Horror at Martins Beach

On August 8, 1922, a nightmare event occurred on Martins Beach in Gloucester . The owners of the fashionable Wavecrest Inn resort have made every effort to silence those events that have been publicized after an article by Professor Ahon, “Is Humanity's knowledge of hypnotic powers limited? " . On May 17, the team of the Alma Gloucester fishing smack captain James P. Orne killed a sea monster after a forty-hour fight. Captain Orne hired a large vessel capable of holding a huge scarecrow, and turned it into a maritime museum at Martins Beach Pier.

The creature's torso was nearly cylindrical in shape, about 50 feet long and ten feet across. According to the main features, including the presence of gills, it clearly belonged to the class of fish, but at the same time it had strange distinctive features - rudimentary forepaws and six-fingered limbs in place of pectoral fins, which led to the wildest assumptions. The incredibly wide jaws, thick scaly skin and a single deep-set eye amazed the imagination no less than the colossal dimensions of a sea monster. Scientists announced that it is a newborn individual no more than a few days old, it was an inhabitant of almost unthinkable depths (almost tens of thousands of feet), possessing a brain and internal organs, indicating a strikingly high level of evolutionary development, to which a very, very far to any representative of the class of fish known to modern science.

July 20, public hype intensified in connection with the disappearance of the vessel along with the watchman during a night storm. Captain Orne, with the support of fishing vessels from Gloucester, undertook a search operation. The tragedy broke out on August 8, when eyewitnesses noticed a phenomenon resembling a swell on the moon, and a heart-rending cry erupted from the bowels of the ocean - a cry full of torment and despair, causing involuntary compassion. Rescuers threw a rubber ring with a rope in the direction of the cry, but could not pull it out. A dozen strong men and Captain Orne joined them, but even this did not work. A crowd of eyewitnesses in the hotel speculated about whales, submarines, sea monsters and demons. The men realized that they were not able to let go of the rope. They were mysteriously glued to the cable that pulled them into the sea. No one on the shore could utter a word. In the atmosphere there was a threat of an impending nightmare - a manifestation of evil that the world never knew. The serpentine line of the swaying heads became already very poorly visible. From time to time, the deathly pale faces of the victims turned to the coast. The storm began and there was a loud thunderclap, whose echo seemed to shake the earth and the sea equally. A downpour poured in, swallowing the dark world with power.

Peering into the distance of these heads, another eye appeared; the only eye that shone with horror. This eye was so amazing to the mind that the vision soon passed. Caught in the claws of a mysterious force, a group of doomed dragged into the sea; their silent cries and unspoken pleas were accessible only to the demons of black waves and the night wind.

The furious sky burst with a flash accompanied by a monstrous roar of truly satanic rage. In the midst of the bright blinding light emitted by the descending fire, the voice of heaven was filled with all the blasphemy of hell and mixed with the agony of the thunderclap in a single apocalyptic, tearing the planet cyclopean roar. Suddenly the storm stopped. There was no longer a chain of human heads. The calm of the waters was disturbed only by a gradually fading ripple, which was the result of a whirlpool far beyond a strip of moonlight, from where a strange cry came from. And at that moment, from the side of the sea, from some secret bottomless depths, a faint echo of sinister laughter leaked out.

In the story Shadow over Innsmouth , the city of Innsmouth is described, where descendants from the Deepwater race hid among the inhabitants.

The story " Dagon " describes the city of R'lyeh , where Dagon appears.

The story “ Call of Cthulhu ” describes the cult of Cthulhu in New Orleans and the city of R'lyeh , where the Great Cthulhu appears.

The story “ The Horror at Red Hook ” describes a sea witch who founded the underground cult of Lilith in Brooklyn .

The story “ Innsmouth Clay ” describes a sea woman who enchanted the artist at Devil's Reef, in Innsmouth .

The story “ Cape Falcon Fisherman ” describes a mermaid caught by a fisherman at Devil's Reef in Innsmouth .

The story " The Only Heir " describes an experiment to create a human crocodile in Providence .

The story “ Window in the attic ” describes the Lang plateau, where a race of octopus octopuses appears.

The story, “ Room with boarded up shutters, ” describes the views of Deepwater and the creature that was hiding in the room of the house at the mill in Danwich.

• Something About Cats and Other Pieces, Arkham House, 1949. Facsimile reprint by Books for Libraries Press, 1971.
• The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1970. As "The Invisible Monster" by Sonia Greene
• The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions. Edited by ST Joshi. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989, ISBN 0-87054-040-8, 325-30. As "The Horror at Martin's Beach" by Sonia H. Greene
• The Loved Dead and Other Revisions. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-7867-0445-4, 125-30.