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  .., 2026.



Jules Verne  

Twenty thousand leagues under the sea     



Part One  



Chapter One  

Floating Reef  

The year 1866 was marked by an amazing and inexplicable phenomenon, which is probably still remembered by many. 1866      , , ,   . It greatly excited the inhabitants of the coastal cities, greatly excited the minds of the continental states, and especially alarmed the sailors.      ,          . Merchants and shipowners, captains of merchant ships and warships, naval officers, skippers and mechanics both in Europe and America, and the governments of various states  all were highly interested and concerned.   ,      ,  ,      ,    ,             .

The fact is that for some time many ships happened to meet in the sea "something huge", some long spindle-shaped object that sometimes glowed in the dark and far surpassed the whale in size and speed of movement.   ,           - , -   ,              .

All the facts relating to these strange occurrences were recorded in the various ship's logs, and there was little disagreement about the structure of this mysterious object or creature, its incredible speed, amazing strength of movement, and features.        ,     ,          ,    ,         . If it was an animal from the order of whales, then, judging by the descriptions, it was much larger than all the previously known representatives of cetaceans.       , ,   ,         . Neither Cuvier, Lacepede, Dumeril, or Quatrefage would have believed in the existence of such a monster without seeing it with their own eyes, that is, with the eyes of scientists.  ,  ,  ,         ,     ,    .

Keeping to the average values obtained from various observations, not taking into account all the overly cautious estimates that this strange creature was not more than two hundred feet long, and also rejecting the obvious exaggerations that it was one mile wide and three miles long, it was still necessary to assume that it was not a very large object. that this amazing animal, if only it exists, largely exceeds all the dimensions established by ichthyologists.   ,    ,        ,             ,     ,              ,   - ,    ,    ,      ,  .

This animal existed  its existence was proved by many facts, and no one, or almost no one, doubted it.          ,         . With the tendency to believe in miracles, which is so characteristic of the human mind, it is understandable what alarm this extraordinary phenomenon caused.     ,     , ,      . Some tried to attribute it to the realm of fairy tales and fantasies, but in vain...          ,  

On July 20, 1866, the Calcutta and Bernach steamship Havern Higginson encountered this moving mass five miles east of the coast of Australia. 20  1866    ,     ,           . At first, Captain Becker thought that he had stumbled upon an unknown underwater rock.      ,      . He was just about to determine the exact coordinates of this rock, when suddenly two columns of water burst out of it with terrible force and rose with a whoosh about a hundred and fifty feet in height.         ,                    . There were only two possible hypotheses: either it was a floating reef on which geysers periodically erupted, or the Havern Higginson was dealing with some hitherto unknown marine mammal that threw out fountains of water mixed with air and steam from its bow holes.      :     ,     ,       -      ,       ,     .

On July 23 of the same year, a similar phenomenon was noticed in the waters of the Pacific Ocean from the steamer Cristobal Colon, owned by the West Indies and Pacific Company. 23               ,   -   . It turned out that this extraordinary animal could move with incredible speed: in three days it passed more than seven hundred nautical miles separating the points where it was observed by the "Havern Higginson" and "Cristobal Colon". ,         :         ,  ,         .

Fifteen days later, at two thousand leagues from the last point, the steamers Helvetia, belonging to the National Company, and Chanon, belonging to the Royal Mail, met in the Atlantic Ocean, between America and Europe, and pointed out to each other by signals a sea monster lying in latitude 45 degrees 15' north and 60 degrees35 ' longitude west of the Greenwich meridian.           ,   ,  ,  -,    ,    ,        ,   4515?    6035?      .By joint observation, the length of the mammal was estimated to be at least three hundred and fifty English feet.       ,        . The Helvetia and the Chanon seemed much smaller than she was, though both were a hundred yards from stem to after stem.       ,          .And the largest whales that were found near the Aleutian Islands were not more than fifty-six meters in length.    ,    ,          .

These tidings followed one another; then new observations were made from the transatlantic ship Pereyre; then the collision of the Etna with the monster took place; then a report was drawn up by the officers of the French frigate Normandie that they had seen this huge animal; very detailed information was delivered from the Lord Clayda."Commodore Fitzjames' headquarters.      ;          ;       ;          ,      ;            . All this greatly agitated public opinion.      . In frivolous countries, they only laughed and joked about the mysterious miracle, but in serious and practical countries  England, America, and Germany  they were very concerned about it.  ,  ,       ,        , ,      .

In all the big cities, the monster was all the rage; it was talked about in coffee shops, mocked in newspapers, and presented in theaters.        ;     ,     ,    . Newspaper ducks laid eggs of various colors.      . All periodicals, for lack of accurate and authentic images, began to show various fantastic giants, ranging from the white whale, the terrible "Moby Dick" from the Arctic, to the monstrous octopus, which with its tentacles can entangle a ship of fifty tons and drag it into the abyss of the ocean.              ,    ,     ,   ,               . It even went so far as to dig up ancient manuscripts and refer to the opinions of Aristotle and Pliny, who admitted the existence of such monsters, to the Norwegian accounts of Bishop Pontopidan, to the descriptions of Paul Geggeda, and finally to the reports of Harrington, who claimed that in 1857, while on the deck of the Castillan,he had seen with his own eyes a huge serpent that had hitherto only visited the waters of the Constitution newspaper.    ,            ,     ,     ,     , ,   ,  ,   1857 ,    ,     ,        .

It was then that the never-ending controversy between scientific societies and scientific journals  the controversy between believers and non-believers-ignited. -               . The question of the monster inflamed all minds.      .Journalists who took science seriously and defended it got into a quarrel with other journalists who fought back with jokes and puns, and whole streams of ink were spilled in this memorable campaign; some even paid two or three drops of blood, because because of this "sea snake" opponents often allowed themselves the most serious attacks. offensive behavior. ,       ,      ,     ,         ;    -  ,   -          .

This war lasted with varying success for six months.         . The tabloid press responded with inexhaustible ridicule to the scientific articles of the Brazilian Geographical Institute, the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the British Association, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and to the irony of the "Indian Archipelago", and to the arguments of the "Cosmos" of Abbe Moignot, and to the opinions of "Vesti" Peterman, and to the scientific notes of solid French and foreign authors. foreign magazines.            ,    ,  ,   ,     ,      ,     ,         . Witty journalists, parodying Linnaeus ' dictum quoted by opponents of the monster, argued that "nature does not create fools", and implored their contemporaries not to convince the world otherwise, admitting the existence of improbable sea monsters, octopuses, snakes, various "moby-dick" and other nonsense of half-mad sailors.  ,   ,   , ,     ,         ,     , , ,        . Finally, in a very popular satirical magazine, the editor-in-chief, a favorite of the public, rushed at the sea wonder like a new Hippolytus, and gave it a last humorous blow amid bursts of general laughter.         ,  ,    ,   ,          . Wit overcame science.   .

At the beginning of 1867, the question of the monster seemed to be buried, when suddenly new facts began to reach the public.   1867    , , ,         . And now it was not just an interesting scientific puzzle, but a serious real danger.          ,     . The octopuses and sea snakes were left alone, and the monster became an island, a rock, a reef, but a reef floating, wandering, elusive.       ,     , , ,   , , .

On March 5, 1867, the steamer Moravia, belonging to the Montreal Shipping Company, while at night in latitude 2730' and longitude 7215', struck her stern on a rock that was not marked on any chart of the navigational chart. 5  1867   ,    ,     2730?   7215?,    - ,         . The wind was fair, and the four-hundred-horsepower ship was traveling at sixteen knots, carrying two hundred and thirty-seven passengers from Canada.   ,          ,      ,     . The impact was very strong, and if the hull of the Moravia had not been sufficiently strong and strong, the ship would undoubtedly have sunk.    ,         , ,   ,    .

The accident happened at dawn, about five o'clock in the morning.    ,    . The watchmen examined the sea most thoroughly.      . They saw nothing suspicious, only a large wave was breaking at a distance of three cables ' length, as if something had greatly disturbed the smooth surface of the waters.     ,       ,   -     . Having established the coordinates, the Moravia continued on its way without obvious signs of an accident.  ,        .

But what did the steamer run into?      ? On an underwater rock or on some huge wreckage thrown up by the sea?      -      ? No one knew this.    . However, on inspection in the dock, it turned out that part of the keel was broken.      ,    .

This incident, which was very important in itself, would soon have been forgotten, as other important incidents were forgotten, if the same thing had not happened again under the same conditions three weeks later.  ,     ,    ,      ,                . The ship that was the victim of a new disaster was flying the English flag and owned by a large shipping company, so the event was widely publicized. ,    ,         ,     .

Everyone probably knew the name of the famous English shipowner Cunard. , ,       . This successful industrialist established in 1840 a postal service between Liverpool and Halifax by means of three wooden wheeled vessels of four hundred horsepower and one thousand one hundred and sixty-two tons displacement.      1840                        . Eight years later, the number of ships was increased by four more ships of six hundred and fifty horsepower and one thousand eight hundred and twenty tons displacement, and two years later two more ships were added to them, which exceeded the previous ones in power and capacity.                     ,           ,      . In 1853, Cunard's company renewed the right to carry express mail and gradually added the ships Arabia, Persia, China, Scotland, Java, and Russia to its fleet.  1853                , , , , , .All these vessels were distinguished by their fast speed and size second only to the famous "Gret-Eastern".            -. In 1867, Cunard's company already owned twelve ships: eight wheeled and four screw ships.  1867       :     .

I go into such details in order to show more clearly the importance of this shipping company, which has become world-famous for its accuracy and precision.     ,        ,        . No transoceanic navigation enterprise has been conducted with such skill, and none has been so successful.          ,      . In the course of twenty-six years Cunard's ships sailed across the Atlantic Ocean two thousand times, and all was always well: there was never a case of a ship being late, not even an instance of a letter being lost.             ,     :   ,   - ,    ,  -  . And now, despite the strong competition of France, passengers prefer the Cunard company to all other companies, as can be seen from official documents in recent years.   ,     ,       ,        . Taking all this into account, it is easy to understand what a fuss was made when one of the best steamers of the company had an accident.     ,   ,   ,          .

On the 13th of April, 1867, the Scotia was in longitude 15  12' and latitude 4537'; the sea was calm and a light breeze was blowing. 13  1867     1512?   4537? ;   ,   . The thousand-strong ship was traveling at a speed of more than thirteen knots, its wheels cutting evenly through the waves of the sea.         ;      . The vessel had a draft of six meters and seventy centimeters, and a displacement of six thousand six hundred and twenty-four cubic meters.       ,         .

At four-seventeen in the afternoon, the passengers were sitting in the lounge at breakfast.          -  . Suddenly something struck the hull of the ship; the impact, however, did not produce a significant shock-it fell on the stern behind the left wheel.  -    ; , ,            .

From the nature of the shock, it was possible to assume that the "Scotland" had stumbled upon some sharp weapon.      ,     -  . The impact seemed so slight that no one on deck would have paid much attention to it if the stokers hadn't come running shouting:    ,           ,       :

 We're going down!"     ! Leak in the hold!   !

At first, of course, the passengers were terrified, but Captain Andersen managed to calm them down.    , , ,      . The Scotia was divided into seven sections by watertight bulkheads, which meant that the breach was not in imminent danger.       , ,     .

Captain Andersen immediately went down into the hold.      . It turned out that the fifth compartment was flooded with water, and from the speed with which the water arrived, it was possible to judge that the leak was quite large. ,     ,   ,    ,   ,    . Fortunately, there were no steam boilers, otherwise the fire in the furnaces would have been extinguished at the same moment.  ,     ,          .

Captain Andersen gave the order to stop the engines immediately, and one of the sailors dived in to inspect the breach.       ,    ,   . A few minutes later, everyone knew that a hole two meters wide had been punched in the underwater part of the steamer.      ,           . Such a hole could not be repaired, and the Scotia had to continue on her way with her wheels submerged in water.     ,            . The accident occurred three hundred miles from Cape Clear, and after a delay of three days, which excited the whole of Liverpool beyond words, the ship docked at the company's wharf.        ,    ,    ,     .



The Scotia was put on a dry slipway, and the company's engineers began to inspect it.     ,      . They didn't want to believe their eyes.      . Two and a half meters below the waterline yawned a regular hole in the form of an isosceles triangle.              . The sheet iron was cut as smoothly as if it had been specially cut.      ,    . Obviously, the breach was made by a drilling tool of unusual hardening. ,       . It was probably launched with extraordinary force, broke through a sheet of iron four centimeters thick, and then, by some return movement, moved away of its own accord. ,      ,      ,   -     . This was completely inexplicable.    .

The adventure with the Scotia has stirred minds again.      . From then on, all sea disasters were blamed on the monster for no particular reason.             . The fantastic animal happened to be responsible for all the shipwrecks, the number of which, unfortunately, is significant.       ,  ,  , . Three thousand ships are reported lost in Bureau Veritas every year, and of these three thousand, at least two hundred are considered missing, with all their cargo and crew.          ,                  .

Rightly or wrongly, the disappearance of the ships was also attributed to the monster, and by its grace communication between the various continents became more and more dangerous, more and more difficult.  ,  ,      ,            ,   . Finally, the public urged that the seas should at all costs be cleared of this terrible animal or floating reef.    ,                 .



Chapter Two  

Pros and cons   

rimerno at this time I was returning from a scientific expedition that had been undertaken to explore the inhospitable state of Nebraska in the United States of America.         ,             . I was assigned to this expedition by the French Government as an associate professor at the Natural History Museum in Paris.          -     . I spent six months in Nebraska and arrived in New York at the end of March with the most precious collections I had collected there.                  -. The departure for France was scheduled for the first days of May.         . In anticipation of this, I was putting my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological treasures in order when the disaster described above befell the Scotia.        ,    ,      .

The question of a monster or a floating reef was on the agenda, and of course I kept a close eye on it.          ,  , ,    . I read and reread all the American and European magazines and newspapers, but this reading did not clarify anything.          ,      . The mysterious miracle greatly stimulated my curiosity.      . I couldn't make up my mind, couldn't form my own opinion, and so I went from one extreme to the other.    ,             .It was impossible to doubt that something supernatural really existed: non-believers were allowed to "put their finger in the wound" of "Scotland".  ,  -     ,   :       .

I arrived in New York in the midst of a lot of controversy.    -    . The earlier suggestions of a floating island, of a wandering, elusive reef, were now abandoned.     ,       . How could a rock move at such an unheard-of speed?         ? And it was too much to assume that the rock was equipped with some kind of propulsion machine.  ,    -  ,   .

They also stopped talking about the" floating hull of a ship "or the" huge wreckage of some wrecked ship", because neither the ship's frame nor the wreckage could move either.    ,    -     ,     ,      .

Thus, there were only two solutions to this mystery: either a huge underwater monster caused all the trouble, or an underwater vessel equipped with an unusually powerful engine.  ,      :       ,   ,    .

The suggestion of an underwater vessel, which at first glance seems quite plausible, disappeared after investigations conducted in both hemispheres.    ,     ,   ,    . How could any private individual be allowed to have such a ship at his disposal?    ,  -        ? Where and how could he have built it?       ? Even assuming that he built it, how could he keep the construction of such a giant a secret?  ,    ,         ?

Such a destructive machine could only have been created by a government, and in these troubled times, when humanity is constantly trying to improve its weapons of war, it was possible to assume that this or that state was secretly testing this monstrous projectile.       - ,     ,       ,   ,          . After the Chaspo guns  torpedoes, after the torpedoes  underwater rams, then calm.     ,     ,  . At least I hope so. ,   ,   .

But the idea of a military submarine also collapsed: the governments claimed that they were not involved in anything and did not know anything.        :  ,           . It was difficult to doubt the sincerity of the government's statements this time, because it was a matter of common interests and international transoceanic communications were at risk.          ,               . Besides, was it possible that the construction of such an underwater vessel could have gone unnoticed: it is very difficult for a private person to keep a secret, and it is absolutely impossible for the state, because all its actions are closely and jealously watched by all other powers?  ,    ,        :       ,    ,             .

So, after inquiries made in England, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, America, and even Turkey, the suggestion of an "underwater monitor" was also rejected. ,  ,   , , , , , ,     ,       . The monster came to the surface again, despite all the ridicule heaped on it by the tabloid press.     ,    ,     . Soon the excited imagination played out and, as they say, went "to write at random."     ,  ,     .

When I arrived in New York, many people did me the honor of asking my opinion on this strange phenomenon.     -,     ,       . When I was still in France, I published in quarto"The Secrets of the Deep Sea" in two volumes.          in-quarto     . This book earned the special attention of the scientific world, and thanks to this, I became a kind of specialist in this very little-known branch of natural science.       ,             . When people asked me what I thought of the monster, I refused to answer while it was still possible to reject reality and not having the facts, but soon I was, as they say, pinned to the wall, there was nowhere to go, and I had to speak out.   ,     , ,          ,  ,   ,  ,   ,   ,     . The New York Herald turned to "to the Honourable Pierre Aronnax, Professor at the Musee de Paris, "with a request to" state your opinion. "  -      ,        .

I submitted and spoke, because it was impossible to remain silent any longer.    ,      . I have considered the issue from all sides, both political and scientific.      ,     .

Here is the conclusion of an article I published in the April 30 issue.    ,       30 .

"Having examined all the hypotheses one by one, it is necessary to assume the existence of a marine animal of extraordinary strength.      ,         .

The great depths of the ocean are still completely unknown to us.          . No lot ever bottomed.      .What is going on and happening in these immeasurable abysses?         ? What creatures live and can live twelve or fifteen miles below the sea surface?              ? What kind of organism do these animals have?      ?

Here it is difficult, even hardly possible, to make any assumptions.  ,      - .

However, the solution to the problem I was given can take the form of a dilemma.         . One of two things: either we know all the species and varieties of creatures that inhabit our planet, or we don't.   :        ,   ,  .

If not, if nature still has secrets from us in the field of ichthyology, then we can very naturally assume the existence of not only new species, but even new genera of fish or cetaceans, adapted exclusively for life in the depths of the sea, inaccessible to the lot.  ,          ,           ,      ,       ,   . Let us assume that, as a result of some event, or by chance, or just by whim, if you will, they appear from time to time in the upper layers of the ocean. ,   - ,   ,     ,  ,         .




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