Chapter 36
chapter thirty six of twenty thousand leagues under the sea chapter thirty six sperm whales and baleen whales during the night of march thirteenth the fourteenth the nautilus resumed its southward heading once it was abreast of cape horn i thought it would strike west of the cape make for the pacific seas and complete its tour of the world it did nothing of the sort and kept moving toward the southernmost regions so where was it bound pole that was insanity i was beginning to think that the captain's recklessness more than justified ned land's worst fears for a good while the canadian had said nothing more to me about his escape plans he had become less sociable almost sullen i could see how heavily this protracted imprisonment was weighing on him i could feel the anger building in him whenever he encountered the captain his eyes would flicker with dark fire and i was in constant dread that his natural vehemence would cause him to do something rash that day march fourteenth he and concel managed to find me in my stateroom i asked them the purpose of their visit
put a simple question to you sir the canadian answered me go on ned how many men do you think are on board the nautilus i'm unable to say my friend it seems to me ned land went on that it wouldn't take much of a crew to run a ship like this one correct i replied under existing conditions some ten minutes the most would be enough to operate it all right the canadian said then why should there be any more than that why i answered i stared at ned land whose motives were easy to guess because i said if i can trust my hunches if i truly understand the captain's way of life his nautilus isn't simply a ship it's meant to be a refuge for people like its commander people who have severed all ties with the shore perhaps concile said but in a nutshell the nautilus can hold only a certain number of men so couldn't master eliminate their maximum how by calculating it master is familiar with the ship's capacity hence the amount of air it contains on the other hand master knows how much air each man consumes in the act of breathing and he can compare this data with the fact that the nautilus must rise to the surface every twenty-four hours
didn't finish his sentence but i could easily see what he was driving at i follow you i said but while they're simple to do such calculations can only give a very uncertain figure no problem the canadian went on insistently then here's how to calculate it i replied in one hour each man consumes the oxygen contained in one hundred litres of air hence during twenty-four hours the oxygen contained in twenty-four hundred litres therefore we must look for the multiple of twenty four hundred litres of air that gives us the amount found in the nautilus precisely concile said now then i went on the nautilus's capacity is fifteen hundred metric tons and that of a ton is one thousand litres so the nautilus holds one million five hundred thousand litres of air which divided by twenty four hundred i did a quick pencil calculation gives us the quotient of six twenty five which is tantamount to saying that the air contained in the nautilus would be exactly enough for six hundred and twenty five men over twenty four hours six hundred and twenty five ned repeated but rest assured i added that between passengers seamen or officers we don't total one-tenth of that figure
which is still too many for three men, Concile muttered. So, my poor Ned, I can only counsel patience. And, Concile replied, even more than patience. Resignation. Concile had said the true word. Even so, he went on, Captain Nemo can't go south forever.
He'll surely have to stop, if only at the ice bank, and he'll return to the seas of civilization. Then it will be time to resume Ned Land's plans. The Canadian shook his head, passed his hand over his brow, made no reply, and left us. With Master's permission, I'll make an observation to him, Concile then told me.
Our poor Ned broods about all the things he can't have. He's haunted by his former life. He seems to miss everything that's denied us. He's obsessed by his old memories, and it's breaking his heart. We must understand him.
What does he have to occupy him here? Nothing. He isn't a scientist-like master, and he doesn't share our enthusiasm for the sea's wonders. He would risk anything just to enter a tavern in his own country. To be sure, the monotony of life on board must have seemed unbearable to the Canadian,
who was accustomed to freedom and activity. It was a rare event that could excite him. That day, however, a development occurred that reminded him of his happy years as a harpooner. Near eleven o'clock in the morning, while on the surface of the ocean, the Nautilus fell
in with a herd of baleen whales. This encounter didn't surprise me, because I knew these animals were being hunted so relentlessly that they took refuge in the ocean basins of the high latitudes. In the maritime world, and in the realm of geographic exploration, whales have played a major role. This is the animal that first dragged the bosque in its wake, then Asturian Spaniards, Englishmen, and Dutchmen, emboldening them against the ocean's peril,
and leading them to the ends of the earth. Baleen whales like to frequent the southernmost and northernmost seas. Old legends even claim that these Ceresians led fishermen to within a mere seven leagues of the North Pole. Although this feat is fictitious, it will someday come true,
because it's likely that by hunting whales in the Arctic or Antarctic regions, man will finally reach this unknown spot on the globe. We were seated on a platform next to a tranquil sea. The month of March, since it's the equivalent of October in these latitudes, was given us some fine autumn days. It was the Canadian, on this topic he was never mistaken, who sighted a baleen whale on the eastern horizon.
If you looked carefully you could see its blackish back alternately rise and fall above the waves, five miles from the Nautilus. Wow! Ned Land exclaimed. If I were on board a whaler, that's an encounter that would be great fun. That's one big animal. Look at how high its blowholes are spouting all that air and steam. Damnation! Why am I chained to this hunk of sheet iron? Why, Ned, I replied, you still aren't over your old fishing urges.
How could a whale fisherman forget his old trade, sir? Who could ever get tired of such exciting hunting? You've never fished these seas, Ned? Never, sir. Just the northernmost seas, equally in the Bering Strait and the Davis Strait. So the southern right whale is still unknown to you. Until now, it's the bowhead whale you've hunted,
and it won't risk going past the warm waters of the equator. Oh, Professor, what are you feeding me? The Canadian answered in a tolerably skeptical tone. I'm feeding you the facts. By thunder in 65, just two and a half years ago,
I, to whom you speak, I myself stepped onto the carcass of a whale near Greenland, and its flank still carried the marked harpoon of a whaling ship from the Bering Sea. Now I ask you, after it had been wounded west of America, how could this animal be killed in the east unless it had cleared the equator and doubled Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope?
I agree with our friend Ned, Conceil said, and I'm waiting to hear how Master will reply to him. Master will reply, my friends, that baleen whales are localized according to species within certain seas that they never leave, and if one of these animals went from the Bering Strait to the Davis Strait,
it's quite simply because there's some passageway from the one sea to the other, either along the coasts of Canada or Siberia. You expect us to fall for that, the Canadian asked, tipping me a wink. If Master says so, Concile replied. Which means, the Canadian went on, since I've never fished these waterways,
I don't know the whales that frequent them. That's what I've been telling you, Ned. all the more reason to get to know them concile answered look look the canadian exclaimed his voice full of excitement it's reproaching it's coming toward us it's thumbing its nose at me it knows i can't do a blessed thing to it ned stamped his foot brandishing an imaginary harpoon his hands positively trembled these cestations he asked are they as big as the ones in the northern mossees pretty nearly ned because i've seen big baleen whales sir whales measuring up to a hundred feet long i've even heard that those rogal whales off the aleutian islands sometimes get over a hundred and fifty feet that strikes me as exaggerated i replied these animals are only members of the genus balanoptrera
furnished with dorsal fins and like sperm whales they're generally smaller than the bow-head whale oh exclaimed the canadian whose eyes hadn't left the ocean it's getting closer it's coming into the nautilus's waters then going on with his conversation you talk about sperm whales he said as if they were little beasts but there are stories of gigantic sperm whales their shrewd i hear that some will cover themselves with algae and fucus plants people mistake them for islets they've pitched camp on top make themselves at home light a fire build houses concile said yes funny man ned land replied then one day the animal dives and drags all its occupants down into the depths like in the voyages of sinbad the sailor i answered laughing oh mr lland you're addicted to tall tales what sperm whales your handiness i hope you don't really believe in them mr naturalist the canadian replied in all seriousness when it comes to whales you can believe anything
look at that when moved look at that stealing away people claim these animals can circle around the world in just fifteen days i don't say nay but what you undoubtedly don't know professor aranax is that at the beginning of the world whales travel even quicker oh really ned and why so because in those days their tails moved side to side like those on a fish in other words their tails were straight up thrashing the water from left to right right to left but spotting that they swam too fast our creator twisted their tails and ever since they've been thrashing the wades up and down at the expense of their speed fine ned i said then resurrected one of the canadian's expressions you expect us to fall for that not too terribly ned land replied and no more than if i told you there are whales that are three hundred feet long and weigh one million pounds that's indeed considerable i said but you must admit that certain cestations do grow to significant size since they're said to supply as much as one hundred and twenty metric tons of oil that i've seen the canadian said i can easily believe it ned just as i can believe that certain baleen whales equal one hundred elephants in bulk imagine the impact of such a mass if it were launched at full speed is it true conseil asked that they can sink ships
ships i doubt it i replied however they say that in eighteen twenty right in these southern waters a baleen whale rushed at the essex and pushed it backward at a speed of four metres per second its stern was flooded and the essex went down fast ned looked at me with a bantering expression speaking for myself he said i once got walloped by a whale's tail in my long-boat needless to say my companions and i were launched to an altitude of six meters but next to the professor's whale mine was just a baby do these animals live a long time conseil asked a thousand years the canadian replied without hesitation and how ned i asked do you know that's so because people say so and why do people say so because people know so no ned people don't know so they suppose so and here's the logic with which backs up their belief when fishermen first hunted whales four hundred years ago these animals grew to bigger sizes than they do to-day reasonably enough it's assumed that to-day's whales are smaller because they haven't had time to reach their full growth
that's why the count de bouffins encyclopaedia says that the cestations can live and even must live for a thousand years you understand ned land didn't understand he no longer even heard me that baleen whale kept coming closer his eyes devoured it oh he exclaimed it's not just one whale it's ten twenty a whole game and i can't do a thing i'm tied hand and foot but ned my friend concile said why not ask captain nemo for permission to hunt before concile could finish his sentence ned lance scooted down the hatch and ran to look for the captain a few moments later the two of them reappeared on the platform captain nemo observed the herd of cessations cavorting on the waters a mile from the nautilus they're southern right whales he said there goes the fortune of a whole whaling fleet well sir the canadian asked couldn't i hunt them just so i don't forget my old harpooning trade hunt them what for captain nemo replied simply to destroy them we have no use for whale oil on this ship but sir the canadian went on in the red sea you authorize us to chase a dugong there it was an issue of obtaining fresh meat for my crew here it would be killing for the sake of killing
i'm well aware that's a privilege reserved for mankind but i don't allow such murderous pastimes when your peers mr land destroy decent harmless animals like the southern right whale or the bowhead whale they commit a reprehensible offence thus they've already depopulated all of baffin bay and they'll wipe out a whole class of useful animals so leave these poor cessations alone they have quite enough natural enemies such as sperm whales swordfish and sawfish without you meddling with them i'll let the reader decide what faces the canadian made during this lecture on hunting ethics furnishing such arguments to a professional harpooner was a waste of words ned land stared at captain nemo and obviously missed his meaning but the captain was right thanks to the mindless barbaric bloodthirstiness of fishermen the last baleen whale will some day disappear from the ocean ned land whistled yankee doodle between his teeth stuffed his hands in his pocket and turned his back on us meanwhile captain nemo studied the herd of cestations then addressed me i was right to claim that baleen whales have enough natural enemies without counting man
these specimens will soon have to deal with mighty opponents eight miles to leeward professor rnx can you see those blackish specks moving about yes captain i replied those are sperm whales dreadful animals that i've sometimes encountered in herds of two hundred or three hundred as for them they're cruel destructive beasts and they deserve to be exterminated the canadian turned swiftly at these last words well captain i said on behalf of the baleen whales there's still time it's pointless to run any risk professor the nautilus will suffice to disperse those sperm whales it's armed with a steel spur quite equal to mr land's harpoon i imagine the canadian didn't even bother shrugging his shoulders attacking cestations with thrusts from a spur who ever heard of such malarkey wait and see professor arnax captain nemo said we'll show you a style of hunting with which you aren't yet familiar we'll take no pity on those ferocious cestations they are merely mouth and teeth mouth and teeth there's no better way to describe this long sculled sperm whale whose length sometimes exceeds twenty-five metres
the enormous head of this cestation occupies about a third of its body better armed than a baleen whale whose upper jaw is adorned solely with whalebone the sperm whale is equipped with twenty-five huge teeth that are twenty centimeters high have cylindrical conical summits and weigh two pounds each in the top part of this enormous head inside big cavities separated by cartilage you'll find three hundred to four hundred kilograms of that valuable oil called spermaceti the sperm whale is an awkward animal more tadpole than fish as professor fredeul has noted it's poorly constructed being defective so to speak over the whole left side of its frame with good eyesight only in its right eye meanwhile the monstrous herd kept coming closer it had seen the baleen whales and was preparing to attack you could tell in advance that the sperm whales would be victorious not only because they were better built for fighting than their harmless adversaries but also because they could stay longer under water before returning to breathe at the surface there was just time to run to the rescue of the baleen whales the nautilus proceeded to mid-water poncelle ned and i sat in front of the lounge windows captain nemo made his way to the helmsman's side to operate his submersible as an engine of destruction
soon i felt the beats of our propeller getting faster and we picked up speed the battle between sperm whales and baleen whales had already begun when the nautilus arrived it manoeuvred to cut into the herd of long-sculled predators at first the latter showed little concern at the sight of this new monster meddling in the battle but they soon had to sidestep its thrust what a struggle ned lang quickly grew enthusiastic and even ended up applauding brandished in his captain's hands the nautilus was simply a fearsome harpoon he hurled it at those fleshy masses and ran them clean through leaving behind two squirming animal halves as for those daunting strokes of the tail cutting our sides the ship never felt them no more than the collisions it caused one sperm whale exterminated it ran at another tacked on the spot so as not to miss its prey went ahead or astern obeyed its rudder dived when the cessation sank to deeper strata rose with it when it returned to the surface struck it head-on or slantwise hacked at it or tore it and from every direction and at any speed skewered it with its dreadful spur what bloodshed what a hubbub on the surface of the waves
what sharp hisses and snorts unique to those frightened animals their tails churned the normally peaceful strata into actual billows this homeric slaughter dragged on for an hour and the long skull creditors couldn't get away several times ten or twelve of them teamed up trying to crush the nautilus with their sheer mass through the windows you could see their enormous mouths paved with teeth their fearsome eyes losing all self-control ned land hurled threats and insults at them you could feel them clinging to the submersible like hounds atop a wild boar in the underbrush but by forcing the pace of its propeller the nautilus carried them off dragged them under or brought them back to the upper level of the waters untroubled by their enormous weight or their powerful grip finally this mass of sperm whales thinned out the waves grew tranquil again i felt us rising to the surface of the ocean the hatch opened and we rushed on to the platform
the sea was covered with mutilated corpses a fearsome explosion couldn't have slashed torn or shredded those fleshy masses with greater violence we were floating in the midst of gigantic bodies bluish on the back whitish on the belly and all deformed by enormous perturbanes a few frightened sperm whales were fleeing toward the horizon the waves were dyed red over an area of several miles and the nautilus was floating in the middle of a sea of blood captain nemo rejoined us well mr land he said well sir replied the canadian whose enthusiasm had subsided it's a dreadful sight for sure but i'm a hunter not a butcher and this is plain butchery it was a slaughter of destructive animals the captain replied and the nautilus is no butcher knife i prefer my harpoon the canadian answered to each his own the captain replied staring intently at ned land i was in dread the latter would give way to some violent outburst that might have had deplorable consequences but his anger was diverted by the sight of a baleen whale that the nautilus had pulled alongside of just then this animal had been unable to escape the teeth of those sperm whales i recognized the southern right whale its head squat its body dark all over anatomically it's distinguished from the white whale and the black right whale by the fusion of its seven cervical vertebrae
and its numbers two more ribs than its relatives floating on its side its belly riddled with bites poor cestation was dead still hanging from the tip of its mutilated fin was a little baby whale that it had been unable to rescue from the slaughter its open mouth let water flow through its whalebone like a murmuring surf captain nemo guided the nautilus next to the animal's corpse two of his men climbed on to the whale's flank and to my astonishment i saw them draw from its udders all the milk they held in other words enough to fill two or three casks the captain offered me a cup of this still warm milk i couldn't help showing my distaste for such a beverage he assured me that this milk was excellent no different from cow's milk i sampled it and agreed so this milk was a worth-while reserve ration for us because in the form of salt butter or cheese it would provide a pleasant change of pace from our standard fare from that day on i noted with some uneasiness that ned land's attitudes towards captain nemo grew worse and worse and i decided to keep a close watch on the canadian's movements and activities chapter thirty six recording by rick cornwall
