Antarctica is the most recent, and final, of the Earth's Continents to be explored by humans. It is the fifth largest Continent in the World. Before the late eighteenth century, there were only rumours of its existence. British sea Captain James Cook visited in 1773 and 1774. However, ice fields made it impossible for him to land. Russian, British and United States ships sailed around the land mass in the early 1820s. Antarctica is an ice desert. It is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth. The Antarctic is colder than the Arctic. Explorers of many nations came as the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries progressed. Landings of humans on Antarctica began to be recorded during the later nineteenth century. However, to this day, the Continent has no permanent human population. At any one time there may be several thousand Antarctic researchers operating out of their nations' research bases. They normally spend a maximum of one, or possibly two, years in this freezing place. Albeit, on sunny, but chilly, summer days, Antarctica can look a beautiful place with the sunlight glinting off its ice and lighter snow covering; and its majestic mountains standing before a clear blue sky. However, in icy winter, it is dark and satanic. Eerie giant ice structures form and their ghastly silhouettes stand like threatening guardians in the twilight or Stygian gloom of the land. Early mariners who ventured into this strangest of lands often speculated about, and sometimes believed they glimpsed, vast and terrifying, never-before-seen monsters that lurked beneath its massive ice sheets or existed in the depths of its ice-closed great lakes. In modern times, a United States Marine Biology Professor and his glamorous, and extremely career-minded, female Deputy arrive on a government chartered research ship to search out a fierce giant creature; of whose existence they already have a tiny amount of evidence. The Professor's ancestor was First Mate on a US Whaler that came early into Antarctic waters in 1822. He left a diary account that was never seen outside his family, of a short encounter his ship had with a ferocious and colossal leviathan. The Professor has named the monster 'Ketos' after a mighty avenging beast created and controlled by the Ancient Greek Gods. Before they can start their investigation, they need a guide with local Antarctic knowledge. They are loaned an ex-Marine (and Anglo-American orphan: George Batten) by New Zealand Antarctica. He normally works in Antarctica as a Meteorologist. Their monster-search becomes an incredible adventure. They have encounters with North American gangsters laying low from their most recent atrocity on a luxury Antarctic cruise liner they have hired; along with a bevy of trafficked East European girls. They gain positive evidence of the sea monster of their search. However, this only leads to still more grief and terror. The first third of the story tells of brief incidents, a number are horrendous, mainly involving Seamen and their ships, of various nationalities, from the 1820s to modern times, and the 25 meters-long and massively built, 'Ketos', who is among the last of his terrifying species, of nocturnal, sea-mammal carnivores. They have a few features that are not unlike other sea-mammals. Albeit, their teeth and jaws resemble those of the prehistoric Sabre-toothed Cat. The monsters are never unprovoked aggressive. However, they instinctively protect the young and females, of their dwindling kind; and guard them under the Antarctic ice. For the various ships' crews the encounters may be unintentionally tragic, inadvertently helpful or neutral. Interwoven with the modern-times account of the Professor of Marine Biology's monster-investigation, is the story of Marine George Batten. He has the sort of life one would expect of a tough, and charming young man; there are a few incidents of a romant
About the Author: Guy Henry Bransby was born on 27 January 1942 at West End Nursing Home, Esher, and Surrey, England. He attended a Nursery School in Hampton Court Palace, a Junior School in Thames Ditton Village, Surrey, Ottershaw Boarding School, Surrey and Chateau de la Rochette Boarding School in central France. He went to Mons (Army) Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, Hampshire, in 1963 and was commissioned into The Royal Regiment of Artillery. He served his 3 year Short Service Commission in the British Rhine Army and commanded Border Patrols on the Iron Curtain. Upon leaving the British service, he answered a New Zealand advertisement for Officers and was sent for two tours to the Vietnam War as a Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery. Upon his return from Vietnam, he was posted for two years as a New Zealand United Nations Officer (Captain) to the UN Military Mission in Kashmir (India/Pakistan Border). He was a trainer of Recruits, after his overseas service, and rejoined the United Kingdom armed forces in 1980. After two weeks, he was posted to Northern Ireland and, just over a year later, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and, as he was fluent in Spanish (also French and German), he was immediately sent to the war as a Spanish-speaking Intelligence Officer. His final military-type service was with UN Former Yugoslavia, as a Border Monitor, on the Serbian-Croatian border in 1995/6. After his military service, he joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the VIP Visitors/Protocol Section. In 1996, he was seconded, by the FCO to the Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and was sent back to the former Yugoslavia as the Head of an OSCE Field Office. He was ten years in former Yugoslavia. He operated mainly in Croatia. However, his work also took him to Serbia and Bosnia. Guy Bransby always enjoyed writing and was several times Editor, Article Writer and Cartoonist for, in house, Regimental magazines. He has written two books and joined the UK Society of Authors in 1995. He has also written a number of screen plays. However, agents have never read the scripts. He was widowed in March 2001 and now lives on a farm in Carpathia, Romania. GHB Other books by Guy Bransby: 1. 'Her Majesty's Vietnam Soldier' (Biographical) (Pen & Sword (Leo Cooper) Books): out of print. 2. 'Her Majesty's Interrogator' (Biographical) (Pen & Sword (Leo Cooper) Books: out of print.