{"product_id":"2940014008556","title":"THE LOST CONTINENT","description":"Since earliest childhood I have been strangely fascinated by the\u003cbr\u003emystery surrounding the history of the last days of twentieth century\u003cbr\u003eEurope.  My interest is keenest, perhaps, not so much in relation to\u003cbr\u003eknown facts as to speculation upon the unknowable of the two centuries\u003cbr\u003ethat have rolled by since human intercourse between the Western and\u003cbr\u003eEastern Hemispheres ceased--the mystery of Europe's state following the\u003cbr\u003etermination of the Great War--provided, of course, that the war had\u003cbr\u003ebeen terminated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom out of the meagerness of our censored histories we learned that\u003cbr\u003efor fifteen years after the cessation of diplomatic relations between\u003cbr\u003ethe United States of North America and the belligerent nations of the\u003cbr\u003eOld World, news of more or less doubtful authenticity filtered, from\u003cbr\u003etime to time, into the Western Hemisphere from the Eastern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen came the fruition of that historic propaganda which is best\u003cbr\u003edescribed by its own slogan: \"The East for the East--the West for the\u003cbr\u003eWest,\" and all further intercourse was stopped by statute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven prior to this, transoceanic commerce had practically ceased, owing\u003cbr\u003eto the perils and hazards of the mine-strewn waters of both the\u003cbr\u003eAtlantic and Pacific Oceans.  Just when submarine activities ended we\u003cbr\u003edo not know but the last vessel of this type sighted by a Pan-American\u003cbr\u003emerchantman was the huge Q 138, which discharged twenty-nine torpedoes\u003cbr\u003eat a Brazilian tank steamer off the Bermudas in the fall of 1972.  A\u003cbr\u003eheavy sea and the excellent seamanship of the master of the Brazilian\u003cbr\u003epermitted the Pan-American to escape and report this last of a long\u003cbr\u003eseries of outrages upon our commerce.  God alone knows how many\u003cbr\u003ehundreds of our ancient ships fell prey to the roving steel sharks of\u003cbr\u003eblood-frenzied Europe.  Countless were the vessels and men that passed\u003cbr\u003eover our eastern and western horizons never to return; but whether they\u003cbr\u003emet their fates before the belching tubes of submarines or among the\u003cbr\u003eaimlessly drifting mine fields, no man lived to tell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then came the great Pan-American Federation which linked the\u003cbr\u003eWestern Hemisphere from pole to pole under a single flag, which joined\u003cbr\u003ethe navies of the New World into the mightiest fighting force that ever\u003cbr\u003esailed the seven seas--the greatest argument for peace the world had\u003cbr\u003eever known.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince that day peace had reigned from the western shores of the Azores\u003cbr\u003eto the western shores of the Hawaiian Islands, nor has any man of\u003cbr\u003eeither hemisphere dared cross 30dW. or 175dW.  From 30d to 175d is\u003cbr\u003eours--from 30d to 175d is peace, prosperity and happiness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond was the great unknown.  Even the geographies of my boyhood\u003cbr\u003eshowed nothing beyond.  We were taught of nothing beyond.  Speculation\u003cbr\u003ewas discouraged.  For two hundred years the Eastern Hemisphere had been\u003cbr\u003ewiped from the maps and histories of Pan-America.  Its mention in\u003cbr\u003efiction, even, was forbidden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur ships of peace patrol thirty and one hundred seventy-five.  What\u003cbr\u003eships from beyond they have warned only the secret archives of\u003cbr\u003egovernment show; but, a naval officer myself, I have gathered from the\u003cbr\u003etraditions of the service that it has been fully two hundred years\u003cbr\u003esince smoke or sail has been sighted east of 30d or west of 175d.  The\u003cbr\u003efate of the relinquished provinces which lay beyond the dead lines we\u003cbr\u003ecould only speculate upon.  That they were taken by the military power,\u003cbr\u003ewhich rose so suddenly in China after the fall of the republic, and\u003cbr\u003ewhich wrested Manchuria and Korea from Russia and Japan, and also\u003cbr\u003eabsorbed the Philippines, is quite within the range of possibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was the commander of a Chinese man-of-war who received a copy of the\u003cbr\u003eedict of 1972 from the hand of my illustrious ancestor, Admiral Turck,\u003cbr\u003eon one hundred seventy-five, two hundred and six years ago, and from\u003cbr\u003ethe yellowed pages of the admiral's diary I learned that the fate of\u003cbr\u003ethe Philippines was even then presaged by these Chinese naval officers.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079860830448,"sku":"2940014008556","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014008556_p0.jpg?v=1763598842","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014008556","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}