Calico Classics Illustrated: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2 At Full Speed Commander Farragut had sworn to get rid of the giant narwhal and no other course was acceptable He promised 2,000 to the fi rst man to spot the whale This guaranteed the enthusiasm of virtually every man aboard The ship was outfi tted with hand-thrown harpoons blunderbusses that shot out barbed arrows and swivel guns with exploding shells On the forecastle stood a cannon With all this weaponry onboard the ship had something even better the best harpooner in the world Ned Land had skill courage and coolness No whale was likely to escape him Land was a tall powerfully built Canadian He could be hot tempered but he took a 10
special liking to me as he enjoyed conversing in French He also did not believe in the giant narwhal I’ve hunted hundreds of whales he said But none could crack the steel plates of a steamer not with tails nor tusks But we know narwhals have pierced the sides of ships I argued Wooden ships the Canadian said But if the whale doesn’t exist I said How do you explain what happened to the Scotia Land had no answer but still doubted the giant narwhal’s existence I believed he would soon fi nd reason to change his mind For months the Abraham Lincoln cruised down the Atlantic coast of South America and on to the Pacifi c We found nothing but water Finally the crew’s enthusiasm waned No one spoke of mutiny of course Still Commander Farragut felt the crew’s mood 11
On November 2 he promised to look just three more days If nothing was spotted we would head for European waters and then home The three days passed and Commander Farragut changed course On that night I stood at the rail and looked across the water Conseil stood at my side as he always did This was a foolish venture I said sadly I expect people will laugh at my theory now Yes Conseil answered calmly People will laugh at Monsieur and Monsieur will be getting what he deserves Really An honored scientist like Monsieur does not get mixed up in But Conseil did not get the chance to fi nish scolding me for Land’s voice rang out Ahoy There it is And so it was at a distance of about 400 yards off the starboard quarter There could be no mistake about it The creature was several 12
fathoms below the surface giving off a huge oval-shaped glow Then the creature began moving toward us The frigate moved rapidly away Or rather it tried to move away but the creature moved at double the speed of the ship The creature did a complete circle around us then moved off about two or three miles Suddenly it rushed headlong toward the Abraham Lincoln at a terrifying speed It dove beneath us and came up on the other side Get up more speed if you can Land suggested I’ll take up position in the bowsprit If we can get near enough I’ll harpoon it The commander called out Build up more pressure The Abraham Lincoln reached an unheard of speed of 18 5 knots but the creature simply traveled at the same rate and allowed not one inch of gain More coal was shoveled into the boilers Our speed reached 19 3 knots We were in real 13
