Notes
First published in a shorter form in Star Science Fiction Stories No.3 edited by Frederik Pohl (Ballantine Books, 1954), the short story was then revised and expanded for publication as a novel by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1957.

Volume 23 in the series, but marked as Volume 24 on the spine. The correct volume number is given on the verso of the title page.

Publisher’s Blurb – Lower Cover
Since the beginnings of time it had worked its will on humanity, and for as long as man could remember he had struggled against its power. But in the 21st century the battle was won. Mankind had finally conquered his age-old enemy, the sea.

Professionals like Walter Franklin now patrolled the oceans’ infinite savannahs, harvesting from the plankton prairies a crop which fed the world. But like that other great frontier, space, the sea had still not yielded up all its secrets. And men like Franklin would never rest until its every fathomless mystery had been challenged . . .

Includes a new introduction by Arthur C. Clarke

"A welcome and well-chosen series"
- Good Book Guide

"Vivid, beautiful and exciting . . . enough crises to keep you reading avidly"
- Sunday Times

"Very compelling . . . an element of poetry akin to Moby Dick"
- Scotsman

"One of the truly prophetic figures of the space age"
- New Yorker