A Monstrous Commotion: The Mysteries of Loch Ness by Gareth Williams

Author:Gareth Williams [Williams, Gareth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2015-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

Rines’s reply began, ‘Dear Sir Scott’ and explained that the flipper photograph came from a series which was undergoing computer enhancement at JPL. ‘Serious attention’ had in fact come from JPL and ‘several other American scientists’. Rines had ‘tried to avoid publicity’, which might explain why Scott had missed all this. Rines would be in London with his wife and new baby son in early June, and would be delighted to meet Scott and David Jones [sic]. The letter was sent from the Rines family law firm, not the Academy of Applied Science. It ended, ‘Cordially, RINES AND RINES’ and was pp’d by a secretary.34

Scott and Rines met for the first time in the second week of June, at Slimbridge. They got on well. The Rines family’s thank-you note, from Bob, Carol and baby Justice, was on a jaunty Nessie postcard sent from Tychat, the house which they had recently bought on the hillside overlooking Temple Pier and Urquhart Bay. Rines promised to tell JPL to send Scott all the photos – and of course would let him know if they found anything new at the Loch during the summer.35

Scott’s suspicions had not been allayed by meeting Rines face to face. A month later, he wrote to his wise counsel, Sir Solly Zuckerman, who was about to visit MIT. Scott explained the background and went straight to the point. Any evidence suggesting that the photographs and sonar charts could be ‘a deliberate, elaborate and skilful forgery’ would be ‘helpful’. Specifically, Scott asked ‘to what extent can we depend on the integrity of Dr Rines and his associates?’.36

Zuckerman replied promptly. He was spending a whole day with the President of MIT and would ‘make the necessary enquiries’. On returning to England, he reported back to Scott in a letter marked ‘Confidential’. The President of MIT had never heard of the Academy of Applied Science but knew about Rines. ‘I showed him your letter,’ wrote Zuckerman, ‘and the gist of his reply was, “Tread warily”.’37

But by then it was too late, because Rines had found something new.

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