A short while after returning from India, diUmbria set forth anew in the Emerald Hunter, a fine vessel paid for by profits from his first real trade run to the lands beyond Africa. The ship put out from London with fifty one days of food on board, as well as an assemblage of supplies from lumber to sail cloth. While in London awaiting the completion of the ship, he had visited the public archives in the city as well as researched some volumes at the University of Oxford. In the Norwegian folklore he found some clues. Many tales placed the great beast in the North Sea, just beyond Britain’s wildest isles.…