Part 1 - Dropped from the Clouds: Chapter 1

by Jules Verne

　　"Are we rising again?" "No. On the contrary." "Are we descending?" "Worsethan that, captain! we are falling!" "For Heaven's sake heave out theballast!" "There! the last sack is empty!" "Does the balloon rise?" "No!""I hear a noise like the dashing of waves. The sea is below the car! Itcannot be more than 500 feet from us!" "Overboard with every weight!...everything!"

　　Such were the loud and startling words which resounded through the air,above the vast watery desert of the Pacific, about four o'clock in theevening of the 23rd of March, 1865.

　　Few can possibly have forgotten the terrible storm from the northeast, inthe middle of the equinox of that year. The tempest raged withoutintermission from the 18th to the 26th of March. Its ravages were terriblein America, Europe, and Asia, covering a distance of eighteen hundredmiles, and extending obliquely to the equator from the thirty-fifth northparallel to the fortieth south parallel. Towns were overthrown, forestsuprooted, coasts devastated by the mountains of water which wereprecipitated on them, vessels cast on the shore, which the publishedaccounts numbered by hundreds, whole districts leveled by waterspouts whichdestroyed everything they passed over, several thousand people crushed onland or drowned at sea; such were the traces of its fury, left by thisdevastating tempest. It surpassed in disasters those which so frightfullyravaged Havana and Guadalupe, one on the 25th of October, 1810, the otheron the 26th of July, 1825.

　　But while so many catastrophes were taking place on land and at sea, adrama not less exciting was being enacted in the agitated air.

　　In fact, a balloon, as a ball might be carried on the summit of awaterspout, had been taken into the circling movement of a column of airand had traversed space at the rate of ninety miles an hour, turning roundand round as if seized by some aerial maelstrom.

　　Beneath the lower point of the balloon swung a car, containing fivepassengers, scarcely visible in the midst of the thick vapor mingled withspray which hung over the surface of the ocean.

　　Whence, it may be asked, had come that plaything of the tempest? Fromwhat part of the world did it rise? It surely could not have started duringthe storm. But the storm had raged five days already, and the firstsymptoms were manifested on the 18th. It cannot be doubted that the ballooncame from a great distance, for it could not have traveled less than twothousand miles in twenty-four hours.

　　At any rate the passengers, destitute of all marks for their guidance,could not have possessed the means of reckoning the route traversed sincetheir departure. It was a remarkable fact that, although in the very midstof the furious tempest, they did not suffer from it. They were thrown aboutand whirled round and round without feeling the rotation in the slightestdegree, or being sensible that they were removed from a horizontalposition.

　　Their eyes could not pierce through the thick mist which had gatheredbeneath the car. Dark vapor was all around them. Such was the density ofthe atmosphere that they could not be certain whether it was day or night.No reflection of light, no sound from inhabited land, no roaring of theocean could have reached them, through the obscurity, while suspended inthose elevated zones. Their rapid descent alone had informed them of thedangers which they ran from the waves. However, the balloon, lightened ofheavy articles, such as ammunition, arms, and provisions, had risen intothe higher layers of the atmosphere, to a height of 4,500 feet. Thevoyagers, after having discovered that the sea extended beneath them, andthinking the dangers above less dreadful than those below, did not hesitateto throw overboard even their most useful articles, while they endeavoredto lose no more of that fluid, the life of their enterprise, whichsustained them above the abyss.

　　The night passed in the midst of alarms which would have been death toless energetic souls. Again the day appeared and with it the tempest beganto moderate. From the beginning of that day, the 24th of March, it showedsymptoms of abating. At dawn, some of the lighter clouds had risen into themore lofty regions of the air. In a few hours the wind had changed from ahurricane to a fresh breeze, that is to say, the rate of the transit of theatmospheric layers was diminished by half. It was still what sailors call"a close-reefed topsail breeze," but the commotion in the elements had nonethe less considerably diminished.

　　Towards eleven o'clock, the lower region of the air was sensibly clearer.The atmosphere threw off that chilly dampness which is felt after thepassage of a great meteor. The storm did not seem to have gone farther tothe west. It appeared to have exhausted itself. Could it have passed awayin electric sheets, as is sometimes the case with regard to the typhoons ofthe Indian Ocean?

　　But at the same time, it was also evident that the balloon was againslowly descending with a regular movement. It appeared as if it were,little by little, collapsing, and that its case was lengthening andextending, passing from a spherical to an oval form. Towards midday theballoon was hovering above the sea at a height of only 2,000 feet. Itcontained 50,000 cubic feet of gas, and, thanks to its capacity, it couldmaintain itself a long time in the air, although it should reach a greataltitude or might be thrown into a horizontal position.

　　Perceiving their danger, the passengers cast away the last articles whichstill weighed down the car, the few provisions they had kept, everything,even to their pocket-knives, and one of them, having hoisted himself on tothe circles which united the cords of the net, tried to secure more firmlythe lower point of the balloon.

　　It was, however, evident to the voyagers that the gas was failing, andthat the balloon could no longer be sustained in the higher regions. Theymust infallibly perish!

　　There was not a continent, nor even an island, visible beneath them. Thewatery expanse did not present a single speck of land, not a solid surfaceupon which their anchor could hold.

　　It was the open sea, whose waves were still dashing with tremendousviolence! It was the ocean, without any visible limits, even for thosewhose gaze, from their commanding position, extended over a radius of fortymiles. The vast liquid plain, lashed without mercy by the storm, appearedas if covered with herds of furious chargers, whose white and disheveledcrests were streaming in the wind. No land was in sight, not a solitaryship could be seen. It was necessary at any cost to arrest their downwardcourse, and to prevent the balloon from being engulfed in the waves. Thevoyagers directed all their energies to this urgent work. But,notwithstanding their efforts, the balloon still fell, and at the same timeshifted with the greatest rapidity, following the direction of the wind,that is to say, from the northeast to the southwest.

　　Frightful indeed was the situation of these unfortunate men. They wereevidently no longer masters of the machine. All their attempts wereuseless. The case of the balloon collapsed more and more. The gas escapedwithout any possibility of retaining it. Their descent was visiblyaccelerated, and soon after midday the car hung within 600 feet of theocean.

　　It was impossible to prevent the escape of gas, which rushed through alarge rent in the silk. By lightening the car of all the articles which itcontained, the passengers had been able to prolong their suspension in theair for a few hours. But the inevitable catastrophe could only be retarded,and if land did not appear before night, voyagers, car, and balloon must toa certainty vanish beneath the waves.

　　They now resorted to the only remaining expedient. They were trulydauntless men, who knew how to look death in the face. Not a single murmurescaped from their lips. They were determined to struggle to the lastminute, to do anything to retard their fall. The car was only a sort ofwillow basket, unable to float, and there was not the slightest possibilityof maintaining it on the surface of the sea.

　　Two more hours passed and the balloon was scarcely 400 feet above thewater.

　　At that moment a loud voice, the voice of a man whose heart wasinaccessible to fear, was heard. To this voice responded others not lessdetermined. "Is everything thrown out?" "No, here are still 2,000 dollarsin gold." A heavy bag immediately plunged into the sea. "Does the balloonrise?" "A little, but it will not be long before it falls again." "Whatstill remains to be thrown out?" "Nothing." "Yes! the car!" "Let us catchhold of the net, and into the sea with the car."

　　This was, in fact, the last and only mode of lightening the balloon. Theropes which held the car were cut, and the balloon, after its fall, mounted2,000 feet. The five voyagers had hoisted themselves into the net, andclung to the meshes, gazing at the abyss.

　　The delicate sensibility of balloons is well known. It is sufficient tothrow out the lightest article to produce a difference in its verticalposition. The apparatus in the air is like a balance of mathematicalprecision. It can be thus easily understood that when it is lightened ofany considerable weight its movement will be impetuous and sudden. So ithappened on this occasion. But after being suspended for an instant aloft,the balloon began to redescend, the gas escaping by the rent which it wasimpossible to repair.

　　The men had done all that men could do. No human efforts could save themnow.

　　They must trust to the mercy of Him who rules the elements.

　　At four o'clock the balloon was only 500 feet above the surface of thewater.

　　A loud barking was heard. A dog accompanied the voyagers, and was heldpressed close to his master in the meshes of the net.

　　"Top has seen something," cried one of the men. Then immediately a loudvoice shouted,--

　　"Land! land!" The balloon, which the wind still drove towards thesouthwest, had since daybreak gone a considerable distance, which might bereckoned by hundreds of miles, and a tolerably high land had, in fact,appeared in that direction. But this land was still thirty miles off. Itwould not take less than an hour to get to it, and then there was thechance of falling to leeward.

　　An hour! Might not the balloon before that be emptied of all the fluid ityet retained?

　　Such was the terrible question! The voyagers could distinctly see thatsolid spot which they must reach at any cost. They were ignorant of what itwas, whether an island or a continent, for they did not know to what partof the world the hurricane had driven them. But they must reach this land,whether inhabited or desolate, whether hospitable or not.

　　It was evident that the balloon could no longer support itself! Severaltimes already had the crests of the enormous billows licked the bottom ofthe net, making it still heavier, and the balloon only half rose, like abird with a wounded wing. Half an hour later the land was not more than amile off, but the balloon, exhausted, flabby, hanging in great folds, hadgas in its upper part alone. The voyagers, clinging to the net, were stilltoo heavy for it, and soon, half plunged into the sea, they were beaten bythe furious waves. The balloon-case bulged out again, and the wind, takingit, drove it along like a vessel. Might it not possibly thus reach theland?

　　But, when only two fathoms off, terrible cries resounded from four pairsof lungs at once. The balloon, which had appeared as if it would neveragain rise, suddenly made an unexpected bound, after having been struck bya tremendous sea. As if it had been at that instant relieved of a new partof its weight, it mounted to a height of 1,500 feet, and here it met acurrent of wind, which instead of taking it directly to the coast, carriedit in a nearly parallel direction.

　　At last, two minutes later, it reproached obliquely, and finally fellon a sandy beach, out of the reach of the waves.

　　The voyagers, aiding each other, managed to disengage themselves from themeshes of the net. The balloon, relieved of their weight, was taken by thewind, and like a wounded bird which revives for an instant, disappearedinto space.

　　But the car had contained five passengers, with a dog, and the balloononly left four on the shore.

　　The missing person had evidently been swept off by the sea, which hadjust struck the net, and it was owing to this circumstance that thelightened balloon rose the last time, and then soon after reached the land.Scarcely had the four castaways set foot on firm ground, than they all,thinking of the absent one, simultaneously exclaimed, "Perhaps he will tryto swim to land! Let us save him! let us save him!"