Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

At these words, Ned Land rose suddenly. The steward, nearly strangled, tottered out on a sign from his master; but such was the power of the commander on board, that not a gestu...

I rushed on to the platform. Yes! the open sea, with but a few scattered pieces of ice and moving icebergs—a long stretch of sea; a world of birds in the air, and myriads of fis...

“Gentlemen,” he said calmly, “there are two ways of dying in the circumstances in which we are placed.” (This puzzling person had the air of a mathematical professor lecturing t...

In the course of the day of the 29th of January, the island of Ceylon disappeared under the horizon, and the _Nautilus_, at a speed of twenty miles an hour, slid into the labyri...

The Atlantic! a vast sheet of water whose superficial area covers twenty-five millions of square miles, the length of which is nine thousand miles, with a mean breadth of two th...

I then related to the Canadian the incidents of the preceding night, hoping to bring him back to the idea of not abandoning the Captain; but my recital had no other result than...

During the nights of the 13th and 14th of March, the _Nautilus_ returned to its southerly course. I fancied that, when on a level with Cape Horn, he would turn the helm westward...

The way of describing this unlooked-for scene, the history of the patriot ship, told at first so coldly, and the emotion with which this strange man pronounced the last words, t...

This terrible scene of the 20th of April none of us can ever forget. I have written it under the influence of violent emotion. Since then I have revised the recital; I have read...

I was much impressed on touching land. Ned Land tried the soil with his feet, as if to take possession of it. However, it was only two months before that we had become, accordin...

This terrible spectacle was the forerunner of the series of maritime catastrophes that the _Nautilus_ was destined to meet with in its route. As long as it went through more fre...

We now come to the second part of our journey under the sea. The first ended with the moving scene in the coral cemetery which left such a deep impression on my mind. Thus, in t...

“Not yet. I have not allowed the _Nautilus_ to come too near this coast, and we are some distance from the Manaar Bank; but the boat is ready, and will take us to the exact poin...

The next day was the 9th of November. I awoke after a long sleep of twelve hours. Conseil came, according to custom, to know “how I had passed the night,” and to offer his servi...

How I got on to the platform, I have no idea; perhaps the Canadian had carried me there. But I breathed, I inhaled the vivifying sea-air. My two companions were getting drunk wi...

The panels had closed on this dreadful vision, but light had not returned to the saloon: all was silence and darkness within the _Nautilus_. At wonderful speed, a hundred feet b...

We had at last arrived on the borders of this forest, doubtless one of the finest of Captain Nemo’s immense domains. He looked upon it as his own, and considered he had the same...

That same evening, in 21° 30′ N. lat., the _Nautilus_ floated on the surface of the sea, approaching the Arabian coast. I saw Djeddah, the most important counting-house of Egypt...

The following day 10th January, the _Nautilus_ continued her course between two seas, but with such remarkable speed that I could not estimate it at less than thirty-five miles...

During the night of the 27th or 28th of December, the _Nautilus_ left the shores of Vanikoro with great speed. Her course was south-westerly, and in three days she had gone over...

This forcible abduction, so roughly carried out, was accomplished with the rapidity of lightning. I shivered all over. Whom had we to deal with? No doubt some new sort of pirate...

The next day, the 22nd of March, at six in the morning, preparations for departure were begun. The last gleams of twilight were melting into night. The cold was great, the const...

This unexpected fall so stunned me that I have no clear recollection of my sensations at the time. I was at first drawn down to a depth of about twenty feet. I am a good swimmer...

The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the...

Captain Farragut was a good seaman, worthy of the frigate he commanded. His vessel and he were one. He was the soul of it. On the question of the cetacean there was no doubt in...

The order to stop her had been given, and the frigate now simply went on by her own momentum. The darkness was then profound, and however good the Canadian’s eyes were, I asked...

In consequence of the storm, we had been thrown eastward once more. All hope of escape on the shores of New York or St. Lawrence had faded away; and poor Ned, in despair, had is...

For several days the _Nautilus_ kept off from the American coast. Evidently it did not wish to risk the tides of the Gulf of Mexico or of the sea of the Antilles. April 16th, we...

The next day I woke with my head singularly clear. To my great surprise, I was in my own room. My companions, no doubt, had been reinstated in their cabin, without having percei...

A moment after we were seated on a divan in the saloon smoking. The Captain showed me a sketch that gave the plan, section, and elevation of the _Nautilus_. Then he began his de...

The voyage of the _Abraham Lincoln_ was for a long time marked by no special incident. But one circumstance happened which showed the wonderful dexterity of Ned Land, and proved...

The next morning, the 18th of November, I had quite recovered from my fatigues of the day before, and I went up on to the platform, just as the second lieutenant was uttering hi...

At the period when these events took place, I had just returned from a scientific research in the disagreeable territory of Nebraska, in the United States. In virtue of my offic...

That day the _Nautilus_ crossed a singular part of the Atlantic Ocean. No one can be ignorant of the existence of a current of warm water known by the name of the Gulf Stream. A...

“Sir,” said Captain Nemo, showing me the instruments hanging on the walls of his room, “here are the contrivances required for the navigation of the _Nautilus_. Here, as in the...

The next day, the 12th of February, at the dawn of day, the _Nautilus_ rose to the surface. I hastened on to the platform. Three miles to the south the dim outline of Pelusium w...

On the 28th of February, when at noon the _Nautilus_ came to the surface of the sea, in 9° 4′ N. lat., there was land in sight about eight miles to westward. The first thing I n...

A second stone, carefully aimed, that made a savoury pigeon’s leg fall from Conseil’s hand, gave still more weight to his observation. We all three arose, shouldered our guns, a...

Three seconds before the arrival of J. B. Hobson’s letter, I no more thought of pursuing the unicorn than of attempting the passage of the North Sea. Three seconds after reading...

The _Nautilus_ was steadily pursuing its southerly course, following the fiftieth meridian with considerable speed. Did he wish to reach the pole? I did not think so, for every...

The Mediterranean, the blue sea par excellence, “the great sea” of the Hebrews, “the sea” of the Greeks, the “mare nostrum” of the Romans, bordered by orange-trees, aloes, cacti...

How long we slept I do not know; but our sleep must have lasted long, for it rested us completely from our fatigues. I woke first. My companions had not moved, and were still st...

The portion of the terrestrial globe which is covered by water is estimated at upwards of eighty millions of acres. This fluid mass comprises two billions two hundred and fifty...

At the Captain’s call two of the ship’s crew came to help us to dress in these heavy and impervious clothes, made of india-rubber without seam, and constructed expressly to resi...

The next day, the 20th of February, I awoke very late: the fatigues of the previous night had prolonged my sleep until eleven o’clock. I dressed quickly, and hastened to find th...

Thus ends the voyage under the seas. What passed during that night—how the boat escaped from the eddies of the maelstrom—how Ned Land, Conseil, and myself ever came out of the g...

An old grey-bearded gunner . . . . Captain Nemo’s state-room Captain Nemo took the Sun’s altitude I was ready to set out Conseil seized his gun All fell on their knees in an att...