Top
Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
Customer Reviews Read Reviews
Write a Review
The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
Bouvetoya Whaling Station,
Antarctica, 1904
The Emma sailed for the shores of Bouvetoya Islandat the start of the 1904 whaling season with afull complement of sailors, harpooners, boats and oilprocessing equipment -- enough to slaughter whalesand extract their oil for a full year on the Antarctic icebefore returning to Norway the following year.
Emma's newest skipper and part-owner Sven Nybergintended to make his first and last voyage as awhaler a profitable one. Sven's brother, Bjorn, hadbeen the Emma's captain for nineteen seasons, butBjorn had died of a fever during last year's return voyage,which had compelled his brother to assume commandon this, the final commercial venture of theNyberg Brothers Oil Company of Oslo. Upon his returnto Norway, Sven fully intended to sell his family'sbusiness to the highest bidder.
The dawn of this new century was bringing an endto traditional whaling. Magnate Christian Christensenhad opened a modern processing facility in Grytviken that would eventually edge out smaller Antarctic whalingconcerns like the Nyberg brothers -- men who'dfollowed methods practiced by Norwegians since thedays of the Vikings. Like seal hunting, an activity thathad made many a family fortune back in the 1870s,whaling was becoming an unprofitable enterprise. Decliningherds and rising competition from British andScottish whalers -- and recently even the Japanese -- along with giant conglomerates like the Christensencorporation were gradually ending the era of the selfsufficient,independent whaler.
Still, Sven Nyberg would try to make the NybergBrothers a viable oil company for a little while longer.It was the only way to ensure a profitable sale of hisfamily's interests. To that end Sven had offered Oslo'smost experienced whale hunter, Karl Johanssen, a positionas first mate, with a five-percent share of the expedition'sprofits. If successful, the Emma's journey tothe South Pole would make Karl a very wealthy man.
The offer could not have come at a better time forKarl Johanssen. A whaler since he'd been tw elve yearsold, Johanssen had weathered twenty-seven seasons onthe ice and survived them with all of his limbs, fingersand toes intact -- no mean feat where temperaturescould reach 50 degrees below zero. From past voyageswith brother Bjorn, Johanssen was also familiar withthe Nyberg Brothers'oil processing facility on BouvetoyaIsland, one of the world's most remote locations.
A few years before, in 1897, Karl Johanssen thoughthe'd given up the sea for good. Lured to northern Californiaby his brother's promises of wealth, Karl hadsquandered his meager savings trying to strike it rich in the Alaska gold rush. Forced to return to whaling out offinancial desperation, he'd been ready to sign onto oneof Christensen's ships for a paltry one-half of one percentshare when Sven Nyberg had made his offer. Aberth as first mate with a full five-percent share wasKarl's lucky second chance at a comfortable retirement.
Of course, Karl would work hard for the money.Sven Nyberg was an indifferent seaman, and he'dnever spent even a single season on the Antarctic ice.Fortunately, during their long twelve months of backbreakinglabor, Sven had been wise enough to defer toKarl's judgment in nearly every situation. Under theharpooner's tutelage, the younger Nyberg brother hadlearned secrets of the whale hunting trade that it wouldhave taken him years to discover on his own. The result,after a year, was an incredibly successful hunt,with Emma towing over three hundred carcasses intothe cove at Bouvetoya Island. There the remains ofblues, minkes and sperms would be cut up and theblubber rendered for its oil.
It was during the grimy rendering process, when themen were outside for lengths of time attending thehuge iron vat dominating the harbor, that the whalersbegan to see strange lights in the sky, and not the southernlights they were used to seeing.
Over Lykke Peak and the taller, three-thousand-footOlav Peak that overshadowed the oil processing facility,bursts like distant cannon fire lit the sky, and explosionson the ice could be heard in the distance. Then astrange reddish glow appeared on the horizon, illuminatingthe ceaseless twilight with the brilliance of athousand cook fires. The light danced crimson off the ice and tinged the millions of whalebones that litteredthe beach a sickly hue. Often -- but not always -- theeerie lights were accompanied by tremors deep beneaththe ground under their feet.
While volcanic activity on the island was not unusual-- sometime in 1896 part of the island had evenbeen destroyed by a volcanic eruption -- the phenomenaunsettled the whalers, who were trapped on Bouvetoyauntil the spring thaw no matter what happened.So after a few days of these strange events, in an effortto calm the whalers'fears and discover the cause of theeerie pyrotechnics, Karl led a group of sailors awayfrom the harbor's ramshackle wooden buildings andonto the glacial ice that covered the fifty-square-mileisland.
On a vast frozen plain, they recovered a large,metallic object shaped like a coffin built for a giant.The object was embedded in the ice in the middle of ahuge crater. Its silvery surface was smooth and bulletshaped,with no visible joints or openings. There weremarkings etched into the metal -- a strange, alienscrimshaw no whaler in the party could read or evenrecognize. Though the metal coffin appeared to be hollow,no one could figure out how to open it, or whatwas inside.
Karl Johanssen thought it best to leave the thingwhere it lay, but in this one instance the skipper overruledhim. Captain Nyberg was eager to find anotherway to make the voyage profitable, so he ordered thesailors to load the object onto a sledge and use a dogteam to drag it back to camp ...
AVP: Alien vs. Predator
Excerpted from AVP: The Movie Novelization by Marc Cerasini
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Need Help? Copyright © 1999-2024