Part One.: Chapter 1: A Shifting Reef

by Jules Verne

　　The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysteriousand puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime populationand excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents,seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors,captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America,naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several Stateson the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.

　　For some time past vessels had been met by "an enormous thing,"a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent,and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale.

　　The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books)agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in question,the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of locomotion,and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a whale,it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science.Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times--rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this objecta length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinionswhich set it down as a mile in width and three in length--we might fairlyconclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensionsadmitted by the learned ones of the day, if it existed at all.And that it did exist was an undeniable fact; and, with that tendencywhich disposes the human mind in favour of the marvellous, we can understandthe excitement produced in the entire world by this supernatural apparition.As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea was out of the question.

　　On the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson,of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company, had metthis moving mass five miles off the east coast of Australia.Captain Baker thought at first that he was in the presence of anunknown sandbank; he even prepared to determine its exact positionwhen two columns of water, projected by the mysterious object,shot with a hissing noise a hundred and fifty feet up into the air.Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted to the intermittenteruption of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had to do neithermore nor less than with an aquatic mammal, unknown till then,which threw up from its blow-holes columns of water mixed withair and vapour.

　　Similar facts were observed on the 23rd of July in the same year,in the Pacific Ocean, by the Columbus, of the West Indiaand Pacific Steam Navigation Company. But this extraordinarycreature could transport itself from one place to anotherwith surprising velocity; as, in an interval of three days,the Governor Higginson and the Columbus had observed it attwo different points of the chart, separated by a distanceof more than seven hundred nautical leagues.

　　Fifteen days later, two thousand miles farther off, the Helvetia,of the Compagnie-Nationale, and the Shannon, of the RoyalMail Steamship Company, sailing to windward in that portionof the Atlantic lying between the United States and Europe,respectively signalled the monster to each other in 42@ 15' N. lat.and 60@ 35' W. long. In these simultaneous observations theythought themselves justified in estimating the minimum lengthof the mammal at more than three hundred and fifty feet,as the Shannon and Helvetia were of smaller dimensions than it,though they measured three hundred feet over all.

　　Now the largest whales, those which frequent those parts of the sea roundthe Aleutian, Kulammak, and Umgullich islands, have never exceeded the lengthof sixty yards, if they attain that.

　　In every place of great resort the monster was the fashion.They sang of it in the cafes, ridiculed it in the papers, and representedit on the stage. All kinds of stories were circulated regarding it.There appeared in the papers caricatures of every gigantic andimaginary creature, from the white whale, the terrible "Moby Dick"of sub-arctic regions, to the immense kraken, whose tentacles could entanglea ship of five hundred tons and hurry it into the abyss of the ocean.The legends of ancient times were even revived.

　　Then burst forth the unending argument between the believers and theunbelievers in the societies of the wise and the scientific journals."The question of the monster" inflamed all minds. Editors ofscientific journals, quarrelling with believers in the supernatural,spilled seas of ink during this memorable campaign, some even drawing blood;for from the sea-serpent they came to direct personalities.

　　During the first months of the year 1867 the question seemed buried,never to revive, when new facts were brought before the public.It was then no longer a scientific problem to be solved, but a realdanger seriously to be avoided. The question took quite another shape.The monster became a small island, a rock, a reef, but a reef of indefiniteand shifting proportions.

　　On the 5th of March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Montreal Ocean Company,finding herself during the night in 27@ 30' lat. and 72@ 15' long., struckon her starboard quarter a rock, marked in no chart for that part of the sea.Under the combined efforts of the wind and its four hundred horse power,it was going at the rate of thirteen knots. Had it not been for the superiorstrength of the hull of the Moravian, she would have been broken by the shockand gone down with the 237 passengers she was bringing home from Canada.

　　The accident happened about five o'clock in the morning, as the daywas breaking. The officers of the quarter-deck hurried to the after-partof the vessel. They examined the sea with the most careful attention.They saw nothing but a strong eddy about three cables' length distant,as if the surface had been violently agitated. The bearings of the place weretaken exactly, and the Moravian continued its route without apparent damage.Had it struck on a submerged rock, or on an enormous wreck? They couldnot tell; but, on examination of the ship's bottom when undergoing repairs,it was found that part of her keel was broken.

　　This fact, so grave in itself, might perhaps have been forgottenlike many others if, three weeks after, it had not been re-enactedunder similar circumstances. But, thanks to the nationality ofthe victim of the shock, thanks to the reputation of the company towhich the vessel belonged, the circumstance became extensively circulated.

　　The 13th of April, 1867, the sea being beautiful, the breeze favourable,the Scotia, of the Cunard Company's line, found herself in 15@ 12' long.and 45@ 37' lat. She was going at the speed of thirteen knots and a half.

　　At seventeen minutes past four in the afternoon, whilst the passengers wereassembled at lunch in the great saloon, a slight shock was felt on the hullof the Scotia, on her quarter, a little aft of the port-paddle.

　　The Scotia had not struck, but she had been struck, and seeminglyby something rather sharp and penetrating than blunt.The shock had been so slight that no one had been alarmed,had it not been for the shouts of the carpenter's watch,who rushed on to the bridge, exclaiming, "We are sinking! weare sinking!" At first the passengers were much frightened,but Captain Anderson hastened to reassure them. The danger couldnot be imminent. The Scotia, divided into seven compartmentsby strong partitions, could brave with impunity any leak.Captain Anderson went down immediately into the hold.He found that the sea was pouring into the fifth compartment;and the rapidity of the influx proved that the force of the waterwas considerable. Fortunately this compartment did not holdthe boilers, or the fires would have been immediately extinguished.Captain Anderson ordered the engines to be stopped at once,and one of the men went down to ascertain the extent of the injury.Some minutes afterwards they discovered the existence of alarge hole, two yards in diameter, in the ship's bottom.Such a leak could not be stopped; and the Scotia, her paddleshalf submerged, was obliged to continue her course. She was thenthree hundred miles from Cape Clear, and, after three days' delay,which caused great uneasiness in Liverpool, she entered the basinof the company.

　　The engineers visited the Scotia, which was put in dry dock.They could scarcely believe it possible; at two yards and a half belowwater-mark was a regular rent, in the form of an isosceles triangle.The broken place in the iron plates was so perfectly definedthat it could not have been more neatly done by a punch.It was clear, then, that the instrument producing the perforationwas not of a common stamp and, after having been driven withprodigious strength, and piercing an iron plate 1 3/8 inches thick,had withdrawn itself by a backward motion.

　　Such was the last fact, which resulted in exciting once more the torrentof public opinion. From this moment all unlucky casualties which couldnot be otherwise accounted for were put down to the monster.

　　Upon this imaginary creature rested the responsibility of allthese shipwrecks, which unfortunately were considerable;for of three thousand ships whose loss was annually recordedat Lloyd's, the number of sailing and steam-ships supposedto be totally lost, from the absence of all news, amounted tonot less than two hundred!

　　Now, it was the "monster" who, justly or unjustly, was accusedof their disappearance, and, thanks to it, communication betweenthe different continents became more and more dangerous.The public demanded sharply that the seas should at any price berelieved from this formidable cetacean. [1]

　　[1] Member of the whale family.