Chapter-2
Commander Farragut had no doubt that he would find and destroy the narwhal. After all, he had the fastest, best-armed ship in the U.S. Navy. He had a loyal, enthusiastic crew. But he had something even better—he had Ned Land, the king of Canadian harpooners.
Ned’s skill and courage made him the most valuable man on board. His eyes were like a powerful telescope, sighting things at great distances. And his arm was like a mighty cannon, always ready to explode.
By the time we had been at sea three weeks, Ned and I had become good friends. We spent hours talking about his whaling adventures, but Ned stubbornly refused to discuss the giant narwhal. He did not believe it really existed.
“Why can’t you accept the idea of a huge narwhal?” I asked. “After all, you’re one man who knows all about large sea animals.”
“It’s all right for ordinary people to believe in such a creature, Professor,” he replied, “But I’ve hunted and harpooned hundreds of whales. And no matter how powerful they were, neither their tails nor their tusks were strong enough to crack open the steel hull of a ship. A wooden hull, yes. But never steel!”
“But suppose this creature lives several miles deep in the ocean,” I argued, “Just think of the heavy pressure of the water there. This creature would have to have unusually powerful bones to stand that pressure. A man like you, for example, at a depth of six miles, would be flattened out by that pressure. You’d look like a steam roller had run you over!”
“Good Lord!” exclaimed Ned, “Then the creature would have to be built with steel plates eight inches thick. And that’s even thicker than the hull of a warship. But I still don’t believe this creature exists.”
“Then how do you explain, you stubborn harpooner, what happened to the Scotia?”
Ned hesitated, and then said, “Maybe it was a… No, no! It can be!” And the stubborn harpooner refused to say another word.
As the Abraham Lincoln rounded the tip of South America and moved from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific, everyone began to search the surface of the ocean. Night and day, eyes and telescopes did not rest. We gulped down our meals and slept only a few hours at night.
Ned Land was the only one who refused to search the ocean, except when it was his turn to stand watch.
“It’s all nonsense!” he protested when I scolded him for his lack of interest, “Why, we’re just wandering around blindly. You say this creature was last seen in the middle of the Pacific. But that was four or five months ago. If this creature travels as fast as you say it does, it’s probably far away by now if it even exists.”
I had no answer for Ned. Yes, we were wandering around blindly, but what else could we do? We had spent three months cruising in the North Pacific, chasing whales and sighting reefs. We covered every mile of the ocean between the coasts of Japan and North America. But we found nothing.
Everyone on board grew discouraged and then angry. How could they have been foolish enough to believe in such a ridiculous expedition? It was time to give up and return home. But Commander Farragut persuaded his men to wait three more days. If, during that time, the monster didn’t appear, he would turn the ship around and go back.
This promise was made on November 2. For the next three days, the crew worked harder than ever. But on November 5, when the three days had ended with no monster sighted, the Commander kept his promise.
That evening, we were about two hundred miles from the coast of Japan. Conseil and I were on deck staring out at the sea. The crew, high up in the rigging, were still examining the horizon.
Suddenly, we heard Ned Land’s voice shouting, “Ahoy! There it is!”
Ned was pointing to a glowing oval-shaped object beneath the sea. The glow was so bright, even from four hundred yards away, that my eyes hurt just looking at it. Could this creature be charged with electricity? Like an electric eel, perhaps?
“Look, look!” I cried, “It’s moving. It’s going backward. No, now forward! It’s heading right for us!”
Commander Farragut reversed the engines, and the Abraham Lincoln started moving away from the light. Rather, it tried to move away. The strange glowing animal rushed towards our starboard side with terrifying speed. But when it was twenty feet from our hull, it stopped suddenly. Its light went out and it disappeared.
In a few seconds, we heard Ned cry out, “There it is, coming up on the port side!”
Ned was right. A shiny black body, shaped like a fish, was sticking out above the water. It had to be at least two hundred fifty feet long. And its tail was moving so violently that it turned the sea into foam.
Our cannons began firing and the shells struck the black body. But instead of exploding, they simply bounced off the creature’s back and splashed into the water.
Just then, I leaned over the rail and saw Ned blow me. He was hanging onto a pole with one hand and raising his terrible harpoon with the other. The creature was now only twenty feet away.
Suddenly, Ned’s arm snapped forward. The harpoon sailed through the air. I heard a ringing noise as it seemed to hit something hard.
Two huge gushes of water shot up from the monster and washed over the deck of the ship. Then there was a horrible crash. I didn’t even have time to grab onto anything before I felt myself being thrown over the railing and into the sea.
