Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

An Underwater Tour of the World

by

Jules Verne

Translated from the Original French

by F. P. Walter

Illustrations by Riou and Hildebrand
With the Paintings of Milo Winter
Additional Maps by Don Sample

The Bay of Vigo

Text prepared by: F. P. Walter,
5981 McKinney Dr. NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109.
(505) 821-5678.

A complete, unabridged translation of Vingt milles lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne, based on the original French texts published in Paris by J. Hetzel et Cie. over the period 1869-71.

The paintings of Illinois watercolorist Milo Winter (1888-1956) first appeared in a 1922 juvenile edition published by Rand McNally & Company.

Verne’s title: The French title of this novel is Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. This is accurately translated as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SEAS, rather than the SEA, as with many English editions. Verne’s novel features a tour of the major oceans, and the term Leagues in its title is used as a measure not of depth but distance. FPW.

eBook by Don Sample

Table of Contents

Introduction

First Part

  1. A Runaway Reef
  2. The Pros and Cons
  3. As Master Wishes
  4. Ned Land
  5. At Random!
  6. At Full Steam
  7. A Whale of Unknown Species
  8. “Mobilis in Mobili”
  9. The Tantrums of Ned Land
  10. The Man of the Waters
  11. The Nautilus
  12. Everything through Electricity
  13. Some Figures
  14. The Black Current
  15. An Invitation in Writing
  16. Strolling the Plains
  17. An Underwater Forest
  18. Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific
  19. Vanikoro
  20. The Torres Strait
  21. Some Days Ashore
  22. The Lightning Bolts of Captain Nemo
  23. “Aegri Somnia”
  24. The Coral Realm

Second Part

  1. The Indian Ocean
  2. A New Proposition from Captain Nemo
  3. A Pearl Worth Ten Million
  4. The Red Sea
  5. Arabian Tunnel
  6. The Greek Islands
  7. The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours
  8. The Bay of Vigo
  9. A Lost Continent
  10. The Underwater Coalfields
  11. The Sargasso Sea
  12. Sperm Whales and Baleen Whales
  13. The Ice Bank
  14. The South Pole
  15. Accident or Incident?
  16. Shortage of Air
  17. From Cape Horn to the Amazon
  18. The Devilfish
  19. The Gulf Stream
  20. In Latitude 47° 24′ and Longitude 17° 28′
  21. A Mass Execution
  22. The Last Words of Captain Nemo
  23. Conclusion

Color Plates

Units of Measure

Cable lengthIn Verne’s context, 600 feet
  
Centigrade0° centigrade = freezing water
37° centigrade = human body temperature
100° centigrade = boiling water
  
Fathom6 feet
  
GramRoughly 1/28 of an ounce
…MilligramRoughly 1/28,000 of an ounce
…Kilogram (kilo)Roughly 2.2 pounds
  
HectareRoughly 2.5 acres
  
Knot1.15 miles per hour
  
LeagueIn Verne’s context, 2.16 miles
  
LiterRoughly 1 quart
  
MeterRoughly 1 yard, 3 inches
…MillimeterRoughly 1/25 of an inch
…CentimeterRoughly 2/5 of an inch
…DecimeterRoughly 4 inches
…KilometerRoughly 6/10 of a mile
…MyriameterRoughly 6.2 miles
  
Ton, MetricRoughly 2,200 pounds