The sudden fall shocked me so badly that I could barely remember what happened next.
I was pulled down about twenty feet into the dark ocean.
I was a strong swimmer. I could not compare myself with famous swimmers like Byron or Edgar Poe, but I knew how to survive in the water.
I kept my mind clear and pushed myself upward with two powerful strokes.
When I reached the surface, my first thought was the Abraham Lincoln.
Had the crew seen me fall?
Had the ship turned back?
Would Captain Farragut send a boat to rescue me?
Could I still be saved?
But the darkness around me was complete.
Far away, I saw a huge black shape moving eastward. Its lights were slowly disappearing into the night.
It was the frigate.
It was leaving me behind.
I was alone.
“Help! Help!” I shouted, swimming desperately toward the ship.
But my clothes were making everything harder.
They were heavy and stuck tightly to my body, slowing my movements.
I began to sink.
I could hardly breathe.
“Help!”
That was my final cry.
Water rushed into my mouth, and I felt myself being dragged down into the endless darkness.
Then, suddenly, someone grabbed my clothes with a powerful hand.
I was pulled quickly back toward the surface.
At the same time, I heard a familiar voice beside my ear.
“If master would lean on my shoulder, master would find swimming much easier.”
I grabbed the arm of my loyal servant, Conseil.
“Is that you?” I cried. “You?”
“Of course, master,” Conseil replied. “I am here, waiting for your orders.”
“You fell into the sea because of the impact too?”
“No, master. But since I serve you, I naturally followed you.”
Conseil said this as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
“And the frigate?” I asked.
“The frigate?” Conseil turned onto his back and floated calmly. “I think master should not rely on her too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I jumped into the sea, I heard the sailors at the wheel say, ‘The propeller and the rudder are broken.’”
“Broken?”
“Yes. The monster damaged them with its teeth. That is the only damage the Abraham Lincoln suffered. But it is serious. The ship can no longer change direction.”
“Then we are lost!”
“Perhaps,” Conseil answered calmly. “But we still have several hours before daylight. A person can accomplish a great deal in several hours.”
His calm attitude gave me new strength.
I began swimming harder.
But my clothes were still dragging me down like heavy chains.
Conseil quickly noticed.
“May I cut them, master?”
Before I could answer, he slipped a knife beneath my clothes and quickly cut them open from top to bottom.
Then he skillfully removed them while I continued swimming.
After that, I helped him remove his own clothes.
Together, we continued moving through the cold sea.
But our situation was still terrible.
Perhaps nobody had noticed that we had fallen overboard.
And even if the crew had seen us, the frigate could not turn around because her steering system was broken.
Conseil understood this possibility and planned accordingly.
That calm young man never lost control.
We decided that our only hope was for the frigate’s boats to find us.
So we had to save our strength for as long as possible.
We created a simple method.
One of us would float on his back without moving, with arms crossed and legs stretched out.
The other would swim and push him forward.
After about ten minutes, we would change places.
By taking turns, we hoped we could continue swimming for several hours, perhaps until sunrise.
It was a small hope.
But human beings hold onto hope even in the darkest moments.
And there were two of us together.
I truly believe that even if I had wanted to give up completely, I could not have done so.
The collision between the frigate and the creature had happened around eleven o’clock the previous night.
That meant we had about eight hours to survive before sunrise.
If we kept changing places, it was possible.
The sea was calm, which helped us greatly.
Sometimes I tried to see through the terrible darkness.
The only light came from the glowing waves created by our movements.
When my hand moved through the water, silver rings of light spread across the surface.
It looked as if we were swimming through liquid metal.
Around one o’clock in the morning, exhaustion finally overwhelmed me.
My muscles became stiff from painful cramps.
I could no longer support myself.
Conseil had to keep me afloat alone.
I heard his breathing become faster and heavier.
I knew he could not continue much longer.
“Leave me,” I whispered. “Save yourself.”
“Leave my master?” Conseil replied firmly. “Never. I would rather drown.”
At that moment, the moon appeared from behind a thick cloud that the wind was pushing eastward.
Its pale light spread across the ocean.
The sight gave us new strength.
My mind became clearer.
I looked carefully around the horizon.
Then I saw something.
The frigate!
It was about five miles away.
A dark shape against the sea.
But there were no boats.
I wanted to shout.
But what use would it be at such a distance?
My lips were swollen and could barely make a sound.
Conseil still had enough strength to call out.
“Help! Help!”
We stopped moving for a moment and listened.
Perhaps it was only the sound inside our own ears.
But I thought I heard another voice answering him.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“Yes! Yes!” Conseil replied.
He shouted again with all his remaining strength.
This time there was no mistake.
A human voice answered us.
Was it another survivor lost in the ocean?
Was there another victim from the ship’s collision?
Or was it one of the frigate’s boats searching for us?
Conseil made one final effort.
He leaned on my shoulder while I desperately moved my arms through the water.
He lifted himself halfway above the surface.
Then he collapsed from exhaustion.
“What did you see?” I asked.
“I saw…” he murmured.
“I saw…”
“Do not speak. Save your strength.”
What had he seen?
At that moment, for the first time, a strange thought entered my mind.
The monster.
Could that voice belong to the creature?
No.
The age of Jonah hiding inside a whale had long passed.
Yet Conseil continued pulling me forward.
He raised his head again and again, looking ahead.
Each time, he cried out in recognition.
And each time, the answering voice came closer.
But I could barely hear it anymore.
My strength disappeared.
My fingers became stiff.
My hand could no longer hold onto anything.
My mouth opened helplessly and filled with seawater.
Cold spread through my body.
I lifted my head one last time.
Then I sank.
At that exact moment, something hard struck me.
I grabbed onto it.
Then I felt myself being pulled upward.
I reached the surface.
My chest tightened.
And I lost consciousness.
When I woke again, it was because someone was rubbing my body strongly to restore my warmth.
I slowly opened my eyes.
“Conseil…” I whispered.
“Did master call me?” Conseil answered.
But then, in the fading moonlight near the horizon, I saw a face.
It was not Conseil’s.
I recognized it immediately.
“Ned!” I shouted.
“The same one, sir,” replied the Canadian. “Still searching for my prize.”
“Were you thrown into the sea when the ship was struck?”
“Yes, Professor. But I was luckier than you. I landed directly on a floating island.”
“An island?”
“Or rather, more accurately, our gigantic narwhal.”
“Explain yourself, Ned!”
“I soon discovered why my harpoon did not enter its skin.”
“Why?”
“Because, Professor, that creature is made of iron plates.”
His words completely changed my understanding.
I quickly moved upward onto the strange object beneath us.
I kicked it.
The surface was hard and impossible to break.
It was not the soft body of a huge sea animal.
Perhaps it was some kind of ancient shell, like those of prehistoric creatures.
Maybe this monster was actually a giant amphibious reptile.
But no.
The black surface beneath me was smooth and polished.
There were no scales.
My kick produced a clear metallic sound.
It seemed impossible, but the creature’s body appeared to be made of connected iron plates.
There was no longer any doubt.
The mysterious monster that had confused scientists around the world, frightened sailors, and caused endless arguments was not a living creature at all.
It was something created by human hands.
But we had no time to think about that.
We were standing on the back of a strange underwater machine.
As far as I could tell, it looked like a giant steel fish.
Ned Land had already reached his conclusion.
Conseil and I could only agree.
Suddenly, water began bubbling behind us.
A propeller was turning.
The strange machine started moving.
We quickly grabbed the upper part of it, which rose about seven feet above the water.
Fortunately, it was moving slowly.
“As long as it stays on the surface, I am fine,” Ned muttered.
“But if it decides to dive, I would not give much for our lives.”
The Canadian was absolutely right.
We needed to communicate with whoever was inside this machine.
I searched the entire surface.
I looked for a door, a hatch, or any opening.
But the iron plates were perfectly joined together.
The rows of metal rivets were smooth and even.
There was no entrance.
Then the moon disappeared.
Darkness covered everything again.
The long night passed slowly.
My memory of that terrible time is unclear.
I only remember one strange thing.
During moments when the wind and waves became quiet, I thought I heard distant sounds.
They sounded like voices giving orders.
What was this mysterious underwater vessel?
What kind of people lived inside it?
What machine allowed it to move at such incredible speed?
At last, morning arrived.
Mist covered the ocean around us.
Soon, however, the fog disappeared.
I was preparing to examine the strange vessel beneath us when I suddenly felt it begin to sink.
“Oh, no!” Ned shouted.
He kicked the metal surface.
“Open up, you unfriendly people!”
Fortunately, the sinking stopped.
Then we heard a terrible sound from inside the machine.
It sounded like heavy iron doors being forced open.
A metal plate moved.
A man appeared.
He made a strange cry.
Then he disappeared instantly.
A few moments later, eight powerful men appeared.
Their faces were hidden behind masks.
Without making a sound, they grabbed us.
Then they pulled us down into their mysterious underwater machine.