") is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. At 63.303°N 20.6047°WCoordinates: 63.303°N 20.6047°W Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres (426 ft) below sea level, and reached the surface on 15 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of 2.7 km² (1.0 sq mi). Since then, wind and wave erosion have caused the island to steadily diminish in size: as of 2002, its surface area was 1.4 km² (0.54 sq mi).
The new island was named after Surtr, a fire jötunn or giant from Norse mythology. It was intensively studied by volcanologists during its eruption, and afterwards by botanists and biologists as life forms gradually colonised the originally barren island. The undersea vents that produced Surtsey are part of the Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Isles) submarine volcanic system, part of the fissure of the sea floor called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Vestmannaeyjar also produced the famous eruption of Eldfell on the island of Heimaey in 1973. The eruption that created Surtsey also created a few other small islands along this volcanic chain, such as Jólnir and other, unnamed peaks. Most of these eroded away fairly quickly.

 "Like an Edgar Allen Poe ghost story."

Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".
Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem, "The Raven", to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.
Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

Iceberg: greed driven industrialists and more

pg 111

Admiral Sandecker, in spite of his boiler plate exterior, was at heart a humanitarian, and he rarely disguised his disgust and hatred for greed-driven indutrialists

(Wikipedia's search function redirects industrialist to business magnate!) A business magnate is an entrepreneur who has achieved wealth and prominence from a particular industry (or industries). Other, similar terms are czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, or oligarch.

The word magnate itself derives from the Latin word magnates (plural of magnas), meaning "great person" or "great nobleman."
The word tycoon is derived from the Japanese word taikun, which means "great lord," and it was used as a title for the shogun. The word entered the English language in 1857 with the return of Commodore Perry to the United States. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was humorously referred to as the Tycoon by his aides John Nicolay and John Hay. The term spread to the business community, where it has been used ever since.
The word mogul refers to the Mughal Empire (mughal being Persian or Arabic for "Mongol") of the Indian subcontinent that existed between 1526 and 1857: the early Mughal emperors claimed a heritage dating back to Mongol ruler Genghis Khan. The modern meaning of the word is supposedly derived from the storied riches of the Mughal emperors, who for example produced the Taj Mahal.
As the term industrialist (from Latin industria, "diligence, industriousness") was more widely used in the context of "old world" physical industries such as steel, oil, newspapers,shipping and rail transport, it has largely been superseded by the other, more modern terms that encompass a wider range of virtual business and commercial activity.

  "So they trike a bonanza on the sea floor."

"Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of ore, and commonly refers to The Comstock Lode. (It's also the name of a popular Western TV show starring Lorne Greene and Michale Landon.)

Origin:
1835–45, Americanism ;  < Spanish:  literally, smooth sea (hence, good luck, rich vein of ore), nasalized variant of Medieval Latin bonacia,  equivalent to Latin bon ( us ) good + ( mal ) acia  calm sea < Greek malakía  softness ( malak ( ós ) soft + -ia -ia)

"Dr. Matajic was studying currents below a depth of ten thousand feet, trying to prove a pet theory of his that a deep layer of warm water had the capacity to melt the Pole if only one percent of it could be diverted upward."

 There is no deep layer of warm water.

Deep Ocean Water (DOW) is the name for cold, salty water found deep below the surface of Earth's oceans. Ocean water differs in temperature and salinity, with warm, relatively non-salty water found at the surface, and very cold salty water found deeper below the surface layer. Deep ocean water makes up about 90% of the volume of the oceans. Deep ocean water has a very low temperature, typically from 0 °C (32 °F) to 3 °C (37 °F), and a salinity of about 3.5% (35 psu).^[1]
In specialized locations such as the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii NELHA ocean water is pumped to the surface from approximately 3000 feet deep for applications in research, commercial and pre-commercial activities. DOW is typically used to describe ocean water at sub-thermal depths sufficient to provide a measurable difference in water temperature.
When deep ocean water is brought to the surface, it can be used for a variety of things. Its most useful property is its temperature. At the surface of the Earth, most water and air is well above 3 °C. The difference in temperature is indicative of a difference in energy. Where there is an energy gradient, skillful application of science and engineering can harness that energy for productive use by humans. Assuming the source of deep ocean water is environmentally friendly and replenished by natural mechanisms, it forms a more innovative basis for cleaner energy than current fossil-fuel-derived energy.
The simplest use of cold water is simply for air conditioning: using the cold water itself to cool air saves the energy that would be used by the compressors for traditional refrigeration. Another use could be to replace expensive desalination plants. When cold water passes through a pipe surrounded by humid air, condensation results. The condensate is pure water, suitable for humans to drink or for crop irrigation. Finally, via a technology called Ocean thermal energy conversion, the temperature difference can be turned into electricity.

Iceberg: Celtinium-279 and more

pg 109

"The probe operated by briefly exposing the metallic elements to neutrons given off by a laboratory-produced element called celtinium-279."

 Celtinium is an element invented by Cussler.

"When activated by the neutrons, the elements on the ocean's bottom gave off gamma rays."

Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency and therefore high energy. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation and are thus biologically hazardous. They are classically produced by the decay from high energy states of atomic nuclei (gamma decay), but are also created by other processes. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900, while studying radiation emitted from radium during its gamma decay. Villard's radiation was named "gamma rays" by Ernest Rutherford in 1903.
Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth include gamma decay from naturally occurring radioisotopes, and secondary radiation from atmospheric interactions with cosmic ray particles. Rare terrestrial natural sources produce gamma rays that are not of a nuclear origin, such as lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Gamma rays are produced by a number of astronomical processes in which very high-energy electrons are produced, that in turn cause secondary gamma rays by the mechanisms of bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation. A large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earth's atmosphere and must be detected by spacecraft.
Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz (or >10¹⁹ Hz), and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers (less than the diameter of an atom). However, this is not a hard and fast definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Gamma rays from radioactive decay are defined as gamma rays no matter what their energy, so that there is no lower limit to gamma energy derived from radioactive decay. Gamma decay commonly produces energies of a few hundred keV, and almost always less than 10 MeV. In astronomy, gamma rays are defined by their energy, and no production process need be specified. The energies of gamma rays from astronomical sources range over 10 TeV, at a level far too large to result from radioactive decay. A notable example is extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation normally referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, which produce gamma rays by a mechanism not compatible with radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays, thought to be due to the collapse of stars called hypernovas, are the most powerful events so far discovered in the cosmos.

"I take it that was a white lie?"
From Wiki Answers;

There is no special origin or etymology to the term "little white lie." The word "white" has long been synonomous with "good," "pure," and "intending no harm." For example, "white magic" simply means "good magic" or "magic not intended to harm" (as opposed to "black magic" which is.) Same applies to "white lie" which is a lie told for a good reason, with no intent to harm any one.

Only very recently has the term been used to suggest some racial connotation. For example, a headline might read "The Little White Lie -- Cop Lies on Stand in O.J. Case." However, that usage is only clever word play and has nothing to do with the true origin or meaning of "white lie."

Iceberg: Tidi Royal and more

Starting out with Cussler's treatment of women...very much in the James Bond love 'em and leave 'em mode.

pg 101 to 103, Tidi Royal keeps watch over Dirk while he sleeps. Very interesting, 1970s man-to-woman dialog. Ya just want to slap Cussler for writing this tripe... for all that there's a few women who always have submitted themselves like Royal does in these pages- very sad.

"When I want sarcastic remarks I'll book Don Rickles or Mort Sahl."

Donald Jay "Don" Rickles (born May 8, 1926) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic.

Rickles was born in the New York City borough of Queens to Max Rickles, who had emigrated in 1902 with his parents Joseph and Frances Rickles (Rikhters) from Kaunas, Lithuania (then in the Russian Empire), and Etta (Feldman) Rickles, born in New York to immigrant parents from the Austrian Empire. His family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home. Rickles grew up in the Jackson Heights area.
After graduating from Newtown High School, Rickles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during World War II on the USS Cyrene as a seaman first class. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Two years later, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then played bit parts on television. Frustrated by a lack of acting work, Rickles began doing stand-up comedy. He became known as an insult comedian by responding to his hecklers. The audience enjoyed these insults more than his prepared material, and he incorporated them into his act. When he began his career in the early 1950s he started calling ill-mannered members of the audience a "hockey puck". His style was similar to an older insult comic, "Mr. Warmth" Jack E. Leonard, though Rickles denies that Leonard influenced his style. RIckles hit the big time when Frank Sinatra saw his show and loved it.

Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl (born May 11, 1927) is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses. He was on the cover of Time magazine in 1960 where they called him "the patriarch of a new school of comedians".

 "At this point my crystal ball gets foggy."

A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed by some people to aid in the performance of clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone. A body of water, either in a container or on the ground, used for this purpose, is called a scrying pool.

Dr. John Dee (July 13, 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. He was known for his use of crystal balls in his work.

"The message is written in neon lights."

Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube light is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure. A high potential of several thousand volts applied to the electrodes ionizes the gas in the tube, causing it to emit colored light by fluorescence. The color of the light depends on the gas in the tube. Neon lights were named for neon, a noble gas which gives off a popular red light, but other gases and chemicals are used to produce other colors, such as helium (yellow), carbon dioxide (white), and mercury (blue). Neon tubes can be fabricated in curving artistic shapes, to form letters or pictures. They are mainly used to make dramatic, multicolored glowing signage for advertising, called neon signs, which were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.

The term can also refer to the miniature neon glow lamp, developed in 1917, about seven years after neon tube lighting. While neon tube lights are typically meters long, the neon lamps can be less than one centimeter in length and glow much more dimly than the tube lights. Through the 1970s, neon glow lamps were widely used for displays in electronics, for small decorative lamps, and as electronic devices in of themselves. While these lamps are now antiques, the technology of the neon glow lamp developed into contemporary plasma displays and televisions.


Georges Claude, a French engineer and inventor, presented neon tube lighting in essentially its modern form at the Paris Motor Show from December 3–18, 1910. Claude, sometimes called "the Edison of France", had a near monopoly on the new technology, which became very popular for signage and displays in the period 1920-1940. Neon lighting was an important cultural phenomenon in the United States in that era; by 1940, the downtowns of nearly every city in the US were bright with neon signage, and Times Square in New York City was known worldwide for its neon extravagances. There were 2000 shops nationwide designing and fabricating neon signs.^] The popularity, intricacy, and scale of neon signage for advertising declined in the U.S. following the Second World War (1939–1945), but development continued vigorously in Japan, Iran, and some other countries. In recent decades architects and artists, in addition to sign designers, have again adopted neon tube lighting as a component in their works^.

Neon lighting is closely related to fluorescent lighting, which developed about 25 years after neon tube lighting. In fluorescent lights, the light emitted by rarefied gases within a tube is used exclusively to excite fluorescent materials that coat the tube, which then shine with their own colors that become the tube's visible, usually white, glow. Fluorescent coatings and glasses are also an option for neon tube lighting, but are usually selected to obtain bright colors.