Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Unknown Whales

Although I was terrified of falling into the water by accident, I still remember very well how I felt. I first sank into two + feet of water.I'm a good swimmer, but not as good as Byron and Edgar Poe—I'm submerged, but I'm not at all insane.I kicked my feet hard and surfaced again. One of my main concerns when I surfaced was to see where the battleship was.Did anyone on the boat see me fall into the water?Has the Lincoln changed direction?Did Captain Farragut launch the boat?Can I be saved? The night was dark.I seemed to see a large black mass disappearing in the east, its beacon light extinguished in the distance.This must be our battleship.I felt hopeless.

"Help! Help!" I yelled, paddling furiously toward the Lincoln. My clothes are in the way.The clothes were wet and stuck to me, making my movements ineffective.I'm sinking!I can't breathe! ... "Help!" This is my last cry.My mouth is full of seawater.I struggled desperately, I was about to be sucked into the abyss... Suddenly my clothes were grabbed by a strong hand, I felt myself being lifted out of the water, and I heard, I did hear this voice ringing in my ears: "If you don't mind the inconvenience and are willing to lean on my shoulder, you can swim more calmly."

I took my faithful Conseil's arm with one hand. "It's you!" I said, "It's you!" "It is I," replied Conseil, "and I will serve Monsieur." "Is that the collision just now that threw you and me into the sea at the same time?" "No. In order to serve my husband, I followed him down! The good man felt it was only natural to do so! "Where's the battleship?" I asked. "Battleship!" Conseil replied, turning around, "I don't think Monsieur should count on it any longer." "what did you say?"

"What I'm saying is that as I jumped into the sea, I heard the man at the rudder shout: Rudder and propeller are broken" "It's all broken?" "Yes! Cracked by the monster's teeth. I suppose the Lincoln's damage is so little, but it's very bad for us, because the ship can't keep her bearings." "Then, we're done!" "Perhaps it's over," Conseil replied quietly, "but we can last a few more hours, and in a few hours we can do a lot!" Conseil was so firm and calm, which inspired my strength.I swam vigorously, but my clothes wrapped around me like lead, hindering my movement, and I found it difficult to support.Conseil discovered this.

"I think sir will allow me to cut off my clothes," he said. He put a knife under my clothes and in one quick stroke, cut the clothes from top to bottom.Then he undressed me swiftly, and I caught him swimming. Soon, I undressed Conseil too, and we took turns "sailing" on the water. However, our situation is still very dangerous: people may not have seen us when we fell into the sea, or they may have seen it because the rudder of the battleship was broken.Can't come back here to save us.Now we can only rely on the small boats on the big ships Conseil assumed this very calmly, and planned what to do next.What a strange character!This icy-cold man is here as if in his own home!

Now our only way out is to hope that the Lincoln will drop the boat to save us, so we should find a way and try our best to support, as long as possible, wait for the boat to arrive.I therefore resolved to use our strength sparingly so that we would not both be exhausted at the same time, and here is how we would do it: one of us would lie on our backs, with our arms folded and our legs stretched out, afloat, while the other would swim The previous person pushes forward.To do this kind of "tug boat" work, each person can not exceed ten minutes. If we do this alternately, we can float on the water for several hours, and maybe we can support it until dawn.

It's a matter of luck!But hope is always rooted in the heart of man!And we are two again.Finally, I want to affirm one more thing - it seems impossible - even if I want to break all illusions in my mind, even if I want to "despair", I can't do it now! The time when the battleship collided with the whale was around eleven o'clock at night.So by the time the sun comes up, we still have to swim for eight hours.We alternate swimming, and swimming for eight hours can definitely be done.The sea was fairly calm and we were not overly tired.Sometimes my eyes tried to pierce the deep darkness, but saw nothing except a little glimmer of light from the spray stirred up by our swimming movements.The bright water waves that shattered under my hand dotted the mirror-like water surface like pieces of blue-gray metal.It can be said that we are swimming in quicksilver.

By around one o'clock in the morning, I was extremely tired.My limbs convulsed very badly, and gradually became stiff, and I could no longer use them flexibly.Conseil had to come to my support, and the burden of our survival fell entirely on him alone.Presently I heard the poor man panting; his breath was growing short.I understand that he can't support it for long. "Leave me! Leave me!" I said to him. "Leave sir! Never!" he answered, "and I will die before sir!" At this time, a thick cloud was blown to the east by the wind, and the moon appeared.The sea glistened under the moon.This benevolent moon renews our strength.My head looked up again.My eyes looked around the horizon.I saw battleships.It was five miles from us, just an indistinct black mass.But there was not a single boat!

I want to shout.What's the use of shouting at such a distance!My lips were so swollen that I couldn't make a sound.Conseil was still able to talk, and I heard him shout several times, "Help! Help!" We pause for a moment, and we listen.Although my ears were congested and produced a humming sound, it seemed to me that someone was calling in answer to Conseil's call. "Did you hear that?" I whispered. "Hear! Hear!" Conseil uttered another desperate cry into the air. This time, there can be no mistakes!There is someone answering our cries!Is it a victim thrown into the sea?Another victim of the collision?Or is it a skiff of the battleship calling us in the dark?

With the last of his strength, Conseil supported my shoulders. I tried my best to resist my last convulsions. He half-body surfaced to watch, and then lay down exhausted again. "Did you see anything?" "I see..." he whispered, "I see... let's not talk... let's keep what we have left!..." What did he see?At that time, I didn't know why I suddenly thought of that monster! ...But the human voice... Now is not the time for Jonah to hide in the belly of the whale! But Conseil was still dragging me.Sometimes he raised his head, looked straight ahead, and uttered a cry, and the voice that answered him drew nearer.I hardly heard, my strength was exhausted, my fingers were stiff, my hand could no longer support me.My mouth twitches and fills with sea water when I open it: the cold beats me.I raised my head one last time, then sank again in a moment...

At that moment, I bumped into a solid object.I'm right next to it.Then, I felt someone pulling me, pulling me to the surface, my chest stopped swelling and I passed out... It must have been the forceful rubbing of my body that brought me to life very quickly.I half-opened my eyes in a daze... "Conseil!" I whispered. "Did sir call me?" Conseil replied. At this moment, the moon was sinking to the west, and in its last light I saw that it was not Conseil's face, but I recognized it at once. "Ned Land!" I cried. "That's him, sir, after his prize!" replied the Canadian. "Were you also thrown into the sea when the battleship was rammed?" "Yes, Professor, but in a better situation than you, I was able to stand on a floating island almost immediately." "An island?" "Or more correctly, standing on your gigantic narwhal." "Ned Land, please speak clearly." "However, I soon understood why my harpoon couldn't hurt it, and why it bent against its skin." "Why? Ned Land, why?" "Professor, because that thing is made of steel!" At this point, I couldn't help but pull myself together, refresh my memory, and check my previous thoughts. The last few words of the Canadian changed my mind instantly.I quickly climbed onto this half-submerged creature (or object) that had made our temporary shelter.I kicked it, and it was evidently a solid, impenetrable hard object, not the soft substance that makes up the bulky bodies of marine mammals. However, this hard object may be a kind of bony carapace, which is similar to the carapace of animals in ancient times. I can very well attribute this monster to amphibious reptiles, such as turtles, crocodiles, and remote dragons. But!otherwise!The gray-black back under my feet is shiny.Slippery, not rough and scaly.It made a metallic clang when struck, so incredible that I must say that it was made of iron plates riveted with screws. No more doubts!This animal, this grotesque, this natural monstrosity, which has perplexed the entire learned world, which has confused navigators from both hemispheres, is now, it must be admitted, an even more astonishing grotesque. Man-made weirdness. I am not so horrified by the sight of the most grotesque, absurd, even mythical creatures.It is easy to understand how amazing the things created by the Creator are.One cannot but be astonished to see that the impossible is mysteriously accomplished by human hands now! There is no room for hesitation now.We were now lying on the back of a diving boat which, as far as I could tell, looked a bit like a giant steel fish.Ned Land had already had his opinion on this: we—Conseil and I—could only agree with him. "So, is there a steering machine and a crew in this boat?" I said. "Of course I do," replied the harpooner, "but I've been on this floating island for three hours and it hasn't moved a bit." "Has the ship not moved?" "It didn't move, Mr. Aronnax. It just drifted with the waves, not" it moved by itself. " "However, we all know that it moves at a great speed. Because it has such a speed, there must be a set of machines and a group of people who operate the machines. Therefore, my conclusion is... We are saved. " "Huh!" said Ned Land with reservations. At this moment, as if to prove my argument, the back of this strange thing boiled, and it was now moving, and it was clearly the propeller that moved it.Let's quickly hold on to its upper layer, which is about 80 centimeters above the water.As luck would have it, it wasn't very fast. I don't care if it just keeps going on the level surface," Ned Land said in a low voice, "but if it suddenly sinks to the bottom of the water out of nowhere, then my life is in danger! " Canadians are right.Therefore, the most important thing is to quickly find a way to get in touch with the people inside.I wanted to find an opening above it, a cover plate, and, to use the technical term, a "manhole"; but the rows of screws were clear and even, and joined the steel plates so firmly and seamlessly. And at this time, the moon disappeared again, and we were in a deep darkness.I had to wait until dawn before trying to enter the interior of this diving boat. Our fate, therefore, is entirely determined by the will of the mysterious pilot who directs the machine.If they dive in, we're done!Except in this case, then I don't doubt the possibility of getting in touch with them.Just, if they cannot make air, they must often come to the surface of the ocean to change the air they breathe.Therefore, there must be a hole in the upper layer of the ship, so that the interior of the ship can communicate with the atmosphere outside. As for the idea of ​​hoping to be rescued by Captain Farragut, I have to give up completely now.We were towed westward, at a rather slow speed, I estimate, about twelve knots an hour.The boat's propellers churned the water regularly, and sometimes the boat floated a little higher, sending phosphorescent jets of water high into the air. By about four o'clock in the morning the ship's speed increased.We were dragged dizzy and a bit overwhelmed, while the waves were hitting us directly.Fortunately, Ned Land touched a large ring nailed to the steel back at once, and we held on to it firmly so as not to slip. Finally, the long night passed.My incomplete recollection does not allow me to fully express my impressions at that time.There is only one small thing that I can still remember now.Even when the wind and waves were relatively calm, I seemed to hear indistinct sounds several times, as if they were the harmony of an elusive music from afar.What about the secret of underwater navigation that no one in the world can explain?What kind of people live in this strange ship?What kind of machinery makes it move with such amazing speed? Its daybreak.Morning mist hung over us, but it dissipated soon after.I was about to take a closer look at the upper hull forming the platform when I felt the ship sinking. "Hey! What the hell!" cried Ned Land, kicking the steel plate hard with his foot. "Open the door, inhospitable sailor!" But it was not easy to make his work heard in the midst of the rumbling of the thrusters.Fortunately, the boat stopped sinking for a while. Suddenly, a sound of iron plates being pushed suddenly came from inside the boat.An iron plate was lifted, and a person came out. The person uttered a strange cry, and immediately went in again and disappeared. Presently eight tall and massive men, with their faces hooded, came out without a word, and pulled us into their terrible machine.