Двадцать тысяч лье под водой / Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

On July 20, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson[1 - the Governor Higginson – «Говернор Хигинсон» (название судна)] encountered this moving mass five miles off the eastern shores of Australia. Captain Baker[2 - Baker – Бейкер] at first thought he was in the presence of an unknown reef; but two waterspouts shot out of this inexplicable object and sprang hissing into the air some 150 feet. Similar events were likewise observed in the Pacific seas[3 - in Pacific seas – в водах Тихого океана], on July 23 of the same year, by the Christopher Columbus[4 - the Christopher Columbus – «Христофор Колумб» (название судна)].

Both ships had observed the object at two places separated by a distance of more than 700 nautical leagues[5 - nautical league – морское лье (1 лье = 5556 м)].

Fifteen days later and 2,000 leagues farther, the Helvetia[6 - the Helvetia – «Гельвеция» (название судна)], running between the United States and Europe, had seen the monster in latitude 42 degrees 15’ north and longitude 60 degrees 35’ west of Greenwich.

One after another, reports arrived that profoundly affected public opinion. In lighthearted countries, people joked about this phenomenon, but such serious, practical countries as England, America, and Germany were deeply concerned. In every big city they sang about the monster in the coffee houses, they ridiculed it in the newspapers, they dramatized it in the theaters.

They even reprinted reports fromancient times: the views of Aristotle and Pliny[7 - Aristotle and Pliny – Аристотель и Плиний] accepting the existence of such monsters, and so on.

During the first months of the year 1867, the question seemed to be buried, when new facts were brought to the public’s attention. But now it was no longer an issue of a scientific problem to be solved, but a quite real and serious danger to be avoided.

The question took an entirely new turn. The monster again became an islet, rock, or reef, but a runaway reef, unfixed and elusive.

On March 5, 1867, the Moravia[8 - the Moravia – «Моравиа» (название судна)] met a rock marked on no charts. This accident happened around five o’clock in the morning. The officers examined the ocean with the most scrupulous care. They saw nothing, and the Moravia continued on course apparently undamaged.