Part Two.: Chapter 11: The Sargasso Sea

by Jules Verne

　　That day the Nautilus crossed a singular part of the Atlantic Ocean.No one can be ignorant of the existence of a current of warmwater known by the name of the Gulf Stream. After leavingthe Gulf of Florida, we went in the direction of Spitzbergen.But before entering the Gulf of Mexico, about 45@ of N. lat., thiscurrent divides into two arms, the principal one going towardsthe coast of Ireland and Norway, whilst the second bends to the southabout the height of the Azores; then, touching the African shore,and describing a lengthened oval, returns to the Antilles.This second arm--it is rather a collar than an arm--surrounds with itscircles of warm water that portion of the cold, quiet, immovable oceancalled the Sargasso Sea, a perfect lake in the open Atlantic:it takes no less than three years for the great current to pass round it.Such was the region the Nautilus was now visiting, a perfect meadow,a close carpet of seaweed, fucus, and tropical berries, so thick and socompact that the stem of a vessel could hardly tear its way through it.And Captain Nemo, not wishing to entangle his screw in this herbaceous mass,kept some yards beneath the surface of the waves. The name Sargassocomes from the Spanish word "sargazzo" which signifies kelp.This kelp, or berry-plant, is the principal formation of this immense bank.And this is the reason why these plants unite in the peaceful basinof the Atlantic. The only explanation which can be given, he says,seems to me to result from the experience known to all the world.Place in a vase some fragments of cork or other floating body,and give to the water in the vase a circular movement,the scattered fragments will unite in a group in the centre ofthe liquid surface, that is to say, in the part least agitated.In the phenomenon we are considering, the Atlantic is the vase,the Gulf Stream the circular current, and the Sargasso Sea the centralpoint at which the floating bodies unite.

　　I share Maury's opinion, and I was able to study the phenomenonin the very midst, where vessels rarely penetrate. Above us floatedproducts of all kinds, heaped up among these brownish plants;trunks of trees torn from the Andes or the Rocky Mountains, and floatedby the Amazon or the Mississippi; numerous wrecks, remains of keels,or ships' bottoms, side-planks stove in, and so weighted with shellsand barnacles that they could not again rise to the surface.And time will one day justify Maury's other opinion, that thesesubstances thus accumulated for ages will become petrified bythe action of the water and will then form inexhaustible coal-mines--a precious reserve prepared by far-seeing Nature for the momentwhen men shall have exhausted the mines of continents.

　　In the midst of this inextricable mass of plants and sea weed,I noticed some charming pink halcyons and actiniae, with their longtentacles trailing after them, and medusae, green, red, and blue.

　　All the day of the 22nd of February we passed in the Sargasso Sea,where such fish as are partial to marine plants find abundant nourishment.The next, the ocean had returned to its accustomed aspect.From this time for nineteen days, from the 23rd of February to the 12thof March, the Nautilus kept in the middle of the Atlantic, carrying usat a constant speed of a hundred leagues in twenty-four hours.Captain Nemo evidently intended accomplishing his submarine programme,and I imagined that he intended, after doubling Cape Horn, to returnto the Australian seas of the Pacific. Ned Land had cause for fear.In these large seas, void of islands, we could not attempt to leavethe boat. Nor had we any means of opposing Captain Nemo's will.Our only course was to submit; but what we could neither gain by forcenor cunning, I liked to think might be obtained by persuasion.This voyage ended, would he not consent to restore our liberty,under an oath never to reveal his existence?--an oath of honour which weshould have religiously kept. But we must consider that delicatequestion with the Captain. But was I free to claim this liberty?Had he not himself said from the beginning, in the firmest manner,that the secret of his life exacted from him our lasting imprisonmenton board the Nautilus? And would not my four months' silence appearto him a tacit acceptance of our situation? And would not a returnto the subject result in raising suspicions which might be hurtfulto our projects, if at some future time a favourable opportunity offeredto return to them?

　　During the nineteen days mentioned above, no incidentof any kind happened to signalise our voyage. I saw littleof the Captain; he was at work. In the library I often foundhis books left open, especially those on natural history.My work on submarine depths, conned over by him, was coveredwith marginal notes, often contradicting my theories and systems;but the Captain contented himself with thus purging my work;it was very rare for him to discuss it with me.Sometimes I heard the melancholy tones of his organ;but only at night, in the midst of the deepest obscurity,when the Nautilus slept upon the deserted ocean. During this partof our voyage we sailed whole days on the surface of the waves.The sea seemed abandoned. A few sailing-vessels, onthe road to India, were making for the Cape of Good Hope.One day we were followed by the boats of a whaler, who, no doubt,took us for some enormous whale of great price; but CaptainNemo did not wish the worthy fellows to lose their timeand trouble, so ended the chase by plunging under the water.Our navigation continued until the 13th of March;that day the Nautilus was employed in taking soundings,which greatly interested me. We had then made about 13,000leagues since our departure from the high seas of the Pacific.The bearings gave us 45@ 37' S. lat., and 37@ 53' W. long.It was the same water in which Captain Denham of the Heraldsounded 7,000 fathoms without finding the bottom.There, too, Lieutenant Parker, of the American frigate Congress,could not touch the bottom with 15,140 fathoms.Captain Nemo intended seeking the bottom of the ocean by adiagonal sufficiently lengthened by means of lateral planesplaced at an angle of 45@ with the water-line of the Nautilus.Then the screw set to work at its maximum speed, its fourblades beating the waves with in describable force.Under this powerful pressure, the hull of the Nautilus quiveredlike a sonorous chord and sank regularly under the water.

　　At 7,000 fathoms I saw some blackish tops rising from the midst of the waters;but these summits might belong to high mountains like the Himalayas orMont Blanc, even higher; and the depth of the abyss remained incalculable.The Nautilus descended still lower, in spite of the great pressure.I felt the steel plates tremble at the fastenings of the bolts;its bars bent, its partitions groaned; the windows of the saloonseemed to curve under the pressure of the waters. And this firmstructure would doubtless have yielded, if, as its Captain had said,it had not been capable of resistance like a solid block. We had attaineda depth of 16,000 yards (four leagues), and the sides of the Nautilusthen bore a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, that is to say, 3,200 lb.to each square two-fifths of an inch of its surface.

　　"What a situation to be in!" I exclaimed. "To overrun these deep regionswhere man has never trod! Look, Captain, look at these magnificent rocks,these uninhabited grottoes, these lowest receptacles of the globe,where life is no longer possible! What unknown sights are here!Why should we be unable to preserve a remembrance of them?"

　　"Would you like to carry away more than the remembrance?"said Captain Nemo.

　　"What do you mean by those words?"

　　"I mean to say that nothing is easier than to make a photographicview of this submarine region."

　　I had not time to express my surprise at this new proposition, when,at Captain Nemo's call, an objective was brought into the saloon.Through the widely-opened panel, the liquid mass was bright with electricity,which was distributed with such uniformity that not a shadow, not a gradation,was to be seen in our manufactured light. The Nautilus remained motionless,the force of its screw subdued by the inclination of its planes:the instrument was propped on the bottom of the oceanic site, and in a fewseconds we had obtained a perfect negative.

　　But, the operation being over, Captain Nemo said, "Let us go up;we must not abuse our position, nor expose the Nautilus too longto such great pressure."

　　"Go up again!" I exclaimed.

　　"Hold well on."

　　I had not time to understand why the Captain cautioned me thus, when Iwas thrown forward on to the carpet. At a signal from the Captain,its screw was shipped, and its blades raised vertically; the Nautilusshot into the air like a balloon, rising with stunning rapidity,and cutting the mass of waters with a sonorous agitation.Nothing was visible; and in four minutes it had shot through the fourleagues which separated it from the ocean, and, after emerging like aflying-fish, fell, making the waves rebound to an enormous height.