Part one

For the first time, this “long, phosphorescent, spindle-shaped object” of enormous size was seen by sailors in 1866. He moved incredibly fast and spewed a powerful stream of water into the air. Scientists considered the subject a huge sea monster, and journalists and cartoonists turned it into a popular joke.

In 1867, a steamboat came upon a “monster”, and a little later it itself attacked a mail ship, making a triangular hole in the bottom of the ship, sheathed with sheet metal. Swimming in the seas has become dangerous. When the largest countries in the world stated that they had not created an underwater vehicle, scientists finally became convinced that the subject was a huge cetacean. Pierre Aronax, a professor at the Paris Museum and naturalist, suggested that it was an unusually large narwhal that rose from the ocean abyss and attacked the ship with its sharp horn.

The monster should have been destroyed. For this, the high-speed frigate Abraham Lincoln was equipped. Together with the forty-year-old Aronax and his faithful, phlegmatic servant Koncel thirty years old, the expedition hit the best Canadian whaler Ned Land, a tall, strong man with a strong-willed and explosive character. The vessel, under the command of Captain Faragut, equipped with the latest technology, headed for the Pacific Ocean, where the “narwhal” was last seen.

On the way, the professor and the whaler made friends. The stubborn Ned, the only one from the whole team, did not believe in the existence of a “giant narwhal”, considering all the stories about him newspaper “ducks”. The one who first noticed the monster, the captain promised $ 2,000. Dozens of eyes watched the ocean, but the “narwhal” still did not appear. Three months later, the frigate crew lost their last hope. At noon on November 5, the captain turned "towards the European seas", and late in the evening, the sharp-sighted Ned Land saw a "narwhal". The captain tried to catch up with the monster all day on November 6, but he slipped away, infuriating Faragut and Ned. The iron core of the special gun bounced off the skin of the “narwhal”. In the evening, the frigate managed to get closer. Ned threw his harpoon, bounced off the back of the monster with a metal ringing. The Narwhal brought down powerful jets of water that washed Aronax into the ocean.

Recovering, the professor found a nearby faithful Consel, who jumped after his master. One could not count on salvation - the frigate's propeller was broken, and the ship could not return. Holding out on the water for several hours and exhausted, Aronax and Consel heard someone's voice and sailed to the sound. Soon the professor came across some kind of solid and lost consciousness. He woke up on the back of the "narwhal" in the company of servants and Ned Lend. Kitoboy was thrown into the water in a collision, but he quickly climbed onto the back of the monster, which turned out to be iron.

Suddenly the ship started. Some time later, his speed increased so much that his friends could hardly stay on the surface. Feeling that the ship was sinking, friends began to knock on the metal plating. “Eight dozen well done with their faces closed” came out of the hatch and led them inside the submarine.

The prisoners were locked in a room upholstered with sheet metal. After some time, a tall, handsome man with a proud posture and a firm, calm look entered them. He pretended not to understand a single European language, and soon left the room. Friends spent several days in their dungeon. All this time, the submarine was in motion, and Ned Land was angry and made plans to escape.

Their imprisonment was broken by the same handsome man.He spoke to the professor in French and called himself captain Nemo (in Latin - Nobody). The captain intended to give his captives complete freedom within the ship if they made a promise not to interfere in his affairs. Aronax realized, "that a terrible secret is hidden in the past of this man." He broke all ties with the earth. His captives were doomed to this.

Nemo's ship, the Nautilus, was built according to the captain’s drawings. Parts of the Nautilus, made in different countries, were assembled together at Captain Nemo's own shipyard. The boat was moving due to the electrical energy received from the huge sodium batteries. The crew received everything necessary for life from the ocean. Even fabric for clothes was made from algae. The Nautilus climbed to the surface only to determine its location, to renew its air supply and to hunt in a special waterproof boat, which was stored under an external ledge on the ship's hull. Having received a promise from friends, Nemo showed Aronax all the wonders of the Nautilus, including a spacious library and a salon museum with the wonders of the deep sea. The captain took the cabin to the professor with his radar and offered to participate in his scientific research. The captives did not communicate with the ship's crew - the sailors spoke some kind of artificial language and were completely devoted to the captain. Nemo considered the Nautilus team his family.

Nemo was going to make a trip around the oceans of the Earth. Having determined his location for the last time, he plunged the ship 50 meters and drew heading east-northeast along the Kuro-Sivo (Black River) course. That day, November 8, friends first saw the wonders of the depths through the thick crystal portholes of the Nautilus, which were closed with iron shutters and opened for several hours a day. On November 10, Aronax began keeping a diary on algae paper.

Five days later, the professor and his companions received a written invitation from Nemo to hunt in the forests of the island of Crespo. Ned Land immediately thought of an escape, but to his disappointment the hunt turned out to be underwater. The harpooner did not dare to put on a rubber suit with a copper helmet, equipped with a can of compressed air and a lighting device. Together with Nemo and the silent members of his team, Aronax set out on a hunt with a loyal Consel, who was not one step behind the owner. The scientist was struck by this underwater walk through the forest of algae. Nemo demonstrated the wonders of accuracy by killing an albatross soaring above the water from an air rifle. Friends returned to the Nautilus, shooting a sea otter and miraculously avoiding meeting with sharks.

In the following weeks, the professor met with Nemo very rarely. Every morning, the Nautilus surfaced to determine the coordinates, and in the afternoon the captain opened the shutters on the windows. On November 26, the submarine crossed the tropic of Cancer, passed the Sandwich Islands and headed further south-east past Hawaii and the Marquesas Islands. Aronax saw all these archipelagos only from afar. Having passed the tropic of Capricorn, the Nautilus turned west-north-west and passed the island of Tahiti. By this time, the ship had passed 8,100 miles.

On January 4, the Nautilus approached the Torres Strait, which separated Australia from New Guinea. Many ships were lost in this dangerous strait, but Nemo decided to go through it and ran aground near the island of Gueboroara. Calling this incident an “accidental hindrance”, the captain calmly waited for the full moon on January 9, during which a strong tide would begin and take the submarine aground. Aronax doubted that the tide would help, but Ned was sure that the Nautilus would no longer have to plow the oceans.

Using the forced parking, the friends took off ashore, where they stocked up with fresh meat, which Ned missed so much. Their hunt, which lasted several days, was interrupted by a crowd of bloodthirsty natives. Friends were forced to hide from them on the Nautilus. Overcome fear, the Papuans attacked the submarine.Despite the calmness of Nemo, friends gathered to fight with the cannibals, but at that time the tide began, and the Nautilus rose from its coral bed. "The ship headed for the Indian Ocean.

Nemo was constantly engaged in scientific research. Talking about studying the density of sea water, the captain spoke about the Mediterranean Sea. Aronax concluded that Nemo happens in densely populated places. January 18, "Nautilus" did not sink for a long time - Nemo seemed to be waiting for someone in the middle of the desert ocean. Aronax spotted a ship in the spyglass, but the captain knocked the tube out of his hands and demanded to fulfill his promise. Friends had to obey. So that they would not see anything superfluous, sleeping pills were added to their food.

Waking up, the professor met with Nemo, and he asked him to provide medical assistance to the wounded from the Nautilus team. The skull was broken by a sailor, and Aronax could not help him. The unfortunate was buried at the bottom of the ocean, where Captain Nemo arranged a small cemetery for his loved ones.

Part two

After this strange incident, Aronax was lost in conjecture: who was the mysterious captain Nemo - a scientist, an unrecognized genius, or an avenger. Friends remained prisoners of the Nautilus, but the freedom-loving Ned Land did not lose hope of escaping from the underwater dungeon. Aronax, on the contrary, wanted to complete the journey around the world and finish his new scientific work. Konsel also received considerable pleasure doing his favorite thing - the classification of the inhabitants of the underwater world.

On January 26, the Nautilus crossed the equator, and on January 28 approached the island of Ceylon. Here Nemo gave his friends a walk along the pearl banks of the Gulf of Manara. There were many sharks in this bay, so the professor accepted the invitation of the captain without enthusiasm, but did not dare to refuse, recognizing his cowardice. To his surprise, neither Ned nor Concelle the news of the sharks scared. No shotguns were given to friends this time - Nemo only armed them with daggers. First of all, the captain took his companions into an underwater grotto and showed a huge shell, in which a pearl the size of a coconut ripened. Nemo grew this jewel for his museum.

Coming out of the grotto, the companions saw a shark attack a Hindu, a pearl hunter. Nemo rushed at her with a knife. A struggle ensued. The wounded shark crushed the captain with its carcass and opened its mouth, full of terrible teeth. At that moment, Ned Land hit a jailfish, which he prudently took with him, and saved Captain Nemo's life. Bringing the Indian to his senses, the captain gave him the pearls collected during the walk. Aronak noted that compassion had not yet died in Nemo. In response, the captain said that he would always be the defender of the oppressed.

On February 7, the ship passed the Gulf of Aden and entered the Red Sea, from which, according to Aronax, there was only one exit. Nemo, however, intended to go from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through the passage known only to him, located under the Suez Isthmus. The captain called it the Arabian tunnel. Ned Land, skeptical, as always, hoped to get into the Mediterranean Sea and escape.

The passage through the tunnel Nemo made the night of February 11. The witness of the transition was Aronax, kindly invited to the captain’s cabin protruding above the Nautilus case and protected by thick crystal glass. The passage through the tunnel illuminated by the powerful spotlight of the vessel took several minutes. In the morning, seeing Port Said in the distance, Ned spoke again of an escape, but the professor did not want to part with the Nautilus and the opportunity to explore the inaccessible corners of the oceans. Consel agreed with Aronax, and Ned remained in the minority. The harpooner believed that Nemo would not let them go of his own free will and took a promise from the professor to run away as soon as possible.Ned wanted to get under the waterproof cover of the boat and come up with it when the Nautilus was near the inhabited coast.

On February 14, Aronax noticed that the captain was waiting for something. Watching the marine life, the professor noticed a swimmer who turned out to be the acquaintance of the captain. Seeing him, he took out gold bars from the safe, filled them with a voluminous chest and wrote the address in Greek. Powerful sailors pulled him out of the cabin, and soon a boat sailed from the Nautilus.

Nemo did not like the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nautilus crossed it in 48 hours. The speed of the ship was so great that Ned had to forget about the escape. On February 18, the submarine entered the expanses of the Atlantic Ocean. The harpooner decided not to wait until the Nautilus left the inhabited places and appointed an escape for the evening. Finding no peace, Aronax entered the captain’s cabin, the walls of which were decorated with portraits of freedom fighters. The professor had the thought: had Nemo financed any revolution?

The captain prevented the escape of friends. He invited Aronax to take a walk to the flooded Spanish galleon full of gold. The professor realized that the captain had inexhaustible sources of wealth. The next morning, the Nautilus was far from the shores of Europe. On the evening of February 19, Aronax was expecting a new underwater walk. For a long time he followed Nemo along the rocks, in the crevices of which giant crabs kept watch over their prey, through a forest of petrified trees. Behind the cliffs was an active volcano, the light of which illuminated a vast, once populated plain. It was Atlantis. The incredible walk of Aronax lasted all night.

On the morning of February 21, the Nautilus entered the underwater grotto of an uninhabited island. Here was his secret harbor. A cave with a small lake, where the ship found itself, formed inside an extinct volcano. Here Nemo was stocked with coal, indispensable in the production of sodium for electric batteries. While the sailors loaded coal, friends examined the cave, but did not find a ground exit from it.

Leaving the island, the Nautilus crossed the Sargasso Sea and turned south. By March 13, the ship passed 13 thousand leagues. Friends had a chance to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and returning to the surface to watch a flock of predatory sperm whales attacked a herd of whales. Having stood up for these harmless animals, Nemo with the help of a sharp spire on the nose of the Nautilus destroyed almost all predators.

Ned Lend's journey was a burden. He hoped that upon reaching the south pole, the captain would turn back into the Pacific Ocean and head to the inhabited shores. On March 14, travelers saw the first accumulation of ice. On March 18, when the Nautilus was completely ice-covered, Nemo informed Aronax that he intended to reach the geographic south pole by swimming under the ice. The professor enthusiastically picked up this idea, and the skeptic Ned shrugged and locked himself in his cabin.

Nemo's experience was a success. On March 19, the Nautilus climbed to the surface near a small island, separated by a narrow strait from an unknown mainland. The sky was cloudy, then a snowstorm began, and Nemo could determine the coordinates on March 21, at the last moment of the polar day. The ship was indeed at the geographic south pole of the Earth. The captain hoisted on the island a black flag embroidered with gold letter "N".

On the way back, the Nautilus was in trouble: a huge iceberg rolled over and put the ship in an ice trap. The team began to cut through one of the walls of the ice corridor. Ned Land, Aronax and Consel participated in rescue operations along with Captain Nemo. Meanwhile, the water in the trap began to freeze, the walls of the ice tunnel shrank, threatening to crush the Nautilus. The captain solved this problem by heating the water in the tanks of the submarine and mixing boiling water with ice water traps. Shortly before the end of work on the Nautilus, air ran out. In an effort to save himself from painful death, Nemo picked up the ship and broke through it the remaining layer of ice.Ned and Concelle, as they could, prolonged the life of the professor, but Aronax was already starting the agony of suffocation when the ship rose to the surface.

On March 31, the Nautilus passed Cape Horn and turned into the Atlantic Ocean. To the displeasure of Ned Land, the ship passed Brazil at a very high speed. The chance to escape was again lost. The escape to the shores of French Guiana had to be canceled due to a severe storm. Friends have been captives of the Nautilus for six months, swimming during this time 17 thousand leagues. Aronax noticed that Captain Nemo had changed, became gloomy, unsociable and most of the day was hiding in his cabin.

On April 20, the Nautilus team had to repel the attack of giant squids. The horned jaws of one of the monsters were stuck in the ship's propeller, and the team had to arm themselves with axes to clear the surface of the submarine of cephalopods. During the battle, one of the Nautilus sailors was killed. Ned was also in mortal danger, but Nemo saved him, paying off his debt.

For ten days, Nemo yearned for his dead comrade. On May 1, the ship returned to its former course and sailed north along the Gulf Stream. Ned Land made Aronax talk to the captain honestly. The professor did not want his scientific work to be buried under water, as Nemo said. In response, the captain showed the scientist a small non-sinking apparatus, in which all the work will be concluded after the death of Nemo. The device will be thrown into the ocean, and someday the professor’s notes will reach people. “Whoever entered the Nautilus will not get out of it,” added Nemo. The question was settled, and the friends decided to flee when the ship passed near Long Island. However, the storm again prevented them from realizing the plan.

The storm threw the ship far off the coast, and Ned Land was completely desperate. Walking along the submarine plateau on which the transatlantic telegraph cable rested, the Nautilus turned south. On June 1, Nemo found the place where the rebel ship Avenger sank from the fleet of the French Republic. After honoring the memory of this freedom fighter, the ship Nemo rose to the surface and was fired by the guns of an unknown armored ship. Ned Land tried to signal for help, which made Nemo angry. The captain sank the ship, taking revenge on the enemy, who robbed him of “the fatherland, wife, children, father and mother”, although Aronax tried to prevent him from destroying innocent lives. Then Nemo knelt before a portrait of a young woman with two children and sobbed bitterly.

Now the Nautilus moved mainly under water, and Nemo did not leave his cabin. The ship was left unattended, and Ned decided to run away, looking at the horizon on some land. The fugitives entered the boat, and then the Nautilus landed in Malstrom - a terrible whirlpool off the coast of Norway. Friends wanted to return, but the boat was torn off from the submarine. Aronax hit his head and lost consciousness.

A professor woke up in a fisherman’s hut from the Lofoten Islands, next to friends. Nobody heard about the Nautilus anymore, but the professor did not forget about the journey of 20 thousand lei and published his notes.