20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Student Quality Library (Teacher Accompanied Reading Edition)

Author: Jules Verne
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Chapter The Mysterious Reef of 1866 left a deep impression and was unforgettable. During this time, a strange and bizarre event occurred, causing governments in Europe and America to pay close attention to it. The general situation is as follows: Not long ago, several large ships encountered a "giant creature" at sea—a long, spindle-shaped object that sometimes emitted phosphorescent light, and its size was much larger than that of a whale, moving much faster than a whale. If this creature were a type of whale, then its size greatly exceeded the classifications made by biologists. On July 20, 1866, the "Governor Higginson" of the Calcutta-Bunbury Steamship Company encountered this moving giant object five miles east of the Australian coast. Captain Back initially thought it was an uncharted reef, and as he was about to determine its location, the inexplicable object suddenly (spewed two water jets), shooting up into the air to a height of 150 feet with a loud splash. So, unless this reef had intermittent geysers, then the "Governor Higginson" might have raced onto the deck shouting "The ship is sinking, the ship is sinking," and no one on board would have paid attention. The passengers were initially panicked, but Captain Anderson quickly calmed them down. He told the passengers that danger would not occur immediately, because the watertight compartments of the "Scotia" were divided into seven sections, and a few leaks wouldn't matter. Then he ran to the bottom of the ship and found that the fifth compartment was flooding, with seawater gushing in rapidly, proving that the hole was quite large. Fortunately, there was no steam furnace in that compartment, otherwise the fire would have gone out. Although half of the "Scotia's" propellers were submerged, the ship could still continue to sail. By the time the ship reached the company's dock, it was three days late. After docking, the "Scotia" was lifted, and the engineers could hardly believe their eyes: at a depth of two and a half meters below the waterline, a perfectly regular equilateral triangular gap was exposed. The on the metal was so neat that even a drill could not make such an accurate hole. The sharp instrument that created this crack must not have been made of ordinary steel, because this creature, with astonishing force, rammed through four centimeters of steel plate and then performed a difficult backward maneuver to escape. For a time, public opinion was once again in an uproar. All previous unexplained maritime disasters were now attributed to this creature. Due to its existence, people felt that maritime traffic between the continents was becoming increasingly dangerous, and everyone demanded that this terrible creature be eliminated at any cost. When I arrived in New York, the issue was being debated with great fervor. People were divided into two factions: one believed it was an incredibly powerful creature, while the other said it was a "submarine" with extremely powerful propulsion. P1-2