Chapter 2[edit]
The Pros and Cons
DURING THE PERIOD in which these developments were occurring,
I had returned from a scientific undertaking organized to explore
the Nebraska badlands in the United States. In my capacity as
Assistant Professor at the Paris Museum of Natural History, I had
been attached to this expedition by the French government.
After spending six months in Nebraska, I arrived in New York laden
with valuable collections near the end of March. My departure
for France was set for early May. In the meantime, then, I was busy
classifying my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological treasures
when that incident took place with the Scotia.
I was perfectly abreast of this question, which was the big news
of the day, and how could I not have been? I had read and reread every
American and European newspaper without being any farther along.
This mystery puzzled me. Finding it impossible to form any views,
I drifted from one extreme to the other. Something was out there,
that much was certain, and any doubting Thomas was invited to place
his finger on the Scotia's wound.
When I arrived in New York, the question was at the boiling point.
The hypothesis of a drifting islet or an elusive reef, put forward
by people not quite in their right minds, was completely eliminated.
And indeed, unless this reef had an engine in its belly, how could
it move about with such prodigious speed?
Also discredited was the idea of a floating hull or some other
enormous wreckage, and again because of this speed of movement.
So only two possible solutions to the question were left,
creating two very distinct groups of supporters: on one side,
those favoring a monster of colossal strength; on the other,
those favoring an "underwater boat" of tremendous motor power.
Now then, although the latter hypothesis was completely admissible,
it couldn't stand up to inquiries conducted in both the New World
and the Old. That a private individual had such a mechanism at his
disposal was less than probable. Where and when had he built it,
and how could he have built it in secret?
Only some government could own such an engine of destruction,
and in these disaster-filled times, when men tax their ingenuity to
build increasingly powerful aggressive weapons, it was possible that,
unknown to the rest of the world, some nation could have been testing
such a fearsome machine. The Chassepot rifle led to the torpedo,
and the torpedo has led to this underwater battering ram,
which in turn will lead to the world putting its foot down.
At least I hope it will.
But this hypothesis of a war machine collapsed in the face of formal
denials from the various governments. Since the public interest
was at stake and transoceanic travel was suffering, the sincerity
of these governments could not be doubted. Besides, how could
the assembly of this underwater boat have escaped public notice?
Keeping a secret under such circumstances would be difficult enough
for an individual, and certainly impossible for a nation whose
every move is under constant surveillance by rival powers.
So, after inquiries conducted in England, France, Russia, Prussia,
Spain, Italy, America, and even Turkey, the hypothesis of an underwater
Monitor was ultimately rejected.
And so the monster surfaced again, despite the endless witticisms
heaped on it by the popular press, and the human imagination soon
got caught up in the most ridiculous ichthyological fantasies.
After I arrived in New York, several people did me the honor
of consulting me on the phenomenon in question. In France I had
published a two-volume work, in quarto, entitled The Mysteries
of the Great Ocean Depths. Well received in scholarly circles,
this book had established me as a specialist in this pretty obscure field
of natural history. My views were in demand. As long as I could deny
the reality of the business, I confined myself to a flat "no comment."
But soon, pinned to the wall, I had to explain myself straight out.
And in this vein, "the honorable Pierre Aronnax, Professor at
the Paris Museum," was summoned by The New York Herald to formulate
his views no matter what.
I complied. Since I could no longer hold my tongue, I let it wag.
I discussed the question in its every aspect, both political
and scientific, and this is an excerpt from the well-padded article
I published in the issue of April 30.
"Therefore," I wrote, "after examining these different hypotheses one
by one, we are forced, every other supposition having been refuted,
to accept the existence of an extremely powerful marine animal.
"The deepest parts of the ocean are totally unknown to us.
No soundings have been able to reach them. What goes on in
those distant depths? What creatures inhabit, or could inhabit,
those regions twelve or fifteen miles beneath the surface
of the water? What is the constitution of these animals?
It's almost beyond conjecture.
"However, the solution to this problem submitted to me can take
the form of a choice between two alternatives.
"Either we know every variety of creature populating our planet,
or we do not.
"If we do not know every one of them, if nature still keeps
ichthyological secrets from us, nothing is more admissible than to accept
the existence of fish or cetaceans of new species or even new genera,
animals with a basically 'cast-iron' constitution that inhabit
strata beyond the reach of our soundings, and which some development
or other, an urge or a whim if you prefer, can bring to the upper
level of the ocean for long intervals.
"If, on the other hand, we do know every living species, we must
look for the animal in question among those marine creatures
already cataloged, and in this event I would be inclined to accept
the existence of a giant narwhale.
"The common narwhale, or sea unicorn, often reaches a length of
sixty feet. Increase its dimensions fivefold or even tenfold, then give
this cetacean a strength in proportion to its size while enlarging
its offensive weapons, and you have the animal we're looking for.
It would have the proportions determined by the officers of the Shannon,
the instrument needed to perforate the Scotia, and the power
to pierce a steamer's hull.
"In essence, the narwhale is armed with a sort of ivory sword,
or lance, as certain naturalists have expressed it.
It's a king-sized tooth as hard as steel. Some of these teeth have
been found buried in the bodies of baleen whales, which the narwhale
attacks with invariable success. Others have been wrenched,
not without difficulty, from the undersides of vessels that narwhales
have pierced clean through, as a gimlet pierces a wine barrel.
The museum at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris owns one of these
tusks with a length of 2.25 meters and a width at its base
of forty-eight centimeters!
"All right then! Imagine this weapon to be ten times stronger and
the animal ten times more powerful, launch it at a speed of twenty
miles per hour, multiply its mass times its velocity, and you get
just the collision we need to cause the specified catastrophe.
"So, until information becomes more abundant, I plump for a sea
unicorn of colossal dimensions, no longer armed with a mere lance
but with an actual spur, like ironclad frigates or those warships called
'rams,' whose mass and motor power it would possess simultaneously.
"This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away--unless it's
something else entirely, which, despite everything that has
been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!"
These last words were cowardly of me; but as far as I could,
I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open
to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously.
I had left myself a loophole. Yet deep down, I had accepted
the existence of "the monster."
My article was hotly debated, causing a fine old uproar.
It rallied a number of supporters. Moreover, the solution
it proposed allowed for free play of the imagination.
The human mind enjoys impressive visions of unearthly creatures.
Now then, the sea is precisely their best medium, the only setting
suitable for the breeding and growing of such giants--next to which
such land animals as elephants or rhinoceroses are mere dwarves.
The liquid masses support the largest known species of mammals and perhaps
conceal mollusks of incomparable size or crustaceans too frightful
to contemplate, such as 100-meter lobsters or crabs weighing 200
metric tons! Why not? Formerly, in prehistoric days, land animals
(quadrupeds, apes, reptiles, birds) were built on a gigantic scale.
Our Creator cast them using a colossal mold that time has gradually
made smaller. With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive
such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never
changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration?
Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining
varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries
and centuries millennia?
But I mustn't let these fantasies run away with me! Enough of these
fairy tales that time has changed for me into harsh realities.
I repeat: opinion had crystallized as to the nature of this phenomenon,
and the public accepted without argument the existence of a prodigious
creature that had nothing in common with the fabled sea serpent.
Yet if some saw it purely as a scientific problem to be solved,
more practical people, especially in America and England,
were determined to purge the ocean of this daunting monster, to insure
the safety of transoceanic travel. The industrial and commercial
newspapers dealt with the question chiefly from this viewpoint.
The Shipping & Mercantile Gazette, the Lloyd's List, France's Packetboat
and Maritime & Colonial Review, all the rags devoted to
insurance companies--who threatened to raise their premium rates--
were unanimous on this point.
Public opinion being pronounced, the States of the Union were
the first in the field. In New York preparations were under way for
an expedition designed to chase this narwhale. A high-speed frigate,
the Abraham Lincoln, was fitted out for putting to sea as soon
as possible. The naval arsenals were unlocked for Commander Farragut,
who pressed energetically forward with the arming of his frigate.
But, as it always happens, just when a decision had been made to chase
the monster, the monster put in no further appearances. For two months
nobody heard a word about it. Not a single ship encountered it.
Apparently the unicorn had gotten wise to these plots being woven
around it. People were constantly babbling about the creature,
even via the Atlantic Cable! Accordingly, the wags claimed that this
slippery rascal had waylaid some passing telegram and was making
the most of it.
So the frigate was equipped for a far-off voyage and armed
with fearsome fishing gear, but nobody knew where to steer it.
And impatience grew until, on June 2, word came that the Tampico,
a steamer on the San Francisco line sailing from California to Shanghai,
had sighted the animal again, three weeks before in the northerly
seas of the Pacific.
This news caused intense excitement. Not even a 24-hour breather was
granted to Commander Farragut. His provisions were loaded on board.
His coal bunkers were overflowing. Not a crewman was missing
from his post. To cast off, he needed only to fire and stoke
his furnaces! Half a day's delay would have been unforgivable!
But Commander Farragut wanted nothing more than to go forth.
I received a letter three hours before the Abraham Lincoln left
its Brooklyn pier;* the letter read as follows:
Author's Note: A pier is a type of wharf expressly set aside for an individual vessel.
Pierre Aronnax
Professor at the Paris Museum
Fifth Avenue Hotel
New York
Sir:
If you would like to join the expedition on the Abraham Lincoln,
the government of the Union will be pleased to regard you as France's
representative in this undertaking. Commander Farragut has a cabin
at your disposal.
Very cordially yours,
J. B. HOBSON,
Secretary of the Navy.
