Captain Art O’Callaghan has played down suggestions that his crew has found ‘Cthulu’. Referring to the mythical creature created by author H. P. Lovecraft, a sonar image taken by his trench-mapping team in the Atlantic ocean shows what appears to be an enormous octopus-like creature.
When asked about the image, he denies that it is anything but ordinary, despite its likeness to mythical creatures such as the Kraken, a legendary giant octopus.
“Structure, not creature,” he stresses, “We don’t know if it’s biological in nature, we don’t know if it’s moving. It’s one frame out of a thousand others that we’ve taken, and I’m not about to go calling it something it’s not. It could be an anomaly, a pocket of bubbles or an underwater mountain crest covered in algae. We just don’t know.”
A communications operator, who has refused to be named, contradicts him, “Nonsense. This is top-notch equipment that can take sonar, thermal and infra-red images of extremely deep-sea trenches. Coupled with the raw image is advanced processing and noise filtering. Anomalies or shadows like he’s suggestion just don’t happen. There is something there, and that’s that. I’ve checked it, like, five times, and it’s about 750 metres in diameter, whatever it is.”
When asked if he would be returning to the ‘Cthulu Trench’, as it is known among his crew, Captain O’Callaghan is firm, “I’m employed to do a job, and I’m doing it, end of story. We’ve got another two months worth of sweeping to do, weather permitting. The trenches won’t map themselves.”
Chester Press 