The sea girl

About The sea girl

The Sea Girl by Ray Cummings is a science fiction novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a near-future 1990 of sub-sea freighters and airliners, it pits humanity against a baffling undersea menace as oceans mysteriously recede and ships vanish without a trace. The story centers on navigator Geoffry Grant, the driven oceanographer Dr. Plantet, his practical daughter Polly, and the dreamer Arturo, who glimpses a girl inside a strange metallic globe beneath the waves. Their intertwined paths lead to a daring deep-sea expedition and an uncanny encounter with a “sea girl” on a remote Micronesian atoll. The opening of the novel follows escalating Pacific disasters, a glimpse of a luminous undersea globe with a young woman’s face, and worldwide anomalies—abnormal tides, quakes, and volcanoes venting steam—culminating in Dr. Plantet’s stark conclusion that Earth’s honeycombed crust is draining the oceans and that a hidden human-like civilization may be rising to challenge the surface. As governments mobilize and censorship lifts, he builds the Dolphin, a revolutionary craft rated to two thousand fathoms, and sets out with Grant and Polly to scout the Pacific deeps. On the eve of departure, Arturo vanishes, leaving a note and secretly flying to the reported “mermaid” atoll, where he meets a shy, intelligent sea girl and begins to win her trust.

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