Chapter 10 Chapter Ten Searching for the Algerian Ruins

The Dobrina was built at the shipyard on the Isle of Wight.It has a beautiful appearance, a solid structure, and a load capacity of 200 tons, which is completely capable of sailing around the world.When Columbus and Magellan explored the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, they never took such a large and safe ship.There is several months' food on board, enough to go around the Mediterranean Sea without having to replenish food halfway if the situation requires it.also.Although the effect of gravity has been weakened, there is no need to add anything to the weight of the hull by loading on Goulby Island, because the hull is much lighter than all other objects, and the weight of the sea water is also lightened, and the proportional relationship between the two is still maintained. with the original state.

Earl Ironmashv was a complete layman in sailing, so the second officer of Prokop was in charge of the ship's command. Prokop is thirty years old this year.His father was originally a serf of the earl, but before Tsar Alexander issued the famous edict, he had already obtained his personal freedom.The second mate has always been grateful for this, and has a very close relationship with the earl, and is loyal to him.Prokop had been a cadet on state-owned and private merchant ships, learned a lot of nautical knowledge, and had obtained a certificate as a second mate before coming to the Dobrina.Count Iron Mashev spends most of the year on the Dobrina, winter in the Mediterranean and summer in the northern seas.

The second mate of Prokop is a man of profound knowledge. It can be said that he knows astronomy first and geography second.This not only improved his own status, but even Earl Ironmashev, who spent a lot of effort to train him, felt very honored.In short, it is absolutely foolproof for him to command the Dobrina.The rest of the crew on board were also excellent.In addition to Prokop's second mate, there were Tiglev the mechanic and four sailors: Nikoch, Tostoy, Ventcaeff, and Panovka.In addition, there is a chef named Mochel.The parents of these people are all tenant farmers of Earl Ironmashev, so now they are still a family when they come to sea.Now that their master was with them, the sailors felt no alarm at the strange changes that had taken place between heaven and earth.However, Second Officer Prokop often showed a anxious and sad expression. He knew very well that although the count seemed calm on the surface, he was also very anxious in his heart.

Dobrinayin turned on his horsepower and rode the wind and waves to the east.The waves on the sea are very high, otherwise it can travel eleven knots an hour. In fact, the wind blowing from the west—now it should be said to be the east—is just a slight breeze, but the sea is full of waves, which is very restless.This is not surprising, because the weight of the spray on the top of the wave is also greatly reduced due to the weakening of gravity.With the constant movement of the waves, these waves have reached unimaginable heights.Arago once believed that the highest waves could only reach seven to eight meters. If he saw the current fifteen to twenty meters high waves, he would be extremely surprised.These tall waves are not individual strange peaks formed by accidental waves colliding with each other, but one wave after another, so the Dobrina is often about 20 meters above the water surface.Therefore, as the force of gravity weakened, the Dobrina bumped even more violently on the sea.Fortunately, Captain Servadac did not suffer from seasickness, otherwise it would have been quite enough for him in this situation.

However, these huge waves are not sudden, but wave after wave.On the whole it was no more intolerable than the short, swift waves which are so common in the Mediterranean.The only undesirable consequence of this situation is that the boat cannot proceed at its normal speed. The Dobrina was moving forward from its original position on the coast of Algeria, only two or three kilometers away from the land, but looking south, there was no sign of the land.The positions of the planets in the sky have been disturbed, and Prokop’s second officer can no longer determine the position of the Dobrina based on the observation of the planets, nor can he determine their longitude and latitude based on the position of the sun in the sky, because the original navigation The picture is no longer useful.Even so, the distance traveled by the Dobrina can be roughly calculated from the log, and its driving direction can be relied on by the compass.

Fortunately, there was no confusion in the direction indicated by the compass.The strange changes between heaven and earth did not have any impact on Haiwai.On the vast sea in this area, it always points to a place twenty-two degrees from the North Pole.Although the concept of east and west has been completely reversed with the change of the rising and falling of the sun, south and north still maintain their original orientation.The sextant is no longer available, but the log and compass are still generally used to mark the position of the Dobrina. On the first day of the voyage, Prokop, who had far more sailing knowledge than Selvadak, explained all these situations to the captain in front of Earl Ironmashev.Like many Russians, he spoke French fluently.Of course, the scope of their conversation did not cover the strange changes in the world, although no one could tell the root cause of these changes.The conversation began with the new orbit the Earth has followed in the solar system since January 1st.

"Captain," said Prokop, "the earth is evidently no longer orbiting the sun in its original orbit. For some reason it is orbiting very close to the sun." "I think so too," replied the captain. "The question now is whether the Earth, having passed the orbit of Venus, will pass the orbit of Mercury again." "Fall to the sun and be reduced to ashes," continued Count Ironmashev. "It would be a terrible thing in that," cried the captain. "No," said Prokop, "I don't think that's what the earth is facing at the moment. It's not approaching the sun, but it's moving around the sun in a new orbit."

"Is there any ground in your opinion?" asked the count. "Yes, sir," said Prokop, "you will be convinced. If the earth were really approaching the sun rapidly, the catastrophe would have happened very soon, and we would have entered the sun's gravitational center long ago. Also, if this is the case, the tangential rotational speed that makes the planets move along the elliptical orbit together with the gravitational force of the sun will no longer exist, and the earth will be attracted to the sun in only sixty-four and a half days go up..." "So you think..." said the captain.

"I don't think the earth will be attracted to the sun," said Second Officer Prokop. "The reason is simple. The earth has been out of its original orbit for more than a month, but it has just crossed the orbit of Venus until today. During this period, It is only 44 million kilometers closer to the sun, but it was originally 152 million kilometers away from the sun. Therefore, we can say that the earth is not rapidly approaching the sun, which is finally ours. Fortunately. Besides, I venture to say that we are now beginning to move away from the sun, and the most obvious sign is that the temperature has gradually dropped, and the temperature on Gulbi Island is not much higher than that in Algeria, which lies at 36 degrees north latitude."

"Your deduction is very reasonable." Captain Servadac said, "The earth is not running towards the sun, it is still orbiting the sun." "It is also certain," said Prokop, "that after that cataclysm the coasts of the Mediterranean and Africa have been shifted abruptly to the equator." "God knows if the coast of Africa still exists," said Selvadic. "Whether this sea is the Mediterranean Sea or not is also very questionable," the count continued. The questions in their hearts were really one after another.But one thing is certain, the earth is now moving away from the sun, and there is no need to worry about it being attracted to the sun.

But where did the African continent go? It had been twenty-four hours since they left Goulby Island.On the way the Dobrina passed, some of the larger cities on the Algerian coast should have been seen, such as Teres, Sherschel, Kolleach, Sidi Feluhi, etc.But under the telescope, apart from the endless sea, how can there be any trace of these cities? However, the course prescribed by Prokop's second officer for the Dobrina was not wrong.According to the speed of the ship and the direction indicated, according to the speed of the ship and the distance they traveled in a day, on February 2, the position they arrived at should be 36°47' north latitude and 0°44' east longitude, that is, The seat of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. But neither Algiers, nor Thérèse, Scherchelle, Kohlerach, and Sidi Feluhi seem to have sunk to the bottom of the sea. Captain Servadac frowned, staring blankly at the endless sea.Scenes from the past floated in front of my eyes.His heart was beating violently.He had lived in Algiers for many years, and those friends and colleagues who had been with him day and night were now lost.He thought of his own country and wondered whether France would be spared from this natural disaster.He wanted to search under the water to see if he could find some ruins of Algiers. "This disaster can be so complete that it has completely wiped out a city," he cried. "No, I don't believe that I can't find it." A little relic! Some big peaks will never sink into the bottom of the sea. Some of the Kasbah in Napoleon’s Castle, which is 150 meters above sea level, will always be part of the water. Unless the whole of Africa has sunk into the depths of the earth , we will find some ruins on the water." Yet the truth is surprising.It was so busy a month ago, and there was not a single thing left on the 20-kilometer-wide sea from the shores of Martifort to Cape Pescade, not even a floating tree or a plank.This is really outrageous. So are there any remnants that can be found underwater? Earl Iron Mashev felt that Selvadak's idea was very reasonable, so he ordered to use a detector to investigate the underwater. The results of the detection were even more inexplicable: the seabed was very flat, and the water depth was only four to five fathoms.They then explored the vast sea for two hours, but found no remains of the mountain city of Algiers.Could it be that after the natural disaster, the seawater has completely leveled the entire mountain city? It's unbelievable. In addition, there is no rock, silt, sand and shells in the vast seabed.What the detector collected from the bottom of the water were only some colorful metal powders, the nature of which was hard to determine.But there is absolutely no such material in the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. "Look, second mate," said Servadac, "this is clearly not the coast of Algeria as you speak of." "If this is not the coast of Algeria, the water depth will never be four or five fathoms, but two or three hundred fathoms." "You mean...?" Count Ironmashev asked. "I have no idea. I'm completely bewildered." "Monsieur Count," said Captain Servadac, "may we go further south, perhaps we may find something there that we cannot find here." The count discussed with the second mate Prokop, and since the weather was so good, they decided to continue the search south for another thirty-six hours. Servadac thanked the count for his opinion, and the Dobrina sailed on to the south. In the next thirty-six hours, they conducted a careful exploration of the sea area they passed.Wherever the probe went, it showed that the seabed was very flat, and the water depth was only four or five meters deep.They also lowered dredges and raised sediment from the seafloor, but what they brought up was not a single building block or piece of metal, nor any of the algae and coral that are common in the ocean.What had once been the bottom of the Mediterranean became an unrecognizable world. The Dobrina descended to the thirty-sixth parallel north.Judging from the map on the ship, they are now sailing among the high mountains of the Sahel Mountains that once separated the sea from the fertile Mitija Plain. The highest peak of Buzalea, 400 meters above sea level, is here!But even this high mountain is now gone. They sailed on to the south, past Sheela, the main town in the Sahel Mountains, and Falik, with its many plane trees, and passed the castle of Blida, which was bigger than Wed El Kebir. It was four hundred meters higher, but now there is nothing left either. Prokop's second officer was worried that there would be accidents if he continued to sail on this strange sea, and hoped to return or advance to Le, but Captain Servadak still insisted on going south. The Dobrina then sailed to the vicinity of the Muzaya Mountains.According to legend, there are some ancient caves in the mountains where Kabyliatai lived.Carob trees, hackberry trees and oak trees are all over the mountains, and lions, hyenas and jackals are in groups... Its highest peak stands between Brumi Peak and Shifa Peak, with an altitude of more than 1,600 meters above sea level. Such a high mountain will always be on the water. Let's see its peak on the sky...but the truth is, water and sky are everywhere as far as the eye can see. It seems to have to return.The Dobrina returned to its original sea area, and all hopes of finding the Algerian ruins were shattered.