The Mysterious Island Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Captain Grant's Children

Chapter 70: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1)
The story happened in 1886. People found a "sea monster" thought to be a narwhal in the sea, and the U.S. Department of the Navy sent a warship to chase it.French naturalist Professor Aronnax was also invited to participate in this event, but it didn't take long before he and his companions accidentally landed on the back of the "sea monster".Only then did they discover that the so-called "sea monster" was actually a submersible ship with a wonderful structure - "Nautilus"! Nemo, the captain of the "Nautilus", invites Aronnas to travel under the sea together. The whole trip is thrilling and full of climaxes.They participated in underwater hunting, visited the underwater forest, visited the ruins of Atlantis under the sea, salvaged the treasure of the Spanish shipwreck, witnessed the funeral of the Coral Kingdom, fought with octopuses, repelled the siege of the indigenous people, and so on.Finally, when the diving ship "Nautilus" arrived at the coast of Norway, Aronnas left without saying goodbye, and announced the secrets of the seabed he knew to share with the world.

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is the second part of the "Trilogy of Jules Verne's Science Fiction Novels". It was published in 1870 with "Captain Grant's Children" and "The Mysterious Island" later.It has been more than a hundred years since its birth, and it is still popular all over the world in various versions in multiple languages, and has a wide readership, which shows its strong vitality and great attraction.

There are only a few characters in the book, and the story described is not complicated. It consists of four and a half people and a submarine: Aronnas, a Frenchman, a naturalist, was invited to the United States to participate in a scientific expedition.During this period, unknown monsters appeared in the sea, causing a commotion all over the world.After the scientific expedition was over, Aronnas was preparing to pack his luggage and return to France, but he received a special invitation from the US Department of the Navy, so he boarded a destroyer and participated in the activity of "clearing that monster out of the ocean".After untold hardships, the "monster" not only was not eliminated, but severely damaged the destroyer. The naturalist, his servant, and a whaler specially invited to eliminate the "monster" all accidentally became "monsters". Prisoner of the Monster!Only then did they discover that the so-called "monster" was actually an unknown submarine named "Nautilus".The captain of this submarine is called Nemo. He treats the prisoners very preferentially, just to keep his secret and never allow them to leave.Aronnax and his party had no choice but to travel around the oceans with the submarine.Ten months later, they finally escaped from the "Nautilus" under extremely dangerous circumstances. "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is mainly written about the experiences of Aronnas and his party during these ten months.

In ten months, the protagonists of the novel rely on the "Nautilus" submarine to traverse 11 miles under the sea, and interpret thrilling, tortuous and fascinating stories one after another.The so-called "twenty thousand miles" refers to French ancient miles, and ancient miles are divided into sea and land. One ancient sea mile is about 11 kilometers. Since we are traveling around the seabed, the twenty thousand miles here should be [-] ancient sea miles. That's [-] kilometers. The [-]-kilometer underwater travel is undoubtedly rich in content and bizarre.In the mysterious seabed, we can feel things that we can't normally feel, and we can see things that we can't imagine normally.You will be surprised to find that the original underwater forest can be walked and hunted; there are also coal mines on the seabed; in the Indian Ocean, submarine members fought with sharks, and the scene was thrilling; It was served on the table that night... Have you ever eaten dugong meat?Do you know how coral reefs are formed?Do you know how deep the ocean really is?Can you imagine how fast the sound travels in the sea... "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" describes such adventures. Under the guidance of the protagonist Aronnas, we experience the dangers and dangers, and the scenery at times. A beautiful, intoxicating journey.

The author Jules Verne has rich imagination, exquisite writing style and ingenious ideas. The whole book fully demonstrates the magic and beauty of the underwater world, full of exotic flavors, and colorful like myths.What is commendable is that Verne's imagination is not whimsical, but based on science; many things he foresaw later became real things in real life.The design of the "Nautilus" submarine in this book provided useful inspiration for later engineers when they manufactured real practical submarines; contemporary readers can also learn about marine life, meteorology, geography, etc. A wealth of knowledge in all aspects.

fly away reef

A strange thing happened in 1866, I believe people will never forget it.This incident is very bizarre, mysterious and unexplainable, and it has received a lot of attention.Whether it is European and American import and export businessmen, captains and owners, naval officers of various countries, and governments of these two continents, they all pay attention to it.Here we don't talk about the various rumors that caused a sensation among coastal residents and world public opinion at that time, but only about the special excitement of ordinary sailors.

What happened was this: not long ago, a giant spindle shaped like a spindle appeared on the surface of the sea. Among the animals in the sea, the volume of the whale was considered large, but the volume of this object was much larger than that of the whale. The speed is also much faster than that of a whale, and occasionally there will be phosphorescent flashes.Many ships have encountered it.

Many nautical diaries have recorded the shape, speed, and power of this thing.Although the versions of these diaries are different, the content is basically the same.Whether it is the description of the shape of this thing or this creature, or the admiration of its natural special ability, the amazing speed of its movement and the incredible power of its transfer, etc., all the contents are exactly the same.If this thing is a cetacean, it is much larger than the whales that biologists have ever classified.According to biologists such as Cuvier Lacebert, Dumery, and Cattrafage, they would not admit the existence of this monster unless they saw it with their own eyes.

In all these accounts the same, some say that the length of the thing is about two hundred feet, which is conservative; others exaggerate, and say that the width of the monster should be a mile, and the length is three miles.We can compromise the two estimates, if the monster exists, and we can at least be sure that it is larger than any fish we have ever seen.However, does this thing really exist?According to the strong curiosity of human beings, we will understand what kind of sensational effect this monster will have all over the world once it appears.

However, if this matter is nonsense, it will definitely be opposed by many people.The "Governor Higginsun" of the Burnashi Steamboat Company in Calcutta actually encountered this swimming giant.It was July 1866, 7, when the Governor Higginsson was sailing five miles east of the coast of Australia, when this strange behemoth suddenly appeared.At first, Captain Buck thought it was an unknown reef, but when he was about to determine its exact location, the monster suddenly sprayed out two jets of water, and with a bang, the jets of water shot straight up into the air. The height is about 20 feet.It seems that this thing in front of the Governor Xijinsun should be a marine mammal that can spray water columns from its nostrils, unless there are geysers on this reef.

On July 7 of the same year, it was seen in the Pacific Ocean by a ship, the "Christobal Golang" of the West Indo-Pacific Steamboat Company.That is to say, this peculiar cetacean has quite amazing swimming speed, and can quickly transfer from one place to another. The "Governor Higginson" and the "Christobal Golang" saw it from two different places, seven hundred miles apart, separated by only three days.

Half a month later, the "Helvetia" of the State Steamship Company and the "Shannon" of the Royal Mail Company saw this big monster at the same time.At that time, the two ships met in the Atlantic Ocean between America and Europe, and the place where they met was at latitude 42°15' north and longitude 60°35' west, two thousand miles from the above-mentioned point.The longest whale in the world is only 56 meters, like those whales that frequent the waters near the Aleutian islands of Jiulanmark and Onjulik.The length of the monster seen by the two ships was at least 100 meters, because the two ships "Shannong" and "Helvidia" were only [-] meters long when connected, which was not as long as it.This is really a mammal that has never been seen before.

Such news came one after another: the various observations recently made by the transatlantic "Berrel", the collision between the Inman Steamship "Vietina" and this monster, the French class warship "North". The records written by the officers of the HMS Mandy, and the careful calculations made by Fitz James, Senior Admiral of the Naval Staff, aboard the Sir Creed, had aroused strong public repercussions.In some countries, many people laugh at this incident as a gossip incident, while in countries with a strict and down-to-earth style such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, it has become a major concern.

This monster became a well-known event.Some newspapers and periodicals with limited circulation began to take advantage of this incident to fabricate all kinds of anecdotal reports about bizarre giant animals in order to attract the attention of the common people and achieve the purpose of profit.They talked about the terrible white whale "Moby Dick" in the Arctic sea from the white whale. whale.Let’s talk about the gigantic siren in Scandinavian mythology. The tentacles of this siren are so powerful that it can entangle a ship with a load of 1819 tons and drag it to the abyss of the sea.It's really all kinds of things.Some people even cited classics, and moved out Aristotle and Pliny. Pliny, an ancient Roman writer, wrote a total of seven works. Now there are only 1891 volumes of the encyclopedia-style "Natural History".Because both of them admit that there are monsters in the world; others cite the Norwegian fairy tales of Bishop Pontupidan, the travel notes of Paul Egide, and finally even the report of Mr. Harrington's voyage. .Mr. Harrington's report is indisputable, and he affirms that in 37 he had seen a large snake, on board the Castellan.Snakes of that kind had previously been found only on the seas of the old arctic expedition ship "Constitution".

As a result, two factions of believers and skeptics emerged in academic groups and scientific journals, and they debated endlessly on the "monster problem".In this memorable pen battle, the journalists who thought they knew science and the literati who always thought they were talented spent a lot of ink. In the end, there was a fire. On some arrogant guy.Several people were hanged for this, and shed two or three drops of blood.In any case, this incident became the main topic of singing in cafes, ridicule in newspapers, and performances on the stage at that time, and it also gave opportunities for troublemakers to create rumors and fight with each other.

For more than half a year, the two sides insisted on their own opinions and argued continuously.The various popular tabloids are full of articles, authoritative papers published by the Brazilian Academy of Geography, the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the British Federation of Learning, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, as well as the Indian Archipelago, Father Moiano's Cosmic Magazine, Peterman Peterman (1822 —1878), German naturalist.The discussions in the newspaper Le Notie and the scientific news in the major newspapers of France and other countries were relentlessly attacked.A quote from Linnaeus quoted by the skeptics, parodied playfully by the brilliant writers of the tabloids, "Nature doesn't make stupid things," does lend support; Go admit there's a kraken, sea serpent, Moby Dick, Moby Dick, and don't believe the nonsense of those hot-headed sailors.Finally, an article appeared in a prestigious satirical journal written by the paper's most popular editor, an editor who resembled the Greek mythical hero Hippolytus. Same, gave that monster a severe blow, and canceled its name amidst the laughter of the crowd.Wisdom eventually triumphed over science.

During the first few months of 1867, news of the monster disappeared, and it seemed that the monster had been buried and would never rise from the dead again.But at this time, some new events were presented to the world.The nature of the problem changed completely, and the monster became an island, a rock, a reef, but it was galloping, incomprehensible, and mysterious in its actions.That is to say, the problem at hand is not an urgent scientific problem to be solved, but a danger that must be carefully sought to avoid.

No map records rocks at 27°30'N and 72°15'W on the surface of the sea.However, on August 1867, 8, the "Moravian" of the Monterey Navigation Company sailed in this sea area at night. Due to the wind power and the 5-horsepower push, the speed of the ship reached At 27 nautical miles, when the ship was approaching latitude 30°72′N, longitude 15°230′W, the stern on the starboard side of the ship collided with a rock.Thanks to the high quality of the hull and solid workmanship, otherwise the "Moravian" would have been cracked while traveling at such a fast speed, and the [-] six passengers from Canada on board would have died at the bottom of the sea.

This unexpected incident happened at around five o'clock in the morning, when the sun was just rising.The crew on duty at that time rushed to the stern to observe the situation after they noticed that the hull had collided with a foreign object. However, they found nothing except a huge vortex.And that huge vortex seemed to be formed after the water surface was violently impacted by something.Therefore, the crew carefully checked the surface of the hull again, and found no damage. After measuring the specific location of this place and recording it, the "Moravian" began to sail on.It's just that did the ship hit a reef at that time, or did it run into the wreckage of the ship in distress?No one can understand this question.However, when the boatman inspected the part below the waterline of the ship, it was found that a part of the keel had been broken.

If it had not happened three weeks later under the same circumstances, no one would have regarded it as a serious matter, and it was likely to be dismissed as quickly as many other ordinary incidents. People forget.It was only because of the unusual nationality of the ship victimized in this second collision and the prestigious company to which it belonged that it caused such a stir.

Cunard is a well-known British shipowner and a shrewd industrialist. His name is known to everyone in the entire shipping industry.As early as 1840, he founded a mail shipping company. At that time, the whole company had only three paddle wheel wooden ships with 160 horsepower and a load of 650 tons. They were engaged in mail delivery between Liverpool and Halifax.After eight years, the company has a total of four ships with 820 horsepower and a load of 1853 tons, and the scale has expanded significantly.Two more years later, two more ships of greater horsepower and tonnage were added to the line of ships. In 1867, Cunard's franchise to deliver express mail was extended, so he boldly added some new equipment, adding "Arabia", "Persia", "China", "Steotia" " "Java", "Russia", these are large ships of first-class quality and speed, and they are also the largest ships. They are the largest ships that have been launched into the sea except for the "Great Orient".Thus, by [-], eight paddle wheel drives and four dark wheel drives, a total of twelve ships were owned by the Cunard Company.

In 26 years, Cunard's ships sailed the Atlantic Ocean [-] times, and never missed a voyage, never suffered a delay, never lost a letter, lost a person or lost a ship.France exhausted all means but failed to grab its business, but passengers were unanimously willing to take the ships of Cunard Company, which can be seen from the official two-year statistics in recent years.Cunard's management philosophy is shrewd and flexible, and no company can surpass its achievements. Therefore, the company soon became famous all over the world.The reason why I want to briefly introduce the above situation is to let everyone know the importance of this shipping company.With these facts in mind, it will not be surprising that one of the company's best steamboats should have caused a sensation by accident.

On April 1867, 4, the entire sea was calm, and the "Steutia" was driven by a 13-horsepower engine at a speed of 15 and a half knots per hour at 12°45' west longitude and 37°[-]' north latitude. on the sea.Its draft at that time was [-] meters, its displacement was [-] cubic meters, and the rhythm of the wheels beating the sea water was very even.

(End of this chapter)