CHAPTER SEVEN

THE HERD OF SPERM WHALES

As soon as the Éclair had plunged into the kelp thickets of the Sargasso Sea, Trinitus understood, by virtue of the resistance that boat was experiencing, how long and difficult the crossing would be.

“I can only see one thing to do,” he said to his companions. “We have to go down on to the swings, attach ourselves solidly, in order not to be pulled off by the marine plants that might get a grip on us, and clear a path for Éclair with the aid of our harpoons when the algae prevent it from moving forward.”

“Aha!” said Marcel. “My swings are going to render us a valuable service!”

“They’re going to save us,” Trinitus replied, hastily donning his diving-suit.

“Patience!” observed the prudent Nicaise. “We can’t take too many precautions. The sea we’re about to traverse is a veritable virgin forest. We’ll find an infinity of marine animals there, which we might be forced to fight. Let’s not forget our knives.”

“You’re right,” Trinitus replied. “We ought to be ready or any eventuality. Let’s arm ourselves from head to toe, and let’s remember, in order not to lose courage, that we have an electric thunderbolt capable of killing our most enormous enemies.”

Having concluded his preparations, the scientist slipped through the large cylinder that opened under the boat, connected up the glazed helmet of his apparatus to the rubber tube that drew air from the cabin, and sat down on one of the three swings.

Nicaise and Marcel did not take long to join him, and, the long weeds that had wrapped themselves around the Éclair having been cut or torn away by the barbs of harpoons, the vessel, although continually hampered by gigantic vegetation, was nevertheless able to continue on its way.

The algae became gradually denser, however; they were so thick and tangled that, as Christopher Columbus had expressed it, “the sea seemed imprisoned, as if by ice.” The waters, transformed into a kind of green magma, seemed to be solidifying. This region of the Ocean could no longer be compared to anything but a submerged forest, and Trinitus’ boat was entangled by those avalanches of foliage like an ant in a bale of straw.

Immense vegetal curtains formed oscillating partitions in front of her, through which it was necessary to clear a path like a circus performer bursting through paper hoops. The work was hard, though, and eventually became impossible. The three voyagers became extremely weary. cutting, parting and tearing away the thousand verdant arms that seized and shackled them in their course.

Furthermore, they had to defend themselves against the redoubtable fish and mollusks that swarmed in the sea. With thrusts of the harpoon they drove away walruses, sharks, moray eels and dogfish, and were obliged on two occasions to make use of the electric thunderbolt to kill giant octopodes that extended their horrible tentacles toward them.

When the impenetrable forest cleared slightly, however, the most grandiose and magical spectacle was offered to their gaze. Marcel and Nicaise were amazed and Trinitus dazzled by what they saw.

In addition to the immense quantity of kelp fronds laden with their clusters of fruits, all the known kinds of algae were flourishing around them, and the scientist discovered a good many that had never figured in any botanist’s herbarium.

From the midst of thick bushes of Laminaria and flat-leaved Colaconema projected cyclindrical Lomentaria, covered with hyaline mucilage, like a coating of crystal. The broad fronds of the Chondrus were like rich curtains that looked as if they were capriciously cut out in pink taffeta. The Amansia deployed their lacy networks with prodigious luxury, and the Claudea their serpentine membranous extensions. Through that heaped-up mass crawled the unctuous cylinders of the intestinal Ulva, which mariners call sea-guts. Catenella and Choetophora, which resemble long rosaries with enormous beads, fell in garlands over the embroideries of Anadyomenes and Chordaria, enlacing their nacreous cartilaginous threads with sheaves of Fucus, over which thousands of Acetabularia opened their elegant parasols.

But those profound masses of vegetables of every color harbored myriads of animals, the most humble of which were feeding on the algae while the larger hones hunted the smaller. All kinds of mollusks could be seen there, all kind of crustacean and all possible zoophytes. Briliantly colored shellfish—porcelains, buccinas, Patellas, Neritinas, murexes, Haliotis, and so on—hung like fruits from the extremities of the plants, and through the azure water that bathed that fantastic society passed legions of crabs, Palemons, Nemertes and Syllis with innumerable rings, Apolemias and Prayas, like animate fringes trailing sparkling networks in the bosom of the waves.

After two hours of hard labor to expose all these marvels, however, the three companions felt their strength giving out. The envisaged themselves, with terror, trapped in the middle of the Sargasso Sea, and Trinitus, prey to dolorous apprehensions, found himself extremely embarrassed, perhaps for the first time in his life.

Having expended all their courage and all their strength in impotent efforts and mighty struggles, the scientist and his fearful companions recognized the horror of their situation.

The boat had been caught in a tangle of long marine algae, as if in the toils of a gigantic net, and all the attempts they made to extract it from the horrible grip of those viscous lianas only served to entangle it further. It was attached, bound and enchained to the sea-bed, and, as if by a cruel irony, those inextricable chains were garlands of flowers.

The captive Éclair had struggled and resisted in vain, but it had fallen prey to living creatures that were hanging on to every part of it. It was agonizing in the knots of verdure that clutched it, as a fly trapped in a spider’s web is strangled by the silky threads with which the monster enlaces it. All those strange vegetables seemed to be retaining it with a sort of savage pleasure, and thousands of marine animals were gathering around its metallic hull, which seemed to be exciting their curiosity to the highest degree. The fish were sniffing it with astonishment; the surprised crustaceans were palpating and caressing it with their antennas; the sticky mollusks were crawling insolently over it; the polyps and sponges were attaching their large feet to it and boldly taking possession of it.

Gradually, the copper dome disappeared under a cloak of algae and marine monsters.

The ropes and swings, and the voyagers themselves, were not treated with any more respect. Flora and fauna as terrible as they were picturesque invaded them. Hideous legions of crabs took hold of them; a host of anemones and medusas fixed themselves to the diving apparatus, and, like Philemon and Baucis, the unfortunate navigators seemed to have been transformed into vegetables. But that burial of three men under organic beings full of life was frightful. Trinitus foresaw the moment when numbers would triumph over strength and dexterity, and the specter of the most horrible death loomed up in his imagination.

All those hideous mouths were agape around the Éclair, impotent henceforth to flee them. All those maws with sharp teeth, all those pincers, all those grippers, all those suckers, all those hooks, all those talons and all those claws, the number of which was increasing incessantly, were destined to tear the poor scientist and his unfortunate companions into a thousand pieces.

How could they escape that frightful death, those atrocious tortures, that horrible agony? No one could think of it; any salvation seemed impossible—and they were all too frightened to murmur or complain.

Go back into the boat? That was evidently the only means of escaping imminent death—but then it would be necessary to resign themselves to remain trapped in the algae and wait for death by starvation, a hundred times more frightful than the one that presented itself immediately.

Without making his friends party to the cruel anguish to which he was prey, Trinitus nevertheless decided that it was necessary to go back into the ship right away, if only to see what remained to be done in such a grave circumstance. Marcel and Nicaise went into the cabin first; Trinitus slid in behind them and all three took off the glazed helmets of their apparatus. Their bleak expressions bore the imprint of fatigue and despair, but no tears were shining in their eyes. They had made their decision!

While Nicaise and Marcel sat down on the floor leaning their heads against the wall, however, Trinitus still faithful to science, armed himself with his instruments in order to calculate the distance that separated them from the Cape Verde Islands.

“Twenty-third degree of latitude!” he exclaimed.

“I didn’t think I’d die there,” Nicaise replied, coldly, in a reproachful tone.

But the scientist had picked up a pen and was writing in a notebook: In this area the Sargasso Sea is thicker than anywhere else. The algae here are inextricable and thousands of marine animals swarm here.…

Suddenly, a cry of amazement and fright uttered by Marcel made the scientist shudder and extracted Nicaise from his sad thoughts.

“Listen! Listen!” shouted the young man.

A dull and prolonged rumble, like distant thunder, was audible a long way away under the waves.

Trinitus paled frightfully, and Nicaise’s eyes lit up.

“They’re whales!” stammered the scientist.

The rumble was replicated, nearer and more distinctly.

“They’re following the same route that we’ve traveled and coming straight toward us,” he added.

The roar was heard again, formidable and profound this time, like the noise of two hundred organs resonating at the same time.

Nicaise and Marcel uttered a terrible cry. “We’re doomed!” Although they were leaning on one another, they feel to their knees.

Trinitus’ face became suddenly radiant, however, and the scientist seized the tiller with both hands. “Saved!” he cried. “We’re saved!”

Immediately, in the midst of a frightful din and upheaval, the Éclair was abruptly snatched out of her prison, as if she were being dragged away by some frightful avalanche, or lifted up—like a feather, so to speak—by an irresistible force.

Three or four frightful shocks caused Nicaise and Marcel to sprawl on the floor, half-dead with fright, but Trinitus, having foreseen everything, had clung on to the vessel’s wall with on hand, and was still gripping the tiller with the other.

The formidable animals that had rushed upon the Éclair in this manner were enormous sperm whales, which traverse the Sargasso Sea in tightly-knit groups. Hazard had determined that Trinitus’ boat should be in their way, and they had impetuously pushed it before them, without any suspicion of the service they were rendering to the scientist and his companions.

Trinitus had understood that these gigantic animals would have no difficulty in clearing a path through the middle of the algae and the idea had suddenly occurred to him of taking advantage of it. So, when the irresistible column, composed of at least fifty individuals, had passed by, the scientist bravely launched the Éclair in pursuit of them, sticking as close as he could to the charming monsters that were clearing a way for him. His face animated, his eyes shining and his hair bristling, Trinitus did not spare his joy.

“Come on, Nicaise! Marcel!” he cried. “Get up! We’re flying like the wind! We’re on the heels of the sperm whales—and what tugs they are. Damn, that’s fast! They’re taking us straight toward the Cape Verde Islands. It’s charming! No hindrance! Not one alga—they’re clearing them all away as they pass. Forward ho!”

And while his stupefied companions seemed to be emerging from a dream, the scientist, magnificent in his boldness, stimulated and drove his boat, as if she were some kind of marine monster submissive to his voice and docile to his magical power.

By the silvery light of the electric lamp, Trinitus, clad in his diving-suit, streaming and laden with focus, polyps and anemones, resembled the god of the Oceans. As if he were riding in triumph, he followed the gigantic cetaceans that were clearing the route for him. Legions of dolphins, walruses, seals and porpoises launched themselves in his wake; the roars of the sperm whales resounded, sowing fear in front of him; shreds of crushed and broken kelp were floating in all directions. No marine divinity had such a cortege in his Estates, no Amphitrite or Neptune, sailing on a nacreous shell, had ever been escorted as Trinitus was.

The sperm whales were traveling at an average of sixteen kilometers an hour in spite of the obstacles they encountered in the overgrown sea. Just as a herd of wild boar tracked by hunters opens a way through the most impenetrable thickets, the enormous cetaceans, most of which were twenty meters in length, cut through the middle of the kelp that was in their path. One of them had bumped its head on Trinitus’ boat, and it was to that formidable impact that the Éclair owed its salvation.

Following a habit particular to the animals in question, which several naturalists have observed, a leader was swimming at the head of the column and directing it. It is probable that it was leading its companions to the austral seas, doubtless populated at the present time by emigrant fish to which the sperm whales would give chase.

That leader must, moreover, have been an excellent guide, for Trinitus recognized, by means of his compass, that it was following the most direct route with a much precision as the most experienced pilot could have done.

The scientist was not unaware, however, that these sperm whale captains are sometimes incapable of fulfilling these high functions, so he remained on guard. He was well aware that one day, thirty-two sperm whales guided by an inexpert leader had run aground on the beach of Audierne Bay in Finistère, and he was familiar with many other examples of the same kind.

Furthermore, Nicaise, having recovered almost completely, and after having congratulated Trinitus on his composure, began to tell a string of stories about the cetaceans whose tracks the Éclair was following. He gave the still-tremulous Marcel a hoist of details regarding their habits, and his heart was full of gratitude for the monsters that he had once gone to combat in the Northern seas with fishermen from Calais and Boulogne. He explained how the unfortunate animals were harpooned and how their skulls were opened in order to collect the greasy white substance known in the arts by the name of spermaceti. It was a natural history lesson to which Trinitus and Marcel listened with great interest—but the old mariner swore, by way of conclusion, that he would never again take up arms against sperm whales.

Meanwhile, the kelp gradually thinned out and the cetaceans were swimming with fearful speed.

Trinitus determined the latitude again, and had the pleasure of announcing to his companions that they were scarcely six leagues away from the Cape Verde Islands.