menu_book Chapter 20

chapter twenty of twenty thousand leagues under the sea translated by f p walter chapter twenty the torres strait during the night of december twenty seventh twenty eighth the nautilus left the waterways of benicoro behind with extraordinary speed its heading was southwesterly and in three days it had cleared the seven hundred and fifty leagues that separated la perosa's islands from the southeastern tip of papua on january first eighteen sixty eight bright and early conse joined me on the platform will master the gallant lad said to me allow me to wish him a happy new year good heavens conse it's just like old times my office at the botanical gardens in paris i accept your kind wishes and i thank you for them only i'd like to know what you mean by a happy year under the circumstances in which we're placed

is it a year that will bring our imprisonment to an end or a year that will see this strange voyage continue ye gods conse replied i hardly know what to tell master we're certainly seeing some unusual things and for two months we've had no time for boredom the latest wonder is always the most astonishing and if this progression keeps up i can't imagine what its climax will be in my opinion we'll never again have such an opportunity never besides mr nemo really lives up to his latin name since he couldn't be less in the way if he didn't exist true enough conse therefore with all due respect to master i think a happy year would be a year that lets us see everything everything conse no year could be that long but what does ned land think about all this ned land's thoughts are exactly the opposite of mine conse replied he has a practical mind and a demanding stomach he's tired of staring at fish and eating them day in and day out this shortage of wine bread and meat isn't suitable for an upstanding anglo-saxon a man accustomed to beefsteak and unfazed by regular doses of brandy or gin

for my part conse that doesn't bother me in the least and i've adjusted very nicely to the diet on board so have i conse replied accordingly i think as much about staying as mr land about making his escape thus if this new year isn't a happy one for me it will be for him and vice versa no matter what happens one of us will be pleased so in conclusion i wish master to have whatever his heart desires thank you conse only i must ask you to postpone the question of new year's gifts and temporarily accept a hearty handshake in their place that's all i have on me master has never been more generous conse replied and with that the gallant lad went away by january second we had fared eleven thousand three hundred forty miles hence five thousand two hundred fifty leagues from our starting point in the seas of japan before the nautilus spur there stretched the dangerous waterways of the coral sea off the northeast coast of australia our boat cruised along a few miles away from that daunting shoal where captain cook's ships well nigh miscarried on june tenth seventeen seventy the craft that cook was aboard charged into some coral rock and if his vessel didn't go down it was thanks to the circumstance that a piece of coral broke off in the collision and plugged the very hole it had made in the hull

i would have been deeply interested in visiting this long three hundred sixty league reef against which the ever surging sea broke with the fearsome intensity of thunder-claps but just then the nautilus's slanting fins took us to great depths and i could see nothing of those high coral walls i had to rest content with the various specimens of fish brought up by our nets among others i noted some long-finned albacore a species in the genus scobur as big as tuna bluish on the flanks and streaked with crosswise stripes that disappear when the animal dies these fish followed us in schools and supplied our table with very dainty flesh we also caught a large number of yellow-green gilt head half a decadetre long and tasting like dorado plus some flying gonards authentic underwater squallows that on dark nights alternately streak air and water with their phosphorescent glimmers among mollusks and zoophytes i found in our trawl's meshes various species of alcanarian coral sea urchins hammer shells spur star shells wendeltrap snails horn shells glass snails the local flora was represented by fine floating algae sea tangle and kelp from the genus marcochristus saturated with musculets their pores perspire from which i selected a wonderful nemostoma gentilonaxcodia

classifying it with natural curiosities in the museum on january fourth two days after crossing the coral sea we raised the coast of papua on this occasion captain nemo told me that he intended to reach the indian ocean via the torres strait this was the extent of his remarks ned saw with pleasure that this course would bring us once again closer to european seas the torres strait is regarded as no less dangerous for its bristling reefs than for the savage inhabitants of its coasts it separates queensland from the huge island of papua also called new guinea papua is four hundred leagues long by a hundred and thirty leagues wide with a surface area of forty thousand geographic leagues it's located between latitude zero degrees nineteen minutes and ten degrees two minutes south and between longitude one hundred twenty eight degrees twenty three minutes and one hundred forty six degrees fifteen minutes at noon while the chief officer was taking the sun's altitude i spotted the summits of the arfac mountains rising in terraces and ending in sharp peaks discovered in fifteen eleven by the portuguese francisco serrano these shores were successfully visited by don juge de meneses in fifteen twenty six by

by warren de guillava in fifteen twenty seven by the spanish general alvaro de servandra in fifteen twenty eight by in ortez in fifteen forty five by the dutchman schelten in sixteen sixteen by nicholas strewick in seventeen fifty three by tasman dempier fomel cadret edwards boulogneville cook mcclure and thomas forrest by rear admiral de nacastereau in seventeen ninety two by louis isidora dupr in eighteen twenty three and by captain dumont derville in eighteen twenty seven it's the heartland of the blacks who occupy all malaysia mr de renzi has said and i hadn't the foggiest inkling that sailors luck was about to bring me face to face with these daunting andaman aborigines so the nautilus hove before the entrance to the world's most dangerous strait a passage that even the boldest navigators hesitated to clear the strait that louis v de torres faced on returning from the south seas and melanesia the strait in which sloops of war under captain dumont derville ran aground in eighteen forty and nearly miscarried with all hands and even the nautilus rising superior to every danger in the sea was about to become intimate with its coral reefs

the torres strait is about thirty-four leagues wide but it is obstructed by an incalculable number of islands inlets breakers and rocks that make it nearly impossible to navigate consequently captain nemo took every desired precaution in crossing it floating flush with the water the nautilus moved ahead at a moderate pace like a cetacean's tail its propeller turned the wave slowly taking advantage of this situation my two companions and i found seats in the ever deserted platform in front of us stood the pilot-house and unless i am extremely mistaken captain nemo must have been inside steering his nautilus himself under my eyes i had the excellent charts of the torres strait that had been surveyed and drawn up by the hydrographic engineer vincenden dumoulin and sub-lieutenant now admiral couven du bois who were part of dumont derville's general staff during his final voyage to circumnavigate the globe these along with the efforts of captain king are the best charts for untangling the snarl of this narrow passageway and i consulted them with scrupulous care around the nautilus the sea was boiling furiously a stream of waves bearing from s e to n w at a speed of two and a half miles per hour broke over heads of coral emerging here and there that's one rough sea ned land told me

abominable indeed i replied and hardly suitable for a craft like the nautilus that damned captain the canadian went on must really be sure of his course because if these clumps of coral so much as brush us they'll rip our hull into a thousand pieces the situation was indeed dangerous but as if by magic the nautilus seemed to glide right down the middle of these rampaging reefs it didn't follow the exact course of the zealous and the new astralobe which had proved so ill-fated for captain de montevil it went more to the north hugged the marais islands and returned to the south-west near cumberland passage i thought it was about to charge whole-heartedly into this opening but it went up to the north-west through a large number of little note islands and inlets and steered toward town island and the bad channel i was already wondering if captain nemo rasped to the point of sheer insanity wanted his ship to tackle the narrows where de montevil's two sloops of war had gone aground when he changed direction a second time and cut straight to the west heading toward gabororor island by then it was three o'clock in the afternoon the current was slacking off it was almost full tide the nautilus drew near this island which i can see to this day with its remarkable fringe of screw pines we hugged it from less than two miles out

a sudden jolt threw me down the nautilus had just struck a reef and it remained motionless listening slightly to port when i stood up i saw captain nemo and his chief officer on the platform they were examining the ship's circumstances exchanging a few words in their incomprehensible dialect here is what those circumstances entailed two miles to starboard lay gabororor island its coastline curving north to west like an immense arm to the south and east heads of coral were already on display left uncovered by the ebbing waters we had run aground at full tide and in one of those seas whose tides are moderate an inconvenient state of affairs for floating the nautilus off however the ship hadn't suffered in any way so solidly joined was its hull but although it could neither sink nor split open it was in serious danger of being permanently attached to these reefs and that would have been the finish of captain nemo's submersible i was mulling this over when the captain approached cool and calm for ever in control of himself looking neither alarmed nor annoyed an accident i said to him no an incident he answered me but an incident i replied that may oblige you to become a resident again of these shores you avoid captain nemo gave me an odd look and gestured no which told me pretty clearly that nothing would ever force him to set foot on land mass again then he said no professor arenack the nautilus isn't consigned to perdition

it will still carry you through the midst of the ocean's wonders our voyage is just beginning and i've no desire to bribe myself so soon of the pleasure of your company even so captain nemo i went on ignoring his ironic turn of phrase the nautilus has run aground at a moment when the sea is full now then the tides aren't strong in the pacific and if you can't unballast the nautilus which seems impossible to me i don't see how it will float off you're right professor the pacific tides aren't strong captain nemo replied but in the torres strait one still finds a metre and a half difference in level between high and low seas to-day is january fourth and in five days the moon will be full now then i'll be quite astonished if that good-natured satellite doesn't sufficiently raise the masses of water and do me a favor for which i'll be for ever grateful that said captain nemo went below again to the nautilus's interior followed by his chief officer as for our craft it no longer stirred staying as motionless as if these coral polyps had already walled it in with their indestructible cement

well sir ned land said to me coming up after the captain's departure well ned my friend we'll serenely wait for the tide on the ninth because it seems the moon will have the good nature to float us away as simple as that as simple as that so our captain isn't going to drop his anchors put his engines on the chains and do anything to haul us off since the tide will be sufficient conse replied simply the canadian stared at conse then he shrugged his shoulders the seaman in him was talking now sir he answered you can trust me when i say this hulk of iron will never navigate again on the seas or under them it's only fit to be sold for its weight so i think it's time we gave captain nemo the slip ned my friend i replied unlike you i haven't given up on our valiant nautilus and in four days we'll know where we stand in these pacific tides besides an escape attempt might be timely if we were in sight of the coasts of england or provence but in the waterways of popua it's another story and we'll always have that as a last resort if the nautilus doesn't right itself which i'd regard as a real calamity but couldn't we at least get the lay of the land ned went on

there's an island on this island there are trees under those trees land animals loaded with cutlets and roast beef which i'd be happy to sink my teeth into in this instance our friend ned is right conse said and i side with his views couldn't master persuade his friend captain nemo to send the three of us ashore if only so our feet don't lose the knack of treading on the solid parts of our planet i can ask him i replied but he'll refuse let master take the risk conse said and we'll know where we stand on the captain's affability much to my surprise captain nemo gave me the permission i asked for and he did so with grace and alacrity not even exacting my promise to return on board but fleeing across the new guinea territories would be extremely dangerous and i wouldn't have advised ned land to try it better to be prisoners aboard the nautilus than to fall into the hands of popua natives the skiff was put at our disposal for the next morning i hardly needed to ask whether captain nemo would be coming along i likewise assumed that no crewman would be assigned to us that ned land would be in sole charge of piloting the long-boat besides the shore lay no more than two miles off and it would be child's play for the canadian to guard that nimble skiff through these rows of reefs so ill-fated for big ships

the next day january fifth after its deck paneling was opened the skiff was wrenched from its socket and launched to sea from the top of the platform two men were sufficient for this operation the oars were inside the long-boat and we had only to take our seats at eight o'clock armed with rifles and axes we pulled clear of the nautilus the sea was fairly calm a mild breeze blew from shore in place by the oars conse and i rode vigorously and ned steered us into the narrow lanes between the breakers the skiff handled easily and sped swiftly ned land couldn't conceal his glee he was a prisoner escaping from prison and never dreaming he would need to re-enter it meat he kept repeating now we'll eat red meat actual game a real mess call by thunder i'm not saying fish aren't good for you but we mustn't overdo em and a slice of fresh venison grilled over live coals will be a nice change from our standard fare you glutton conse replied you're making my mouth water it remains to be seen i said whether these forests do contain game and if the type of game isn't of such size that they can hunt the hunter fine professor aranax replied the canadian whose teeth seem to be as honed as the edge of an axe

but if there's no other quadruped on this island i'll eat tiger tiger sirloin our friend ned grows disturbing conse replied whatever it is ned land went on any animal having four feet without feathers or two feet with feathers will be greeted by my very own one-gun salute oh good i replied the reckless mr land is at it again don't worry professor aranax just keep rowing the canadian replied i only need twenty-five minutes to serve you one of my own special creations by eight thirty the nautilus's skiff had just run gently aground on a sandy strand after successfully clearing the ring of coral that surrounds gabarora island chapter twenty recording by todd