Chapter-4
It was the captain who had spoken. Ned immediately jumped up and backed away from the gasping man on the floor.
“Gentlemen,” said the captain, “I also speak French, English, German and Latin. So I could have answered you at our first meeting. But I wanted to take my time deciding what to do with you. After all, your harpoons shot at me and Mr. Land tried to harpoon my ship. So I surely have the right to treat you as my enemies and kill you.”
“But that’s not the act of a civilized man,” I protested.
“Monsieur Aronnax,” said the captain angrily, “I am not a civilized man. I have broken all ties with the civilized world on land. I don’t obey its rules. I make my own.”
I looked at the man with horror, but also with a little bit of curiosity.
“However,” continued the captain more calmly, “I do have some feelings of pity, so I shall spare your lives. You will remain on board my ship for ever as free men. You will have the freedom to walk about, to look, and even to examine everything that goes on here. You may do all this since you will never have the chance to tell what you have seen to another living soul.”
“But Monsieur,” I cried, “you can’t possibly expect us to give up our families, our friends, or our country for ever.”
“Professor, giving up your life on land may not be so unpleasant as you think.”
“This is cruelty,” I cried.
“No, Monsieur, it is a kindness,” replied the captain, “And I really do not have to be kind to you. You have discovered my secret—a secret the world was never to know. So, I cannot permit you to go back and tell anyone that my ship or I exist.”
Then the captain seemed to relax and his voice became more gentle, “I know who you are, Monsieur Aronnax. I have been studying your great work on the ocean depths for many years, and I have great respect for you. Your knowledge is great, but you don’t know everything. You haven’t seen everything. I am offering you now the opportunity to see what no man on earth has ever seen—all the wonders of the ocean depths. You will accompany me on an underwater voyage around the world. During this voyage, you will discover the last secrets of our planet.”
The captain’s words had a startling effect on me. “Monsieur,” I exclaimed, “my curiosity as a scientist had just become stronger than my desire for freedom. I shall be honoured to accompany you. But one last question, please. By what name shall I address you, sir?”
“For you, Monsieur Aronnax, I shall be simply Captain Nemo. You and your friends are passengers on the Nautilus.”
‘Captain Nemo!’ I thought. ‘What a fitting name for a man of mystery! Nemo in Latin means no man or nobody. So I am talking with Captain Nobody!’
“And now, Monsieur Aronnax,” said the captain, smiling, “I’d be pleased if you would lunch with me. Your friends will be shown to their cabins where their meal awaits them.”
I could hardly control my excitement as I followed Captain Nemo along a narrow, brightly-lit gangway. A door at the end opened, and I found myself in a large, richly-decorated dining room. Cabinets of fine wood held china, silver and glassware worth of any palace in Europe.
As we sat down, Captain Nemo explained, “All this food comes from the sea, for I no longer eat anything from the land. You will find it tasty and nourishing. Not only does the sea feed me, Professor, but it also clothes me and furnishes my ship. The cloth you are wearing was woven from the fine silky threads found in a certain type of oyster. Your bed is made out of soft eel grass. The pen on your desk is made out of whalebone and the ink comes from a squid.”
The captain spoke with such enthusiasm that I, too, became carried away. “You love the sea, don’t you, Captain?” I exclaimed.
“Yes, I love it. For only there, far below its surface, can a man be truly free.”
Free? Free from what? I wondered.
After we had finished lunch, we entered an adjoining room—a large library. I stared in wonder at the thousands of books lining the walls from floor to ceiling.
“Twelve thousand books, Monsieur Aronnax,” said Captain Nemo, “Books on every subject and in every known language. And I have read them all. Please feel free to use any of them whenever you wish.”
‘The man must be a genius,’ I thought as I began examining the shelves. In the centre of the largest bookcase stood the one book which was probably the reason for the captain’s friendlines to me. That book was Mysteries of the Ocean Depths by Pierre Aronnax.
Just then, Captain Nemo opened a door at the far end of the room and called me to follow him. I entered a huge room filled with paintings, tapestries and statues all done by the greatest artists of the ancient and modern worlds. This room, the lounge, was truly a magnificent museum.
“These treasures are the last memories of my life on earth. That life is dead, but great art and great music live for ever,” he said, pointing to a huge organ covered with sheets of music.
Besides the art and music, there were glass cases filled with the collections of rare shells, colourful coral, priceless pearls, and other wonders of the ocean.
“My collection has great meaning for me,” said Captain Nemo, “Everything you see has been gathered from the sea by my own hands.”
“No museum in the world has a collection like this. It must be worth millions.”
“You will be even more amazed, Professor, when I show you the wonders of the Nautilus. First, look at these instruments on the wall. These same instruments appear in every room on the ship. They tell me our exact position, our speed, the direction we are heading, and the weather on the surface.”
“Remarkable!” I exclaimed, “But what puzzles me most, sir, is the power on the ship.”
“Ah, Monsieur Aronnax, it is a mighty power, indeed. It gives me light and heat and runs all my machines. It is electricity.”
“But that’s unheard of,” I cried in shock, “Our scientists on land have only been able to produce tiny sparks of electricity in their laboratories. We still use gas for our lights, and wood and coal for our heat. And we certainly have no machines run by electric motors. Where does this powerful electrical energy come from, Captain?”
“Again from the sea, Professor. I remove salt from the sea water and use it to charge special batteries I’ve made. This gives me power greater than any known in the world.”
“Amazing!” I cried, “And your air supply?”
“I renew the air on the ship simply by surfacing. However, I use electricity to operate the pumps which store extra air in huge reservoirs. That way, the Nautilus can stay submerged for several days.”
My head was spinning as we left the cabin and walked along a gangway. We came to a companionway, a well-shaped opening. It had a ladder going up. I asked where it led to.
“To the dinghy,” replied Captain Nemo.
“What! You have a dinghy on board?”
“Yes, and it’s a splendid little boat. We use it when we want to go fishing.”
“Only when you’re surfaced, of course?”
“Not at all! The hatch at the top of the ladder opens into a hatch in the dinghy. This little boat has a waterlight cover. So once I am inside it, I simply undo the bolts holding it to the ship, and it shoots up to the surface. There, I lift the cover and the dinghy is ready to set sail.”
We continued on to the engine room where Captain Nemo explained how he submerged the Nautilus, then brought it back to the surface. “Inside the ship are several water reservoirs. When they are filled with water, the ship gets heavier and submerges. Then, when I want to surface, I pump out this water and the ship rises.”
“Amazing!” I cried, “But when you are underwater, how can you see to steer the ship?”
“There is a special glass compartment that sticks out on top of the ship. That is the helmsman’s compartment. Behind that, in another compartment, is a powerful electric light that illuminates the water for a mile.”
“Aha!” I cried, “That explains the strange glow that had everyone puzzled for months. Sir, your Nautilus is truly amazing.”
“Yes, Professor. I love it as if it were my own flesh and blood! For I am its designer, builder and captain, all in one.”
“But how were you able to build this remarkable ship in secret?”
“Every part of it was made in a different country of the world, then sent to me at different addresses, under different names. My crew and I set up our workshop on a desert island and built the Nautilus there.”
“All this must have cost a fortune.”
“Well over a million dollars, Professor! But that is a mere nothing to me. You see, Monsieur Aronnax; I am a billionaire.”
Could I really believe what this strange man was telling me? I’d know soon enough.
We returned to the lounge, and Captain Nemo pointed to a large wall map. “We are now three hundred miles from Japan. It is exactly twelve noon on November 8, 1867. At this moment, we are beginning our under-water voyage around the world.”
With that, Captain Nemo left the room. Just as I was about to leave too, all the lights in the lounge went out. I heard the noise of something sliding and saw two panels open. They revealed two windows—one on each side of the ship. The water outside was brightly lit for a mile around.
What a sight! I seemed to be looking through the windows of a huge aquarium. Never before had I been able to see all these creatures alive and free in their natural waters. I sat for hours, fascinated by the army of rare, colourful fish speeding by.
For the next eight days, I saw nothing of Captain Nemo. Ned, Conseil and I were surprised at his mysterious absence. But we kept ourselves busy at the windows which were opened for us every day.
On the morning of the ninth day, a note was delivered to my cabin. It read:
16 November 1867
Professor Aronnax:
I am pleased to invite you and your friends on a hunting expedition tomorrow in the forest of Crespo Island.
Captain Nemo
“A hunting expedition!” cried Ned, “That means we’re going ashore. We can escape.”
If the captain hated dry land, why was he going hunting in a forest? I was puzzled by this, but I had the chance to ask Captain Nemo this question the following morning.
The captain smiled as he replied, “Professor, this forest is not on land. It is under water.”
“Under water?” I asked in amazement.
“Yes, Professor, but you will stay perfectly dry while you are hunting.”
I looked at the captain oddly. ‘He’s gone out of his mind,’ I thought.
My face must have revealed what I was thinking, for the captain chuckled. “No, Professor, I’m not mad. Surely you have seen diving suits before, you a man of science.”
“Yes, Captain, but the men in those suits were attached to their boats by long air hoses. Those hoses did not permit them to go far enough away to hunt.”
“Aha! But Professor, I have developed a special air tank that is strapped onto a diver’s back. With it, he can move about as freely as he wishes and even stay on the ocean floor for nine or ten hours!”
“Captain Nemo, that is truly remarkable.” I exclaimed, “I am ready to go on this hunting expedition. Wherever you go, I’ll go too.”
