Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Plot
Exposition
In 1866, the captain of a steam ship called the Governor Higginson spotted a large mass in the water five miles off the shores of Australia. He thought that this object was a previously unknown reef, and was starting to mark it on his map when two waterspouts shot from the mass.
The captain was astonished and decided that he had encountered a previously unknown species of whale, which could spurt waterspouts mixed with air and steam.
Later, other ship captains spotted the same mass in different places on the globe. Once, it was in the Pacific, fifteen days later, it was spotted in the Atlantic Ocean. This new type of whale could move rapidly indeed. It was also huge, being estimated at 350 feet (106.68 m).
However, the monster stopped showing itself after a while, and talk soon died down until a ship called the Moravian struck a large rock and got damaged. When the ship got back to port, part of the keel (the bottom of the ship) was smashed.
A few weeks later, another ship hit the monster, or rather, the monster hit the ship. When the captain of the ship sent someone to check the damage, they found a compartment flooded. The ship eventually got back to port, where it was discovered that there was a large triangular hole in the ship.
This new development led people to believe that a gigantic narwhal caused the damage.
Next, the main character, Dr. Pierre Arronax, is introduced. He is a professor from France, who had come to America so that he can document rocks and plants from the Nebraska badlands.
Dr. Arronax was staying in a hotel in New York, preparing to go home, when the New York Times invited him to discuss the monster in the news. He accepted (having a reputation for knowing a lot about marine animals) and told the news that he believed that the monster was either an underwater boat or a massive narwhal.
He says that one person would not have had enough money to make such a machine, and he would not be able to keep it secret anyway. Governments would definitely not be able to keep that secret, and so it was unlikely that a machine was causing this trouble.
However, a gigantic monster was much more likely because no one knew what animals were deep in the ocean, where no one has ever gone.
The United States Navy decided that enough was enough, and sent a ship called the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln to kill the monster so that it does not make any more trouble. Before the ship left port, Dr. Pierre was invited to come aboard the ship and document the journey.
After the letter came to Dr. Pierre, asking him to come aboard the Abraham Lincoln, the naturalist decided that he would go on the journey, so he called his manservant, Conseil, to come and pack their things.
When Conseil heard of his master's plan, he wasn't so thrilled about chasing a giant narwhal around the ocean, wanting to go back to France to take their samples to the museum there. Luckily, he decided to come along because Pierre said that he will send the samples to France and then go there later.
It took Conseil all of 15 minutes to pack their things because he was as good at classifying shirts and suits as he was at classifying plants and animals. After they packed, Pierre and Conseil got in a cab, which took them to the dock, where the Abraham Lincoln was waiting for them.
Soon after they got on, the captain told the crew to sail towards the place where the beast was last spotted, and the ship left port.
Next, Professor Arronax is told of the weaponry that was on the ship. Evidently, there was an abundant store of harpoons, guns, and even long guns filled with harpoons that were fired at whales. The ship even had a gigantic breech-loading cannon that could fire 4-ton conical projectiles over a range of 16 kilometers.
The captain said that he would give 2000 dollars to whoever sighted the narwhal first, so people were looking out for the beast. One of the most important people on the ship was a Canadian named Ned Land. He was the best harpooner in the world. In fact, the crew were counting on Ned to harpoon the ferocious narwhal.
However, Ned did not believe that the monster was a gigantic narwhal, and he talked to Pierre about this subject. Pierre attempted to convince the stubborn harpooner that such a beast could exist deep in the ocean, but Ned told him that he had harpooned many a narwhal in his time, and none have been powerful enough to penetrate the hull of a steamer.
After searching around the Arctic Ocean, the captain decided that the narwhal was not up North, so they started going South. A whaling ship heard that Ned Land was onboard the Abraham Lincoln, and they asked him to come aboard their ship so that he could help them catch a whale in the vicinity. Ned was given permission, and he managed to catch two whales, not one.
Next, the ship was on its Southward voyage, but the sailors had not seen any giant narwhal, so they asked the captain if they could go back home. The captain said that he would search for three more days, and if they did not find the beast in those three days, they would go home.
Three days later, the ship is 300 miles (482.8 km) off the coast of Japan, and Dr. Pierre and Conseil were talking about how foolish the expedition was, when suddenly Ned shouted that he saw the beast!
After Ned shouted that he saw the narwhal, everyone was surprised and quickly ran to the railing so that they could see the monster approaching. They saw it, all right, and decided not to engage until morning so that they could see better.
The next morning, the monster was out of sight again, but the crew were not disheartened and decided to wait until they could see it again. Soon, they saw a gigantic spout, and decided to attack the narwhal.
They sped after it under full steam, but the narwhal was going as fast as they were, and it did not seem like getting tired. The captain, seeing this, decided to fire the powerful deck gun at the beast, and managed to hit it, but the 4-ton projectile bounced off.
Soon, the narwhal was spotted asleep in the water, and Ned decided to sneak up on it and harpoon it while it was asleep. Dr. Pierre, anxious to classify the monster, decided to come with Ned. Conseil, like a good servant, always followed his master, and he came in the boat with Pierre and Ned.
Rising Action
When the three sneaked up to the narwhal, Ned harpooned it. Unfortunately, the harpoon bounced off. The narwhal thrashed for a while, tossing the people out of the boat and then submerging.
Pierre was thrown into the water, where he sank quickly, but he swam back up to the surface, where he found Conseil looking for him. Conseil helped him stay above the water and float there.
Soon, they became tired, and Pierre almost fell asleep. Conseil had to hold him above the water so that his master would not drown. Luckily, Ned soon found them, and helped them to the back of the “narwhal”, which turned out to be solid steel.
Pierre was doubtful that the beast was actually a submarine, but when he checked, he saw that its hull was made of riveted steel plates. No marine creature had a body made of steel plates, so he concluded that the harpooner was correct in his conclusion that the monster was a submarine.
Ned said that submarines must have a crew, and in that case, they were safe because the crew would come out and take them into the machine. Ned started banging on the hull, when a hatch popped open and a man came out.
The travelers are taken into the submarine and then put into a room, the door of which is promptly locked. Ned gets famished and angry and says that if they don't give him food, he will skewer the first person to come into the cell with his bowie-knife.
Pierre and Conseil tell Ned that it wouldn't be a good idea to kill anyone because if he did, the whole crew might get angry and kill the prisoners. Luckily, Ned was convinced that he could not do anything about their predicament by stabbing people, and the prisoners waited for something to happen.
Later, some men come into the room. One of them is short and stocky, and the other one is taller and leaner. The short and stocky man started talking to his companion in an unknown dialect.
Pierre does not know what the people are talking about, so he decides that he will tell them his story. He attempts to speak to them in French, but they do not seem to understand. Ned attempts to talk to them in English, but they do not seem to understand that, either. Conseil (who was Flemish), tried in German, but the same result occurred. Finally, Pierre told the strangers his story in Latin, but they do not seem to understand.
Thoroughly shocked, the cellmates had to use primitive hand symbols to ask for food. Then, the strange men left the room. Ned became incensed when he did not get a reply or food from the men. In fact, all the prisoners thought that the men did not understand them and despaired of the chance of food when a waiter came in and served them with a very delicious meal.
When they were full, none of the prisoners could stay awake anymore, so they all went to bed.
When Pierre woke up, he was surprised at how long he slept. It seemed that he slept an entire day, and became hungry again. He also noticed that the air inside the cell was becoming stale, and wondered how the submarine got air inside. He was starting to get uncomfortable when a current of clean air wafted into the room.
Soon, Ned and Conseil wake up, and they discuss the submarine's mode of ventilation. Pierre says that he thinks that the submarine has to go to the surface of the water, like a whale, and points out the air vent where the air came from.
Ned then complains about his hunger and asks when the food will come. Dr. Pierre says that he doesn't think that the people on board the submarine will starve them, to which Ned replies that he thinks they are being fattened up. Pierre tells Ned to get rid of those ideas, and then tells him to refrain from attacking any of the crew because that would not help their predicament.
Later, Ned started to get angrier and angrier, at the same rate as he became hungrier. Soon, Ned became positively incensed. He talked incessantly about escaping the underwater prison in which they were trapped, even going so far as to suggest beating up the entire crew and taking command of the vessel themselves.
Soon, Ned was screaming at the walls because he was starving, but no reply came. Then, the waiter came in by the door. Ned beats down the waiter and started choking him, when a man tells Ned to stop in French.
The man who spoke to Ned turned out to be the captain of the ship. He said that he had visited them before, and he knew French, English, German, and Latin, so he understood their story. The only reason that he did not answer them at their first meeting was so that he could think things over.
The captain tells them that they will be free to roam about the ship except on dangerous occasions when they will have to stay in their cabins. If they don't agree to these terms, he will have to put them on the outside of the submarine and then submerge it.
Ned says that he will never promise to try not to escape, at which the captain says that he expected Ned to say something like this, and did not expect a promise like that from him.
Then, the captain tells a waiter to take Pierre's companions to the dining table, while Pierre came with him to his personal dining room, where he wanted to talk more with the professor.
In the captain's dining room, he tells Pierre about how everything they were eating was from the sea. He also tells Pierre that he was named Captain Nemo.
After they dine, the captain decides to show Pierre around the Nautilus. He shows him the massive library, the lounge, and Pierre's room.
The library was a massive room filled from top to bottom with all sorts of books, written in many languages. There were books about nature, engineering, hydraulics, and more, but curiously none about economics, a subject which seemed to have been banned from the Nautilus.
Captain Nemo tells Pierre about how he got all the books when he built the submarine, there were 12,000 of them. He also said that the library doubled as a smoking-room. Pierre thought that the captain must have occasionally gone to land for the tobacco, but Nemo revealed that he found a seaweed with nicotine in it that he used to make cigars.
Next, the captain showed Pierre the lounge, which was full of scientific specimens, works of art, and a large piano with compositions from many composers. Captain Nemo told Pierre that he was something of a connoisseur and collected these paintings and sculptures for a long time. The specimens he collected himself from the ocean floor.
The captain then showed Pierre to his room, which opened up onto the captain's room, which opened up onto the lounge. Then, he sat down for a chat with the professor.
Captain Nemo told Pierre that since the Frenchman will never be able to leave the Nautilus, he would show him how it works. He invited Pierre into his cabin, where he showed him all the instruments he used to control the submarine. There was a thermometer, a barometer, a humidistat, a storm glass, a compass, a sextant, chronometers, and spyglasses.
The captain also showed Pierre a pressure gauge, which told how much pressure is pressing down on the hull of the submarine. After showing him all these things, Nemo told Pierre that his entire ship was powered by electricity. Pierre was astonished because he thought that electricity was not powerful enough to propel this submarine at such high speeds.
However, Pierre pointed out that to make batteries, you needed many metals, which could only be found on land. Nemo said that he found all of these metals at the bottom of the ocean, and to replace the batteries, all he had to do was to mine them and then make new batteries.
However, Nemo does not use this method. Instead, he discovered that by extracting the sodium out of salt water, he could use it instead of zinc in his batteries, and that sodium created more electricity than zinc.
Pierre then said that to extract this sodium, he would need more electric power than the sodium can produce. Captain Nemo says that he does not extract the sodium using electricity, but with coal instead. He found many large coal veins underwater and mined them, using the power generated by burning coal to extract the sodium.
Then, Captain Nemo says that he gets the air inside the submarine by surfacing and then storing large quantities in high-pressure tanks that he refills whenever they run out of air.
Captain Nemo then showed Pierre the skiff that was accessed using a ladder from the inside of the boat. He said that the skiff was a boat that he used for fishing and pleasure cruises on the surface of the ocean. The captain climbed into it using the ladder and then unbolted it from the submarine. When he wanted to get back in, he called the submarine by telegraph, and the people inside picked him up.
After Captain Nemo showed Pierre all these things, he took him to the lounge and then started telling the Frenchman about the story of the Nautilus.
Captain Nemo started telling Pierre the specifications of the submarine he was in. The submarine was seventy meters long, and its maximum width is 8 meters. It is shaped like a large cigar, like some submarines that the British made.
When Captain Nemo drew up the plans for the submarine, he wanted one-tenth to stick above the water when it surfaced, so it needed to displace only nine-tenths of its volume, or 1,356 cubic meters. The Nautilus is made of two hulls, which are connected using very rigid T-beams.
The Nautilus sinks below the water when the captain opens up valves, which fill up ballast-tanks, which makes the submarine sink under the water. If he wants to sink faster, Nemo can use vertical rudders which, when pointed downward, can propel the submarine with the use of the propeller.
The captain steers the ship using a wheel, and his helmsman is caged in a thick glass dome, where he can use a powerful lantern to see where they are going.
Captain Nemo built the Nautilus in secret by ordering each of the major parts from a different country using a different name, and assembling the whole thing on an island. After building the Nautilus, he burned all traces of his presence on the island and then set off.
Later, Captain Nemo took the submarine to the surface of the ocean to get some fresh air in the air tanks. He then took out his sextant to measure where they were on the globe.
They were about 300 miles (ca. 483 km) away from Japan. Then, Captain Nemo and Pierre went back inside the submarine. In the lounge, the captain gave Pierre some maps and then told him that they were going east-northeast and left.
Next, Ned and Conseil came into the lounge and wondered at its size. Ned was still fuming about being on this submarine and started talking about an escape when the lights turned off. One of the walls slid aside to reveal a large window.
Many fish were swimming around the massive steel submarine. Ned started telling Conseil what types of fish they were, and Conseil was classifying them.
However, the window soon closed, and they all went back to their rooms.
A few days later, Pierre and his friends are wondering what has gotten into the captain. They had not seen him for many days, and are wondering if he had gotten insane, or had died, or something else had happened to him.
Then, one day, Pierre receives a letter from the captain asking whether he and his friends wanted to go hunting with him in the forests of Crespo Island. Pierre told his friends this news, and Ned was enthusiastic because he thought he might escape if they went ashore.
When Pierre meets the captain, he asks him whether they are going ashore at Crespo Island and if they are going to use rifles. The captain says that they are not going ashore, but they most certainly are going to use rifles.
This seems to confirm that Captain Nemo had gotten insane, so Pierre asks him how are they going to hunt. Captain Nemo says that they are hunting in underwater forests, using scuba gear, and air-powered rifles firing electric bullets.
Later that day, Pierre and Conseil meet Captain Nemo. He shows them the diving suits and the rifles and then helps them put them on. Ned doesn't want to go because he does not trust the diving suits.
Next, they go into a room with a large metal door at one end. The door opens, and water floods in, and now the explorers can safely walk around underwater. Pierre wonders at all the plants they see, and thinks that Conseil is classifying them all in his mind.
Soon, night falls, and the travelers reach the underwater forest of Crespo Island. Before they go in, they take a short nap and then venture into the unknown.
Giant seaweed and other marine plants grew at the bottom of the ocean, and Pierre could see why this was called a forest, the seaweeds were so thick that it looked like they were in a tropical jungle.
However, they did not find any suitable game, so they continued until they reached a place where the seafloor started going up. Here was the bottom of Crespo Island, and Captain Nemo would go no farther.
They turned around and started heading back to the Nautilus. On the way, Captain Nemo shot a sea-otter. Soon, they came so close to the surface of the water that they could shoot low-flying birds.
Later, they almost got eaten by some very dangerous sharks, but got away because the sharks had bad eyesight.
When they returned to the Nautilus, the door they had used was still open, and they went through. Inside, pumps sucked up the water, and they left the room.
The next day, Pierre spoke with Captain Nemo. The submarine had risen to the surface of the water, and during the night, many types of fish had swum into the net dragged by the Nautilus to catch fish for the table.
Captain Nemo started talking about how he loved the sea, and how it had many states. Occasionally, it was angry, sometimes calm. That particular day, the sea was calm.
In the days that passed, the routine was quite the same. Every day, they would go on deck to see where they were, and then would go back inside and do other things during the day.
One such day, Pierre was reading a delightful book about food when Conseil told him to look out the window. Pierre saw a shipwreck with many dead people on board, and sharks swimming around. Then, the Nautilus continued its journey.
Later, as the Nautilus passed through more traveled areas, they encountered more and more shipwrecks. Soon, Captain Nemo told Pierre where they were going.
He said that they were at the island of Vanikoro, where the shipwrecks of the Compass and the Astrolabe were located.
The Compass and the Astrolabe were two navy ships from the French Navy whose captain was told to make a circumnavigation of the globe. He sailed for a long time, eventually ending up at the island of Vanikoro, where he got shipwrecked.
The French Navy sent another ship to look for the captain and his ships. They did not find him, but gathered that he built another ship from the two wrecked ones and then sailed away, being shipwrecked again in a different place.
The captain showed them the shipwrecks and then sailed away.
The Nautilus then sailed toward the Torres Strait, heading towards Papua. The Torres strait was one of the most dangerous straits in this part of the ocean because of all the coral growing around it.
True to form, the coral had wrecked many ships, and while going through the treacherous strait, Captain Nemo accidentally steered wrong and crashed into the coral. The Nautilus was stuck!
When Captain Nemo found out, he decided to wait. In four days, the full moon would rise, and they would be able to get out of their predicament. Until then, the people on the ship would stay inside.
However, Ned thought differently than the others on the ship. He was not content with sitting inside and waiting, but when he saw that there was an island nearby, he asked the captain if they could visit the island to get some food.
Captain Nemo agreed and let them use the skiff for that purpose because Pierre and Conseil would definitely be going.
Ned constantly raved about the food they would get while on the island, while they approached, carrying guns and axes. He said that he was so desperate for meat, he would even eat tiger flesh.
Luckily, Ned didn't have to go to those lengths to get red meat. When they arrived at the island, they started searching for food.
The travelers found a coconut tree and gathered many coconuts from it. Ned wanted to fill the skiff with coconuts, but then decided that they wouldn't have space for other foods if they did that.
Next, they looked around the forest, eventually finding a breadfruit tree. Ned made some breadfruit pasta, and then they continued on their journey of exploration.
Later, they saw some birds of paradise, one of which Pierre wanted to catch alive. However, they soon saw a bird that was drunk on nutmeg juice, so Pierre picked it up and took it along.
In a field, the travelers saw a herd of kangaroos, which were soon attacked by the ever-hungry Ned, who shot at least a dozen of the small kangaroos and reveled over the slaughter. Ned started suggesting they stay on the island when a stone almost hit him.
The food-gatherers saw a horde of natives approaching at maximum speed. They then started running toward the skiff, Ned carrying the slain kangaroos with him. Luckily, they reached the Nautilus in time and ran inside.
Captain Nemo was busy playing his organ when Pierre rushed in to tell him that cannibals were approaching the ship, and they should do something about it. The captain didn't look at all surprised or scared, for that matter. He just said that they would close the hatches and the cannibals would not be able to get in.
The next day, Pierre and Conseil decided to catch some shells and oysters in the crystal-clear waters, when he found a very rare shell. It was a common tent olive shell, but the spiral at the back of the shell coiled from left to right.
Left-handed shells were very rare, but unluckily, one of the savages chose this moment to shoot a rock in Conseil's direction, who was holding the shell. The rock missed Conseil but hit the shell, which broke into a million pieces.
The enraged Conseil picked up a rifle and shot at the savage, who broke the shell. He missed, almost killing the savage. Before Conseil could shoot again, they managed to convince him that violence was unnecessary and went down the hatch into the main room.
Captain Nemo said that the next day, at 2:40, the Nautilus would come loose of the rocks. He was right, and they opened the hatches to get air in. Before the savages could invade the Nautilus, they were stopped by an electric shock and ran away.
After getting free of the reefs, the Nautilus sailed into the open ocean and then stayed there for a while without moving. Pierre did not attempt to count the days as they idly sat in the drawing-room looking out the massive window into the deep abyss.
One day, Pierre went to the observation platform when the mariner at the lookout said something different from his usual words. Immediately, Captain Nemo came up to the platform.
After looking through the spyglass, the Captain told Pierre that he and his friends would have to be locked up in his room for a while.
The prisoners of the Nautilus were marched down to a room and given food. After eating the food, they became drowsy and fell asleep.
After the prisoners wake up, they are surprised to be let out of their cell. Life for them continues as normal until Captain Nemo asks Pierre if he was a physician. Pierre said that he knew about medicine and asked the captain if he could see the sick man.
The naturalist walks into a room, in which he sees a man laying on a bench, with his head wrapped in bandages. Upon removing the bandages, he sees that the man's head is cracked open.
This horrific injury happened because a lever snapped, and the man jumped in front of the falling iron bar to stop it from killing the first mate.
The next day, the man had died, and Captain Nemo asks Pierre if he and his friends would like to accompany him on a walk at the bottom of the ocean. Pierre and his friends come, and they see a large coral reef.
Some men from the Nautilus come with them, carrying a coffin. They lay the coffin down into a hole, and then leave it there, returning to the Nautilus.
Captain Nemo tells Pierre that they would leave the coffin there to be overrun by the coral reef.
Part Two
After interring the crewmate, the Nautilus continues on its path, going into the Indian Ocean, where they meet many sharks, which the Nautilus outpaces.
Some time later, Captain Nemo tells Pierre that they are approaching the Gulf of Mannar, a gulf in which a lot of pearl fishing usually took place. However, they were one month earlier than many pearl fishing companies, so they probably wouldn't see anyone there.
Captain Nemo said that they would look for pearls in this gulf, and mentioned that there were sharks in the water, but Pierre consented to go anyway.
The next day, the pearl-hunters boarded the ship's skiff and set out. They put on their suits and jumped into the water. Under the water, the seafloor was flat and smooth.
Captain Nemo led them to an underwater cave, in which they saw an enormous oyster. Captain Nemo opened the oyster with his knife, and inside they saw a pearl as big as a coconut. Pierre wanted to take it out, but the Captain closed the oyster again. He wanted the pearl to become bigger before he would take it out.
Later, they saw a pearl-fisher who had come early so that he could gain a little more profit. They watched in horror as a shark approached the unwitting man. The shark attempted to eat the fisherman, but he got out of the way, the shark's tail knocking him onto the floor.
Luckily, Captain Nemo and Ned attacked the shark, killing it and rescuing the fisherman. After the encounter, Nemo gave the fisherman a bag of pearls, and they left for the Nautilus.
Later, the Nautilus went into the Red Sea. Pierre wondered why the Captain wanted to go to the Red Sea because the only way out was through the Suez Canal, which was frequented by ships.
However, he was content with viewing the wonders of the Red Sea and not wondering too much about this mystery. Later, Captain Nemo told Pierre how he got around under the Red Sea.
He said that he had found an underwater tunnel under Suez, leading to a bay in the Mediterranean Sea. A long time ago, he noticed that the same species of fish were found in the Mediterranean Sea as in the Red Sea, so he tagged some fish in the Mediterranean Sea and then found them again in the Red Sea.
Next, he tagged some more fish and followed them, discovering the tunnel and then using it. Captain Nemo mentioned that they would be using the tunnel in a couple of days.
Later, Ned was talking to Pierre. He said that he did not believe that such an underwater tunnel existed because he never heard of one. However, Conseil pointed out that he had never heard of the Nautilus before, and it existed, so why should this tunnel not exist?
One day, Pierre, and his friends, were on the deck of the Nautilus when they saw a form floating in the water.
Pierre identifies this as a dugong, an animal like a manatee, which was very rare in the Red Sea.
At this time, Captain Nemo appears on deck, telling Ned that he can hunt the dugong if he liked, as it was delicious and would make a good meal for the occupants of the submarine.
Ned accordingly got in the longboat, along with Pierre, Conseil, and seven crewmen from the Nautilus, carrying a harpoon.
They attacked the dugong, harpooning it when they got close enough. Unluckily, it dove, and Ned's harpoon did not stick into the beast. The inpatient Ned had to wait until it resurfaced, attacking their longboat ferociously.
Then, Ned drove the killing blow and had the satisfaction of seeing the dugong carved up and eating it that evening.
Later, Captain Nemo told Pierre that they were about to go into the Arabian tunnel, and asked him to come and see how he guided the Nautilus through. Pierre came with the captain into the helm and watched him navigate the tight tunnel. In 20 minutes, they were in the Mediterranean.
The next day, Ned and Conseil wake up. They ask Pierre where they were and get the response that they were in the Mediterranean. Ned doesn't think this is true, but when going up on deck, sees the coast of Port Said and then is convinced.
Next, Ned and Pierre talk about the possibility of escape from the tyrannical Captain Nemo. Ned says that they could use the longboat to escape, or swim if they are close to shore. Pierre doesn't want to escape, but to continue seeing the wonders of the ocean.
Later, Captain Nemo comes up on deck, and they see a swimmer coming towards the Nautilus. Pierre and his friends think that the swimmer is a castaway and want to rescue him, but he then dives and then disappears. Captain Nemo says that he knows the man, who is an excellent swimmer, usually going from island to island without even using a boat!
During the day, Pierre sees Captain Nemo stuffing gold bars into a large safe, then writing an address onto it in Greek and putting it on the longboat. Later, the longboat comes back without the safe, and Pierre wonders who it was addressed to.
Later, the Nautilus sped through the Mediterranean, which only took 48 hours because they were going as fast as possible. Pierre couldn't see many animals on this journey, but they saw many shipwrecks near the Strait of Gibraltar.
Soon, the Nautilus passed through the Straits and started sailing next to the Spanish Coast. Ned surprised Pierre by telling him that he would attempt to escape that evening because they couldn't get a better chance at freedom. He said that if Pierre wanted to come, he would be at the skiff at 9 P.M.
That evening, Pierre was very excited and could hardly keep himself still. He was therefore surprised when he saw Captain Nemo coming to his room. When the captain arrived, he told him about some Spanish ships filled with gold and silver which had sunk off the coast of Spain.
He said that his crew were out there collecting gold and silver. When Pierre pointed out that other people might want the gold too, Captain Nemo said that it was going to a good purpose. By this, Pierre knew that the gold was going to the Cretan revolution against their Turkish overlords.
The next day, Captain Nemo invited Pierre and his friends to come with him so that he could show them something very interesting. He mentioned that it would not be easy to climb the mountain that they were visiting.
When the explorers approached the mountain, they saw ruins at its base. Then, Captain Nemo used chalk to write “Atlantis” on a black rock. Pierre understood that the city that he saw at the bottom of the ocean was actually the remnants of Atlantis.
When they got back to the Nautilus, Pierre was so tired that he fell asleep immediately. The next morning, he woke up in a new place. Captain Nemo told him that during the night, they sailed to an underwater volcano, where the Nautilus had docked. In fact, there was a coal mine there, but they didn't need any at the moment.
During this time, Pierre, Ned, and Conseil explored the volcano. They found a tree with a beehive, and Ned said that he would make them a breadfruit cake later. Then, they killed a fat bustard. Later, they went back into the Nautilus, which departed during the night.
Later, the Nautilus started going South. They started going deeper to see how deep can marine life live in the ocean. Pierre says that it could theoretically live as deep as possible, since oxygen was plentiful down there.
However, as they sank to a depth of 16,000 feet (4.88 km), they saw no more marine life. There, Captain Nemo took a photo of the seafloor and gave it to Pierre.
Ned wasn't happy. He was bored because he was used to living an adventurous life, and was tired of the monotonous life on the Nautilus. One day, they saw a herd of whales. Ned asked the Captain to let him attack the whales, but Captain Nemo told him not to.
However, a herd of sperm whales were coming toward the baleen whales, ready to attack them. Captain Nemo did not want the baleen whales to be killed, so he attacked the sperm whales with the Nautilus, which had a ram on the front.
After routing the whales, they found one dead baleen whale, which the crew milked. Captain Nemo said that the milk tasted exactly like cow milk, and they would use it for making cheese.
Next, the Nautilus continued its journey South. Captain Nemo wanted to get to the South Pole, but there was a slight problem: there was a lot of ice in the way. However, Captain Nemo didn't mind this at all, he used the Nautilus like an icebreaker and eventually got through the ice.
Soon, they reached land, but when they set foot there, they didn't stay long because a blizzard was coming in, and they wanted to avoid freezing. The next day, Pierre and Conseil went out and found that the blizzard had stopped, so they marveled at the animal life around.
There were penguins in the hundreds, and many seals and walruses on the shores. Conseil was happy that Ned didn't want to come because if he did, many of those seals would have been killed.
Captain Nemo came out, wanting to take measurements to see if they were really at the South Pole, but he couldn't do that because it was too cloudy at the time. They decided that it would be a better idea to wait until there was sun, so they went back inside.
The next day, the sun came out, so Pierre, Conseil, and Captain Nemo climbed a nearby mountain to determine their latitude and longitude. After he took the measurements, the captain found out that they were at the South Pole, so he claimed the land as his and planted his flag.
The next day, they took off, but later get shocked when an iceberg falls on top of them, trapping them under many meters of ice. Captain Nemo knows that they will suffocate if they don't get out, so he sends his crewmates and Ned to dig a hole in the ice so that they can get out.
The air inside the Nautilus became staler and staler, until they finally dug a hole deep enough so that the Nautilus could break free and head for the surface, where the hatches were ripped open and fresh air flowed into the submarine.
After this event, the Nautilus started going back up North. They passed by the heavily inhabited coasts of Brazil without slowing down. Soon, the Nautilus reached the Caribbean.
There, they found a series of caves, from which come many outraged gigantic squids and start attacking the Nautilus, which didn't do anything to them in the first place!
Unfortunately, one of the squids decided to attempt to eat the propeller blade. It didn't manage to do the deed, but it did get its beak stuck in the propeller, which stopped the Nautilus from moving.
Captain Nemo decided to attack the squids to get them off his ship so that he can continue. While fighting the squids, one of the crew gets picked up and carried off to sea. The rest of the squids get killed or run away.
Later, the Nautilus continues on its journey, passing near the coast of America. Ned wanted to escape, but the seas were too rough for him to accomplish that purpose. Next, Pierre asks Captain Nemo if they can go free, but he doesn't let them.
The Nautilus started going back to Europe, but on the way, it stopped at the bottom of the ocean to see a telegraph cable and smash observe it. Pierre told Conseil about how the Americans strung the cable across the ocean floor.
Later, they get near the coast of Europe, where they see a large ship without a flag. The Nautilus then dives, arriving at the wreck of a ship called the Avenger.
Climax
The ship that the Nautilus had seen was an unidentified warship that started attacking the mysterious underwater boat. Captain Nemo rammed the warship and sank it, then started going back North.
Pierre had decided that enough was enough, and decided to escape the Nautilus as soon as possible. One day, Ned told Pierre that they were going to escape there and then, regardless of where they were.
As the hour of the escape approached, Pierre became more and more nervous, until it finally came. Ned, Conseil and himself were climbing the ladder to the skiff and starting to unbolt it when they heard a commotion, with many people shouting “Maelstrom!”.
It finally dawned upon Pierre that they were off the coast of Norway, and in the clutches of the dreadful Maelstrom whirlpool. They were about to abandon their escape when the skiff broke free with them in it!
Conclusion
The next day, Pierre wakes up on shore. He, Land, and Conseil managed to survive the Maelstrom and get back to land, away from the clutches of the tyrannical Captain Nemo.
