menu_book Chapter 37

chapter thirty seven of twenty thousand leagues under the sea twenty thousand leagues under the sea by jules verne translated by f p walter chapter thirty seven the ice bank the nautilus resumed its unruffled south-bound heading it went along the fiftieth meridian with considerable speed would it go to the pole i didn't think so because every previous attempt to reach this spot in the globe had failed besides the season was already quite advanced since march thirteenth on antarctic shores corresponds with september thirteenth in the northernmost regions which marks the beginning of the equinoctial period on march fourteenth at latitude fifty five degrees i spotted floating ice plain pale bits of rubble twenty to twenty-five feet long which formed reefs over which the sea burst into foam the nautilus stayed on the surface of the ocean having fished in the arctic seas ned land was already familiar with the sight of icebergs goncielle and i were marvelling at them for the first time

in the sky toward the southern horizon there stretched a dazzling white band english whalers have given this the name ice blink no matter how heavy the clouds may be they can obscure this phenomenon it announces the presence of a pack or shoal of ice indeed larger blocks of ice soon appeared their brilliance varying at the whim of the mist some of these masses displayed green veins as if scrawled with undulating lines of copper sulphate others looked like enormous amethysts letting the light penetrate their insides the latter reflected the sun's rays from the thousand facets of their crystals the former tinted with a bright limestone sheen would have supplied enough building material to make a whole marble town the farther down south we went the more these floating islands grew in numbers and prominence polar birds nested on them by the thousands there were petrels cape pigeons or puffins and their calls were deafening mistaking the nautilus for the corpse of a whale some of them alighted on it and prodded its resonant sheet-iron with pecks of their beaks during this navigating in the midst of the ice captain nemo often stayed on the platform

he observed these deserted waterways carefully i saw his calm eyes sometimes perk up in these polar seas forbidden to man did he feel right at home the lord of these unreachable regions perhaps but he didn't stay he stood still reviving only when his pilot's instincts took over then steering his nautilus with consummate dexterity he skilfully dodged the masses of ice some of which were measured several miles in length their heights varying from seventy to eighty metres off on the horizon seemed completely closed off breast of latitude sixty degrees every passageway had disappeared searching with care captain nemo soon found a narrow opening into which he brazenly slipped well aware however that it would close behind him guided by his skilful hands the nautilus passed by all these different masses of ice which are classified by size and shape with the precision that enraptured icebergs or mountains ice-fields or smooth limitless tracks drift-ice or floating floes packs or broken tracks called patches when they are circular and streams when they form long strips

the temperature was fairly low exposed to the outside air the thermometer marked negative two degrees to negative three degrees centigrade but we were warmly dressed in furs for which seals and aquatic bears had paid the price evenly heated by all its electric equipment the nautilus's interior defied the most intense cold moreover to find a bearable temperature the ship had only to sink just a few metres beneath the waves two months earlier we would have enjoyed perpetual daylight in this latitude but night already fell for three or four hours and later it would cast six months of shadow over these circumpolial regions on march fifteenth we passed beyond the latitude of the south shetland and south orkney islands the captain told me that many tribes of seals used to inhabit these shores but english and american whalers in a frenzy of destruction slaughtered all the adults including pregnant females and where life and activity once existed those fishermen left behind only silence and death going along the fifty-fifth meridian the nautilus cut the anartic circle on march sixteenth near eight o'clock in the morning ice completely surrounded us and closed off the horizon nevertheless captain nemo went from passageway to passageway always proceeding south

but where is he going i asked straight ahead concile replied ultimately when he can't go any further he'll stop i wouldn't bet on it i replied and in all honesty i confess that this venturesome excursion was far from displeasing to me i can't express the intensity of my amazement at the beauties of these new regions the ice struck superb poses here its gentle effect suggested an oriental town with countless minarets and mosques there a city in ruins flung to the ground by convulsions in the earth these views were varied continuously by the sun's oblique rays or were completely swallowed up by grey mist in the middle of blizzards then explosions cave-ins and great iceberg somersaults would occur all around us altering the scenery like the changing landscape in a diorama if the nautilus was submerged during these losses of balance we heard the resulting noises spread under the waters with frightful intensity and the collapse of these masses created daunting eddies down to the ocean's lower strata the nautilus then rolled and pitched like a ship left to the fury of the elements

often no longer seeing any way out i thought we were in prison for good but captain nemo guided by his instinct discovered new passageway from the tiniest indications he was never wrong when he observed slender threads of bluish water streaking through these ice-fields accordingly i was sure that he had already risked his nautilus in the midst of the antarctic seas however during the day of march sixteenth these tracks of ice completely barred our path it wasn't the ice bank as yet just huge ice-fields cemented together by the cold this obstacle couldn't stop captain nemo and he launched his ship against the ice-fields with hideous violence the nautilus went into these brittle masses like a wedge splitting them with dreadful cracklings it was an old-fashioned battering-ramp propelled with infinite power hurled aloft ice rubble fell back behind us like hail through brute force alone the submersible carved out a channel for itself carried away by its momentum the ship sometimes mounted on top of these tracks of ice and crushed them with its weight

or at other times when cooped up beneath the ice-fields it split them with simple pitching movements creating wide punctures violent squalls assaulted us during the daytime thanks to certain heavy mists we couldn't see from one end of the platform to the other the wind shifted abruptly to every point on the compass the snow was piling up in such packed layers it had to be chipped loose with blows from picks even in a temperature of merely minus five degrees centigrade every outside part of the nautilus was covered with ice a ship's rigging would have been unusable because all its tackle would have jammed in the grooves of the pulleys only a craft without sails driven by an electric motor that needed no coal could face such high latitudes under these conditions the barometer generally stayed quite low it fell as far as seventy three point five centimeters our compass indications no longer offered any guarantees the deranged needles would mark contradictory directions as we approach the southern magnetic pole which doesn't coincide with the south pole proper

in fact according to the astronomer hanstein this magnetic pole is located fairly close to latitude seventy degrees and longitude a hundred and thirty degrees or abiding by the observation of louis isidore duperry in longitude one thirty five degrees and latitude seventy degrees thirty minutes hence we had to transport compasses to different parts of the ship take many readings and strike an average often we could chart our course only by guesswork a less than satisfactory method in the midst of these winding passageways whose landmarks changed continuously at last on march eighteenth after twenty futile assaults the nautilus was decisively held in check no longer was it an ice-stream patch or field it was an endless immovable barrier formed by ice mountains fused to each other the ice bank the canadian told me for ned land as well as for every other navigator before us i knew that this was the great insurmountable obstacle when the sun appeared for an instant near noon captain nemo took a reasonably accurate sight

that gave our position as longitude fifty one degrees thirty minutes and latitude sixty seven degrees thirty nine minutes south this was a position already well along in these antarctic regions as for the liquid surface of the sea there was no longer any semblance of it before our eyes before the nautilus's spur there lay vast broken plains a tangle of confused chunks with all the helter-skelter unpredictability typical of a river's surface a short while before its ice break-up but in this case the proportions were gigantic here and there stood sharp peaks lean spires that rose as high as two hundred feet farther off a succession of steeply cut cliffs sporting a grayish tint huge mirrors that reflected the sparse rays of a sun half drowned in mist beyond a stark silence reigned in the desolate natural setting a silence barely broken by the flapping wings of petrels or puffins by this point everything was frozen even sound so the nautilus had to halt in its venturesome course among these tracks of ice sir ned lands told me that day if your captain goes any farther yes he'll be a superman how so ned

because nobody can clear the ice bank your captain's a powerful man but damnation he isn't more powerful than nature if she draws a boundary line dare you stop like it or not correct ned land but i still want to know what's behind this ice bank behold my greatest source of irritation a wall master is right goncel said walls were invented simply to frustrate scientists all walls should be banned fine the canadian put in but we already know what's behind this ice bank what i asked ice ice and more ice you may be sure of that ned i answered but i'm not that's why i want to see for myself well professor the canadian replied you can just drop that idea you've made it to the ice bank which is already far enough but you won't get any farther neither your captain nemo or his nautilus and whether he wants to or not we'll head north again in other words to the land of sensible people i had to agree that ned land was right and until ships are built to navigate over tracts of ice they'll have to stop at the ice bank indeed despite its efforts despite the powerful methods it used to split this ice the nautilus was reduced to immobility

ordinarily when someone can't go any farther he still has the option of returning in his tracks but here it was just as impossible to turn back as to go forward because every passageway had closed behind us and if our submarine remained even slightly stationary it would be frozen in without delay which is exactly what happened near two o'clock in the afternoon and fresh ice kept forming over the ship's sides with astonishing speed i had to admit that captain nemo's leadership had been most injudicious just then i was on the platform observing the situation for some while the captain said to me well professor what think you i think we're trapped captain trapped what do you mean i mean we can't go forward backward or side-raise i think that's the standard definition of trapped at least in the civilized world so professor arenach you think the nautilus won't be able to float clear only with the greatest difficulty captain since the season is already too advanced for you to depend on ice break-up

oh professor captain nemo replied in an ironic tone you never change you see only impediments and obstacles i promise you not only will the nautilus float clear it will go farther still farther south i asked gaping at the captain yes sir it will go to the pole to the pole i exclaimed unable to keep back a moment of disbelief yes the captain replied coolly the antarctic pole that unknown spot crossed by every meridian on the globe as you know i do whatever i like with my nautilus yes i did know that i knew this man was daring to the point of being foolhardy but to overcome all the obstacles around the south pole even more unattainable than the north pole which still hadn't been reached by the boldest navigators wasn't this an absolutely insane undertaking one that could occur only in the brain of a madman it then dawned on me to ask captain nemo if he had already discovered this pole which no human being had ever trod under foot no sir he answered me but we'll discover it together where others have failed i'll succeed

never before has my nautilus cruised so far into the southernmost seas but i repeat it will go farther still i'd like to believe you captain i went on in a tone of some sarcasm oh i do believe you let's forge ahead there are no obstacles for us let's shatter this ice-bank let's blow it up and if it still resists let's put wings on the nautilus and fly over it over it professor captain nemo replied serenely no not over it but under it under it i exclaimed a sudden insight into captain nemo's plans had just flashed through my mind i understood the marvelous talents of his nautilus will be put to work once again in this superhuman undertaking i can see we're starting to understand each other professor captain nemo told me with a half smile you already glimpsed the potential myself i'd say the success of this attempt manuvres that aren't feasible for an ordinary ship are easy for the nautilus if a continent emerges at the pole we'll stop at that continent but on the other hand if open sea washes the pole we'll go to that very place right i said carried away by the captain's logic even though the surface of the sea has solidified into ice its lower strata are still open

thanks to that divine justice that puts the maximum density of salt water one degree above its freezing point and if i am not mistaken the submerged part of this ice bank is in a four to one ratio to its emerging part very nearly professor for each foot of iceberg above the sea there are three more below now then since these ice mountains don't exceed a height of one hundred metres they sink only to a depth of three hundred metres and what are three hundred metres to the nautilus a mere nothing sir we could even go to greater depths and find that temperature layer common to all ocean water and there we'd brave with impunity the minus thirty or minus forty degrees cold on the surface true sir very true i replied with growing excitement our sole difficulty captain nemo went on lies in our stains submerged for several days without renewing our air supply that's all i answered the nautilus has huge air tanks we'll fill them up and they'll supply all the oxygen we need good thinking professor aronax the captain replied with a smile but since i don't want to be accused of foolhardiness i'm giving you all my objections in advance you have more just one

if a sea exists at the south pole it's possible this sea may be completely frozen over so we couldn't come up to the surface my dear sir have you forgotten that the nautilus is armed with a fearsome spur couldn't it be launched diagonally against those tracks of ice which would break open from the impact ah professor you're full of ideas to-day besides captain i added with still greater enthusiasm why couldn't we find an open sea at the south pole just as at the north pole the cold temperature poles and the geographical poles don't coincide in either the northern or southern hemispheres and until proof to the contrary we can assume these two spots on the earth feature either a continent or an ice-free ocean i think as you do professor aranax captain nemo replied i'll only point out that after raising so many objections against my plan you're now crushing me under these arguments in its favour captain nemo was right i was outdoing him and daring it was i who was sweeping him to the pole i was leading the way i was out in front but no you silly fool captain nemo already knew the pros and cons of this question and it amused him to see you flying off into impossible fantasies

nevertheless he didn't wait an instant at his signal the chief officer appeared the two men held a quick exchange in their incomprehensible language and either the chief officer had been alerted previously or he found the plan feasible because he showed no surprise but as unemotional as he was he couldn't have been more impeccably emotionless than concile when i told the fine land our intention of pushing on to the south pole he greeted my announcement with the usual as master wishes and i had to be content with that as for ned land no human shoulders ever executed a higher shrug than the pair belonging to our canadian honestly sir he told me you and your captain nemo i pity you both but we will go to the pole mr land maybe but you won't come back and ned land re-entered his cabin to keep from doing something desperate he said as he left me meanwhile preparations for this daring attempt were getting under way the nautilus's powerful pumps forced air down into the tanks and stored it under high pressure near four o'clock captain nemo informed me that the platform hatches were about to be closed i took a last look at the dense ice-bank we were going to conquer the weather was fair the skies reasonably clear the cold quite brisk

namely minus twelve degrees centigrade but after the wind had lulled the temperature didn't seem too unbearable equipped with picks some ten men climbed on to the nautilus's side and cracked loose the ice around the ship's lower plating which was soon set free this operation was swiftly executed because the fresh ice was still thin we all re-entered the interior the main ballast tanks were filled with the water that hadn't yet congealed in our line of flotation the nautilus submerged without delay i took a seat in the lounge with concile through the open window we stared at the lower strata of the southernmost ocean the thermometer rose again the needle on the pressure gauge swerved over its dials about three hundred meters down just as captain nemo had predicted we cruised beneath the undulating surface of the ice bank but the nautilus sank deeper still it reached a depth of eight hundred meters at the surface this water gave a temperature of minus twelve degrees centigrade but now it gave no more than minus ten degrees two degrees had already been gained thanks to its heating equipment the nautilus's temperature needless to say stayed at a much higher degree

every manoeuvre was accomplished with extraordinary precision with all due respect to master conseil told me we'll pass it by i fully expect to i replied in a tone of deep conviction now in open water the nautilus took a direct course to the pole without veering from the fifty-second meridian from sixty seven degrees thirty minutes to ninety degrees twenty two and a half minutes of latitude were left across in other words slightly more than five hundred leagues the nautilus adopted an average speed of twenty-six miles per hour the speed of an express train if it kept up at this pace forty hours would do it for reaching the pole for part of the night the novelty of our circumstances kept concile amie at the lounge window the sea was lit by our beacon's electric rays but the depths were deserted fish didn't linger in these imprisoned waters here they found merely a passageway for going from the antarctic ocean to open sea at the pole our progress was swift you could feel it in the vibrations of the long steel hull

near two o'clock in the morning i went to snatch a few hours of sleep concile did likewise i didn't encounter captain nemo while going down the gangways i assumed that he was keeping to the pilot-house the next day march nineteenth at five o'clock in the morning i was back at my post in the lounge the electric log indicated that the nautilus had reduced speed by then it was rising to the surface but cautiously while slowly emptying its ballast tanks my heart was pounding would we emerge into the open and find the polar air again no a jolt told me the nautilus had bumped the underbelly of the ice bank still quite thick to judge from the hollowness of the accompanying noise indeed we had struck bottom to use nautical terminology but in the opposite direction and at a depth of three thousand feet that gave us four thousand feet of ice overhead of which one thousand feet emerged above water so the ice-bank was higher here than we had found it on the outskirts a circumstance less than encouraging several times that day the nautilus repeated the same experiment and always it bumped against this surface that formed a ceiling above it

at certain moments the ship encountered ice at a depth of nine hundred meters denoting a thickness of twelve hundred meters of which three hundred meters rose above the level of the ocean this height had tripled since the moment the nautilus had dived beneath the waves i meticulously noted these different depths obtaining the under-water profile of this upside-down mountain chain that stretched beneath the sea by evening there was still no improvement in our situation the ice stayed between four hundred and five hundred meters deep it was obviously shrinking but what a barrier still lay between us and the surface of the ocean by then it was eight o'clock the air inside the nautilus should have been renewed four hours earlier following daily practice on board but i didn't suffer very much although captain nemo hadn't yet made demands on the supplementary oxygen in his air tanks that night my sleep was fitful hope and fear besieged me by turns i got up several times the nautilus continued groping near three o'clock in the morning i observed that we encountered the ice-banks underbelly at a depth of only fifty meters so only a hundred and fifty feet separated us from the surface of the water

little by little the ice-bank was turning into an ice-field again the mountains were changing back into plains my eyes didn't leave the pressure gauge we kept rising on a diagonal going along this shiny surface that sparkled beneath our electric rays above and below the ice-bank was subsiding in long gradients mile after mile it was growing thinner finally at six o'clock in the morning on that memorable day of march nineteenth the lounge door opened captain nemo appeared open sea he told me chapter thirty seven recorded by rick cornwall