During this crossing, the sea continually lavished uswith the most marvelous sights. Its variety was infinite.It changed its setting and decor for the mere pleasure of our eyes,and we were called upon not simply to contemplate the works of ourCreator in the midst of the liquid element, but also to probethe ocean's most daunting mysteries.
During the day of December 11, I was busy reading in the main lounge.Ned Land and Conseil were observing the luminous watersthrough the gaping panels. The Nautilus was motionless.Its ballast tanks full, it was sitting at a depth of 1,000 metersin a comparatively unpopulated region of the ocean where only largerfish put in occasional appearances.
Just then I was studying a delightful book by Jean Mac?, The Servantsof the Stomach, and savoring its ingenious teachings, when Conseilinterrupted my reading.
"Would master kindly come here for an instant?" he said to mein an odd voice.
"What is it, Conseil?"
"It's something that master should see."
I stood up, went, leaned on my elbows before the window, and I saw it.
In the broad electric daylight, an enormous black mass, quite motionless,hung suspended in the midst of the waters. I observed it carefully,trying to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean.Then a sudden thought crossed my mind.
"A ship!" I exclaimed.
"Yes," the Canadian replied, "a disabled craft that'ssinking straight down!"
Ned Land was not mistaken. We were in the presence of a ship whosesevered shrouds still hung from their clasps. Its hull looked ingood condition, and it must have gone under only a few hours before.The stumps of three masts, chopped off two feet above the deck,indicated a flooding ship that had been forced to sacrifice its masting.But it had heeled sideways, filling completely, and it was listingto port even yet. A sorry sight, this carcass lost under the waves,but sorrier still was the sight on its deck, where, lashed with ropesto prevent their being washed overboard, some human corpses still lay!I counted four of them--four men, one still standing at the helm--then a woman, halfway out of a skylight on the afterdeck,holding a child in her arms. This woman was young.Under the brilliant lighting of the Nautilus's rays, I couldmake out her features, which the water hadn't yet decomposed.With a supreme effort, she had lifted her child above her head,and the poor little creature's arms were still twined around itsmother's neck! The postures of the four seamen seemed ghastly to me,twisted from convulsive movements, as if making a last effortto break loose from the ropes that bound them to their ship.And the helmsman, standing alone, calmer, his face smooth and serious,his grizzled hair plastered to his brow, his hands clutching the wheel,seemed even yet to be guiding his wrecked three-master throughthe ocean depths!
What a scene! We stood dumbstruck, hearts pounding, before thisshipwreck caught in the act, as if it had been photographed in itsfinal moments, so to speak! And already I could see enormous sharksmoving in, eyes ablaze, drawn by the lure of human flesh!
Meanwhile, turning, the Nautilus made a circle around the sinking ship,and for an instant I could read the board on its stern:
The Florida
Sunderland, England
CHAPTER 19
Vanikoro
THIS DREADFUL SIGHT was the first of a whole series of maritimecatastrophes that the Nautilus would encounter on its run.When it plied more heavily traveled seas, we often saw wrecked hullsrotting in midwater, and farther down, cannons, shells, anchors, chains,and a thousand other iron objects rusting away.
Meanwhile, continuously swept along by the Nautilus, where we livedin near isolation, we raised the Tuamotu Islands on December 11,that old "dangerous group" associated with the French globalnavigator Commander Bougainville; it stretches from Ducie Islandto Lazareff Island over an area of 500 leagues from the east-southeastto the west-northwest, between latitude 13 degrees 30'and 23 degrees 50' south, and between longitude 125 degrees 30'and 151 degrees 30' west. This island group covers a surface areaof 370 square leagues, and it's made up of some sixty subgroups,among which we noted the Gambier group, which is a French protectorate.These islands are coral formations. Thanks to the work of polyps, a slowbut steady upheaval will someday connect these islands to each other.Later on, this new island will be fused to its neighboring island groups,and a fifth continent will stretch from New Zealand and New Caledoniaas far as the Marquesas Islands.
The day I expounded this theory to Captain Nemo, he answered me coldly:
"The earth doesn't need new continents, but new men!"
Sailors' luck led the Nautilus straight to Reao Island, one of the mostunusual in this group, which was discovered in 1822 by Captain Bellaboard the Minerva. So I was able to study the madreporic processthat has created the islands in this ocean.
Madrepores, which one must guard against confusing with precious coral,clothe their tissue in a limestone crust, and their variations instructure have led my famous mentor Professor Milne-Edwards to classifythem into five divisions. The tiny microscopic animals that secretethis polypary live by the billions in the depths of their cells.Their limestone deposits build up into rocks, reefs, islets, islands.In some places, they form atolls, a circular ring surroundinga lagoon or small inner lake that gaps place in contact withthe sea. Elsewhere, they take the shape of barrier reefs,such as those that exist along the coasts of New Caledoniaand several of the Tuamotu Islands. In still other localities,such as R?union Island and the island of Mauritius, they buildfringing reefs, high, straight walls next to which the ocean'sdepth is considerable.
While cruising along only a few cable lengths from the underpinningof Reao Island, I marveled at the gigantic piece of work accomplishedby these microscopic laborers. These walls were the expressachievements of madrepores known by the names fire coral,finger coral, star coral, and stony coral. These polyps growexclusively in the agitated strata at the surface of the sea,and so it's in the upper reaches that they begin these substructures,which sink little by little together with the secreted rubblebinding them. This, at least, is the theory of Mr. Charles Darwin,who thus explains the formation of atolls--a theory superior,in my view, to the one that says these madreporic edifices siton the summits of mountains or volcanoes submerged a few feetbelow sea level.
I could observe these strange walls quite closely: our sounding linesindicated that they dropped perpendicularly for more than 300 meters,and our electric beams made the bright limestone positively sparkle.
In reply to a question Conseil asked me about the growth rateof these colossal barriers, I thoroughly amazed him by sayingthat scientists put it at an eighth of an inch per biennium.
"Therefore," he said to me, "to build these walls, it took . . . ?"
"192,000 years, my gallant Conseil, which significantly extendsthe biblical Days of Creation. What's more, the formation of coal--in other words, the petrification of forests swallowed by floods--and the cooling of basaltic rocks likewise call for a much longerperiod of time. I might add that those 'days' in the Biblemust represent whole epochs and not literally the lapse of timebetween two sunrises, because according to the Bible itself,the sun doesn't date from the first day of Creation."
When the Nautilus returned to the surface of the ocean, I could takein Reao Island over its whole flat, wooded expanse. Obviously itsmadreporic rocks had been made fertile by tornadoes and thunderstorms.One day, carried off by a hurricane from neighboring shores,some seed fell onto these limestone beds, mixing with decomposedparticles of fish and marine plants to form vegetable humus.Propelled by the waves, a coconut arrived on this new coast.Its germ took root. Its tree grew tall, catching steam off the water.A brook was born. Little by little, vegetation spread.Tiny animals--worms, insects--rode ashore on tree trunks snatchedfrom islands to windward. Turtles came to lay their eggs.Birds nested in the young trees. In this way animal life developed,and drawn by the greenery and fertile soil, man appeared.And that's how these islands were formed, the immense achievementof microscopic animals.
Near evening Re
ao Island melted into the distance, and the Nautilusnoticeably changed course. After touching the Tropic of Capricornat longitude 135 degrees, it headed west-northwest, going back upthe whole intertropical zone. Although the summer sun lavishedits rays on us, we never suffered from the heat, because thirtyor forty meters underwater, the temperature didn't go over 10degrees to 12 degrees centigrade.
By December 15 we had left the alluring Society Islands in the west,likewise elegant Tahiti, queen of the Pacific. In the morningI spotted this island's lofty summits a few miles to leeward.Its waters supplied excellent fish for the tables on board:mackerel, bonito, albacore, and a few varieties of that sea serpentnamed the moray eel.
The Nautilus had cleared 8,100 miles. We logged 9,720 mileswhen we passed between the Tonga Islands, where crews fromthe Argo, Port-au-Prince, and Duke of Portland had perished,and the island group of Samoa, scene of the slaying of Captainde Langle, friend of that long-lost navigator, the Count deLa P?rouse. Then we raised the Fiji Islands, where savagesslaughtered sailors from the Union, as well as Captain Bureau,commander of the Darling Josephine out of Nantes, France.
Extending over an expanse of 100 leagues north to south, and over 90leagues east to west, this island group lies between latitude 2degrees and 6 degrees south, and between longitude 174 degrees and 179degrees west. It consists of a number of islands, islets, and reefs,among which we noted the islands of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, and Kadavu.
It was the Dutch navigator Tasman who discovered this group in 1643,the same year the Italian physicist Torricelli invented the barometerand King Louis XIV ascended the French throne. I'll let the readerdecide which of these deeds was more beneficial to humanity.Coming later, Captain Cook in 1774, Rear Admiral d'Entrecasteaux in 1793,and finally Captain Dumont d'Urville in 1827, untangled the wholechaotic geography of this island group. The Nautilus drew nearWailea Bay, an unlucky place for England's Captain Dillon, who wasthe first to shed light on the longstanding mystery surroundingthe disappearance of ships under the Count de La P?rouse.
This bay, repeatedly dredged, furnished a huge supply ofexcellent oysters. As the Roman playwright Seneca recommended,we opened them right at our table, then stuffed ourselves.These mollusks belonged to the species known by name as Ostrea lamellosa,whose members are quite common off Corsica. This Wailea oysterbankmust have been extensive, and for certain, if they hadn't beencontrolled by numerous natural checks, these clusters of shellfishwould have ended up jam-packing the bay, since as many as 2,000,000eggs have been counted in a single individual.
And if Mr. Ned Land did not repent of his gluttony at our oyster fest,it's because oysters are the only dish that never causes indigestion.In fact, it takes no less than sixteen dozen of these headlessmollusks to supply the 315 grams that satisfy one man's minimumdaily requirement for nitrogen.
On December 25 the Nautilus navigated amid the island groupof the New Hebrides, which the Portuguese seafarer Queir?sdiscovered in 1606, which Commander Bougainville explored in 1768,and to which Captain Cook gave its current name in 1773.This group is chiefly made up of nine large islands and forms a120-league strip from the north-northwest to the south-southeast, lyingbetween latitude 2 degrees and 15 degrees south, and between longitude164 degrees and 168 degrees. At the moment of our noon sights,we passed fairly close to the island of Aurou, which looked to melike a mass of green woods crowned by a peak of great height.
That day it was yuletide, and it struck me that Ned Land badlymissed celebrating "Christmas," that genuine family holiday whereProtestants are such zealots.
I hadn't seen Captain Nemo for over a week, when, on the morningof the 27th, he entered the main lounge, as usual acting as if he'dbeen gone for just five minutes. I was busy tracing the Nautilus'scourse on the world map. The captain approached, placed a fingerover a position on the chart, and pronounced just one word:
"Vanikoro."
This name was magic! It was the name of those isletswhere vessels under the Count de La P?rouse had miscarried.I straightened suddenly.
"The Nautilus is bringing us to Vanikoro?" I asked.
"Yes, professor," the captain replied.
"And I'll be able to visit those famous islands where the Compassand the Astrolabe came to grief?"
"If you like, professor."
"When will we reach Vanikoro?"
"We already have, professor."
Followed by Captain Nemo, I climbed onto the platform, and from theremy eyes eagerly scanned the horizon.
In the northeast there emerged two volcanic islands of unequal size,surrounded by a coral reef whose circuit measured forty miles.We were facing the island of Vanikoro proper, to whichCaptain Dumont d'Urville had given the name "Island of the Search";we lay right in front of the little harbor of Vana, located in latitude16 degrees 4' south and longitude 164 degrees 32' east. Its shoresseemed covered with greenery from its beaches to its summits inland,crowned by Mt. Kapogo, which is 476 fathoms high.
After clearing the outer belt of rocks via a narrow passageway,the Nautilus lay inside the breakers where the sea had a depth of thirtyto forty fathoms. Under the green shade of some tropical evergreens,I spotted a few savages who looked extremely startled at our approach.In this long, blackish object advancing flush with the water,didn't they see some fearsome cetacean that they were obligedto view with distrust?
Just then Captain Nemo asked me what I knew about the shipwreckof the Count de La P?rouse.
"What everybody knows, captain," I answered him.
"And could you kindly tell me what everybody knows?" he asked mein a gently ironic tone.
"Very easily."
I related to him what the final deeds of Captain Dumont d'Urvillehad brought to light, deeds described here in this heavily condensedsummary of the whole matter.
In 1785 the Count de La P?rouse and his subordinate, Captain de Langle,were sent by King Louis XVI of France on a voyage to circumnavigatethe globe. They boarded two sloops of war, the Compass and the Astrolabe,which were never seen again.
In 1791, justly concerned about the fate of these two sloopsof war, the French government fitted out two large cargo boats,the Search and the Hope, which left Brest on September 28 underorders from Rear Admiral Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. Two months later,testimony from a certain Commander Bowen, aboard the Albemarle,alleged that rubble from shipwrecked vessels had been seenon the coast of New Georgia. But d'Entrecasteaux was unawareof this news--which seemed a bit dubious anyhow--and headed towardthe Admiralty Islands, which had been named in a report by oneCaptain Hunter as the site of the Count de La P?rouse's shipwreck.
They looked in vain. The Hope and the Search passed rightby Vanikoro without stopping there; and overall, this voyagewas plagued by misfortune, ultimately costing the lives ofRear Admiral d'Entrecasteaux, two of his subordinate officers,and several seamen from his crew.
It was an old hand at the Pacific, the English adventurerCaptain Peter Dillon, who was the first to pick up the trail leftby castaways from the wrecked vessels. On May 15, 1824, his ship,the St. Patrick, passed by Tikopia Island, one of the New Hebrides.There a native boatman pulled alongside in a dugout canoe and soldDillon a silver sword hilt bearing the imprint of characters engravedwith a cutting tool known as a burin. Furthermore, this nativeboatman claimed that during a stay in Vanikoro six years earlier,he had seen two Europeans belonging to ships that had run agroundon the island's reefs many years before.
Dillon guessed that the ships at issue were those under the Count deLa P?rouse, ships whose disappearance had shaken the entire world.He tried to reach Vanikoro, where, according to the native boatman,a good deal of rubble from the shipwreck could still be found,but winds and currents prevented his doing so.
Dillon returned to Calcutta. There he was able to interestthe Asiatic Society and the East India Company in his discovery.A ship named after the Search was placed at his disposal,and he departed on January 23, 1827, accompanied by a French deputy.
This new Search, after
putting in at several stops over the Pacific,dropped anchor before Vanikoro on July 7, 1827, in the same harborof Vana where the Nautilus was currently floating.
There Dillon collected many relics of the shipwreck:iron utensils, anchors, eyelets from pulleys, swivel guns,an eighteen-pound shell, the remains of some astronomical instruments,a piece of sternrail, and a bronze bell bearing the inscription"Made by Bazin," the foundry mark at Brest Arsenal around 1785.There could no longer be any doubt.
Finishing his investigations, Dillon stayed at the site ofthe casualty until the month of October. Then he left Vanikoro,headed toward New Zealand, dropped anchor at Calcutta on April 7,1828, and returned to France, where he received a very cordialwelcome from King Charles X.
But just then the renowned French explorer Captain Dumont d'Urville,unaware of Dillon's activities, had already set sail to searchelsewhere for the site of the shipwreck. In essence, a whalingvessel had reported that some medals and a Cross of St. Louishad been found in the hands of savages in the Louisiade Islandsand New Caledonia.