And among the worthy people who have so kindly received us I revise my record of these adventures once more. Not a fact has been omitted, not a detail exaggerated. It is a faithful narrative of this incredible expedition in an element inaccessible to man, but to which Progress will one day open a road.
Shall I be believed? I do not know. And it matters little, after all. What I now affirm is, that I have a right to speak of these seas, under which, in less than ten months, I have crossed 20,000 leagues in that submarine tour of the world which has revealed so many wonders.
But what has become of the Nautilus? Did it resist the pressure of the Maelstrom? Does Captain Nemo still live?ci And does he still follow under the ocean those frightful retaliations? Or did he stop after that last hecatomb?
Will the waves one day carry to him this manuscript containing the history of his life? Shall I ever know the name of this man? Will the missing vessel tell us by its nationality that of Captain Nemo?
I hope so. And I also hope that his powerful vessel has conquered the sea at its most terrible gulf, and that the Nautilus has survived where so many other vessels have been lost! If it be so, if Captain Nero still inhabits the ocean, his adopted country, may hatred be appeased in that savage heart! May the contemplation of so many wonders extinguish forever the spirit of vengeance! May the judge disappear, and the philosopher continue the peaceful exploration of the sea! If his destiny be strange, it is also sublime. Have I not understood it myself? Have I not lived ten months of this unnatural life? And to the question asked by Ecclesiastescj 3,000 years ago, “That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out?” two men alone of all now living have the right to give an answer:
CAPTAIN NEMO AND MYSELF.
Endnotes
1 (p. 5) “an enormous thing,” ... infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale: Verne did not fabricate this idea. Sea monsters large enough to be mistaken for an island had been reported as early as the mid-eighteenth century. In A Natural History of Norway (1752), Danish theologian Erik Pontoppidan claimed the existence of an animal as large as a floating island with tentacles strong enough to pull a ship to the bottom of the sea; he called the kraken “the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation.” These rumors were made credible by such discoveries as the washed-up corpse of a giant squid with 60-foot tentacles, found in the South Pacific in 1887 (Grann, “A Reporter at Large: The Squid Hunter”; see “For Further Reading”).
2 (p. 6) a distance of more than seven hundred nautical leagues: In nineteenth-century France, a league equaled about 2.16 miles, so 700 nautical leagues would have been 1,512 miles, and 20,000 leagues would have equaled 43,200 miles. Today the league has been standardized to equal 3 nautical miles.
3 . (p. 7) the white whale, the terrible “Moby Dick”: The “title character” of American writer Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby Dick is a huge, ferocious white whale that is pursued by Ahab, the obsessed captain of the Pequod.
4 . (p. 7) Aristotle and Pliny ... who admitted the existence of these monsters: In History of Animals, Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), known for his writings on logic and natural science, mentions the existence of huge sea serpents that pull oxen from the shore and devour them. Roman naturalist and scholar Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) wrote in Historia naturalis (book 9) about a 700-pound sea monster with arms 30 feet long that haunted the coast of Spain.
5 . (p. 8) Linnæus: Swedish naturalist and botanist Carolus Linnaeus (also known as Carl von Linné, 1707-1778) established the binomial system of scientific classification, in which species of plants and animals are identified by a two-part Latin name that includes their genus and their species.
6 . (p. 8) Hippolytus: In Greek mythology, Hippolytus, son of the Greek king Theseus, rejects the advances of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. Seeking revenge, Aphrodite causes Hippolytus’ stepmother to fall in love with him, which leads Theseus to banish and curse him. As Hippolytus leaves the kingdom, his chariot is attacked by a sea monster, and his frightened horses drag him to his death.
7 . (p. 9) the Scotia, of the Cunard Company’s line: In 1863 the steamship Scotia set the record for the fastest journey between New York and Liverpool, England, when it made the trip in less than nine days. The Scotia was owned by Sir Samuel Cunard (1788-1865), British founder of the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, known as the Cunard Line. Cunard was one of the first to use steam to power a fleet of ships.
8 (p. 14) Commander Farragut: Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870) was a hero of the American Civil War who defeated the Confederates at New Orleans.
9 . (p. 15) I no more thought of pursuing the unicorn than of attempting the passage of the North Sea: In 1867 European traders and navigators were seeking to navigate the dangerous Northwest Passage, a northern passage to India that would have considerably shortened the trading route between the two continents. Many renowned naval explorers died in the attempt. The Northwest Passage was first successfully navigated by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1906, just months after Verne’s death.
10 (p. 19) hoisting the American colors ... whose thirty-nine stars: In 1867 there were thirty-seven, not thirty-nine, stars on the American flag. New stars were added when new states joined the confederation of states collectively known as the United States of America.
11 (p. 20) The frigate might have been called the Argus, for a hundred reasons: The reference is to Argus, a creature in Greek mythology with 100 eyes; since he closed only a few of his eyes at a time while he slept, the goddess Hera used him as a watchman over Ios, the lover of her husband, Zeus. When Argus was killed, Hera placed his eyes in the tail of the peacock, her favorite bird.
12 (p. 21) that old language of Rabelais, which is still in use in some Canadian provinces: The Canadian-French dialect preserved an older syntax and vocabulary than the mainland French Aronnax would have spoken. François Rabelais (c.1490-1553) is known for his satirical novels, including Pantagruel and Gargantua.
13 (p. 34) We heaved the log, and calculated that the Abraham Lincoln was going at the rate of 18½ miles an hour: The “log” was a piece of wood weighted with lead and attached to a ship by a line tied with knots at regular intervals. Seamen tossed the log from the ship and measured the speed at which the ship moved away from the log by counting the number of knots played out every 28 seconds. This method of measuring speed gave rise to the term “knot” (meaning 1 nautical mile per hour) in nautical terminology.
14 . (p. 36) I am a good swimmer (though without pretending to rival Byron or Edgar Poe, who were masters of the art): In 1810 English Romantic poet George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), known as Lord Byron, swam the Hellespont, or Dardanelles, the strait between Turkey and Europe. American gothic and mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was a strong influence on Verne, although he was not reported to be a great swimmer.
15 . (p. 45) They evidently understood neither the language of Arago nor of Faraday: That is, the strangers don’t understand either French or English. François Arago (1786-1853) was a French physicist and astronomer who demonstrated the wave nature of light; Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was an English chemist and physicist who discovered electromagnetic induction.
16 6. (p. 53) I regarded him with fear mingled with interest, as, doubtless, Œdipus regarded the Sphinx: In Greek mythology, the Sphinx, a horrible monster with the body of a winged lion and the head of a woman, waylaid and devoured travelers who couldn’t answer her riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes, answered correctly that a human crawls on hands and knees as a child, walks erect as a man, and uses a cane in old age, thereby causing the Sphinx to kill herself. A version of this story is given by Greek tragic playwright Sophocles (c.496-406 B.C.) in Oedipus Rex.
17 (p. 55) Nautilus: Captain Nemo’s ship is named after a species of shellfish found in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans tha
t regulates its buoyancy with gas and liquid exchanges through tubes in its shell wall, enabling it to move up and down in the water column; and also after the Nautilus, the first submarine to be successfully operated (1801), invented by American engineer Robert Fulton. The first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy during World War II; it was the first submarine to cross under the ice of the North Pole.
18 . (p. 56) “My flocks, like those of Neptune’s old shepherds”: In Roman mythology, Neptune (called Poseidon by the Greeks) ruled over the sea. His servant Proteus shepherded flocks of seals and dolphins.
19 . (p. 60) “These musicians ... are the contemporaries of Orpheus”: The most accomplished musician of Greek mythology, Orpheus had the power to calm both gods and men with his music, and even to move inanimate objects. When his wife, Eurydice, died, he played his lyre to convince Pluto, ruler of the underworld, to release her.
20 (p. 64) “There is a powerful agent, ... the soul of my mechanical apparatus. This agent is electricity”: First introduced to the public at the World’s Fair held in Paris in 1867, electricity was not available for domestic use until well into the 1880s. Verne was fascinated by the power of electricity; however, he did not thoroughly understand it, and much of his writing on the subject is conjecture. In fact, if a submarine like the Nautilus were to be powered by batteries, the batteries would have to be bigger than the ship itself.
21 . (p.67) “I use Bunsen’s contrivances, not Ruhmkorff‘s”: Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff (1803-1877) was a famed German mechanic who invented the Ruhmkorff coil, an induction coil (for producing high voltage from a low-voltage source) that could produce very large electrical sparks. German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1899) invented the Bunsen cell (a device that delivers an electric current), which was more powerful than other cells. Verne is implying that Nemo has discovered a new, more powerful cell or coil.
22 . (p. 68) “steel plates, whose density is from .07 to .08 that of water”: The standard English translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, used for this edition, misprints many of Verne’s original—and correct—figures, as it does here. Steel has a density of 7.8, not .07 or .08, that of water. If the figures here were correct, steel would be light enough to float. (A steel ship floats because its overall density is less than that of water.)
23 . (p. 76) Ned named the fish, and Conseil classed them: At this point Verne’s original French text includes a long passage in which Conseil lectures Ned on the scientific classifications of fish. Ned responds that fish are classified into two categories: fish that can be eaten and fish that can’t! The exchange establishes important character traits of both Conseil and Ned—the one scientific and intellectual, the other practical and hedonistic.
24 . (p. 82) “the Rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of your own country-men”: Frenchmen Benoit Rouquayrol, a mining engineer, and Auguste Denayrouse, a naval officer, developed the first modern diving cylinder, patented in 1865 as an “Aerophore.” It allowed a diver to breathe compressed air equal to the water pressure of his depth, thus making it possible to descend much deeper than before. The aerophore is the forerunner of modern scuba equipment.
25 . (p. 96) “the learned Maury”: American naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) wrote what has been called the first textbook of modern oceanography, The Physical Geography of the Sea. Verne often returns to Maury as a source.
26 6. (p. 97) the Sandwich Islands, where Cook died, February 14, 1779: Both Nemo and Aronnax speak highly of English navigator and explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779), who completed the first major scientific survey of the South Pacific Ocean. Cook was killed by natives of Hawaii (formerly called the Sandwich Islands) as he returned from his third expedition.
27 (p. 98) if one can believe Athenæus, a Greek doctor, who lived before Galen: Greek physician Athenaeus of Attaleia (first century A.D.) founded a school of medicine based in Stoic thought. Galen (A.D. 129-c.199) was also a Greek physician.
28 8. (p. 98) D‘Orbigny: French naturalist Alcide Dessalines d’Orbigny (1802-1857) founded the science of stratigraphical paleontology, the study of fossils as they appear in the geographical strata.
29 . (p. 100) we sighted the Pomotou Islands, the old “dangerous group” of Bougainville: Count Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), a French navigator, wrote Description d‘un voyage autour du monde (Description of a Voyage Around the World), an account of his journey to Polynesia. He nicknamed the archipelago of Polynesia, which includes the Pomotou Islands, the “dangerous group,” partly because of the behavior of the island’s native inhabitants.
30 . (p. 101 ) Such is, at least, Darwin’s theory, who thus explains the formation of the atolls: Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an English naturalist whose most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), proposed the theory of natural selection and evolution. Darwin also wrote Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, referred to here. An atoll is a circular coral reef.
31 . (p. 102) “vanikoro.” ... It was the name of the islands on which La Perouse had been lost!: French navigator Jean-François de Galaup (1741-c.1788), known as La Pérouse, disappeared during an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. His disappearance was one of the great, unsolved mysteries of Verne’s day. It is thought he was murdered by natives of the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the Solomon Islands group in the western Pacific Ocean, which includes the island of Vanikoro, or Vanikolo.
32 . (p.169) “after the construction of the Suez Canal”: Construction of the Suez Canal, a ship canal through the Isthmus of Suez that connects the Red and Mediterranean Seas, was begun in 1859. The canal opened in 1869, the year before this novel was published.
33 . (p. 182) battle of Actium: Roman general Octavian defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium (31 B.C) to become the first Roman emperor. In one of history’s strangest and most important battles, Cleopatra’s fleet of sixty ships mysteriously turned tail and fled and Antony followed her, deserting his men.
34 (p. 187) Michelet: French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874) wrote La Mer (The Sea), a romantic history of the ocean reputed to be a source of many of Verne’s episodes and images. Michelet lost his position as professor of history at the Collège de France when he refused to swear allegiance to Louis-Napoleon (later Emperor Napoléon III).
35 . (p. 195) Still the same monk-like severity of aspect: At this point in the narrative, the translator of this edition leaves out two important paragraphs describing portraits hanging in Nemo’s room. The portraits, planted by Verne as a clue to Nemo’s character, include: Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746-1817), a Polish general and patriot who fought for Polish independence from Russia and Prussia; Markos Botsaris (c.1788-1823), a Greek patriot and a prominent figure in the Greek War of Independence from the Turks; Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), an Irish nationalist leader known as the Liberator, who fought for Catholic Emancipation; George Washington (1732-1799), the American general who commanded the Continental armies during the Revolutionary War and the first president of the United States; Daniele Manin (1804-1857), an Italian patriot who fought against Austrian control; and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), president of the United States during the American Civil War. Also displayed in Nemo’s room is an etching of American abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) hanging on the gallows, whom Verne called a martyr to the emancipation of the black race. Given the fact that Verne and his editor cut the explanation of Nemo’s motivations from the original manuscript (see the Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxv), this collection of portraits is a crucial key to understanding the captain’s character.
36 . (p. 206) ATLANTIS: A legendary civilization of mystery and fascination in Western culture, Atlantis may have been destroyed by flood or earthquake in ancient times. Scientists and archaeologists have been searching for Atlantis for hundreds of years. Verne goes on to list a few of the writers, historians, and philosophers who have described Atlantis, from Origen (c
. A.D. 200), an early Greek Christian and defender of the Church, to the more modern Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-1788), a renowned French naturalist and author of the 44-volume Histoire Naturelle (Natural History).
37 . (p. 228) which altered the whole landscape like a diorama: Invented in the 1820s by French artists J. M. Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton, a diorama is a painting seen from a distance through a large opening that utilizes staggered canvases, transparent cloth, and a changing play of light to produce a three-dimensional scenic optical illusion.
38 8. (p. 235) Doubtless the Canadian did not wish to admit the presence of the South Pole: On the date of publication of this book, neither of the poles had been discovered. American explorer Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole in 1909; Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole two years later.
39 (P. 270) To paint such pictures, one must have the pen of the most illustrious of our poets, the author of “The Toilers of the Deep”: The best-known passage of French writer Victor Hugo’s 1866 novel (Travailleurs de la mer) is a battle between the hero and a giant octopus that lives in a cave in the English Channel. Verne greatly admired Hugo’s craft and art.
40 (p. 278) at a depth of more than 1,400 fathoms, that I saw the electric cable lying on the bottom.... In 1863, the engineers constructed another one, measuring 2,000 miles in length, and weighing 4,500 tons, which was embarked on the Great Eastern: In 1866 the Great Eastern completed laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable, linking Europe to America; it was the only ship large enough to carry enough cable to span the entire Atlantic. Verne sailed to New York aboard the Great Eastern in 1867, in his one and only trip to North America. He was impressed by the ship, which could carry 4,000 passengers. He used notes compiled on his voyage while writing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as well as his 1871 novel Une ville flottante (A Floating City).
41 (p. 281 ) “On the 11th and 12th Prairal of the second year”: Prairal is the period of time between May 20 and June 18 marked on the French revolutionary calendar. Acting against Catholic tradition, the National Convention adopted a new calendar, in which years were numbered not from the birth of Christ but from the day the French Republic was proclaimed, September 22, 1792. Months were given names that evoked their season. Prairal (prairie is French for “meadow”) was the ninth month of this new calendar, which was abandoned in 1806.