Part 1 · Chapter 2Pro and Con

At the time these events unfolded, I’d just gotten back from a pretty rough research trip in Nebraska, in the United States. Because of my job as Assistant Professor at the Natural History Museum in Paris, the French Government sent me along with the expedition.

After six months in Nebraska, I arrived in New York around the end of March, bringing back a seriously valuable collection. My trip back to France was scheduled for the first few days of May While I was busy sorting through my mineral, plant, and animal finds, the Scotia incident happened.

I was totally in the loop on what everyone was talking about. How could I not be? I'd read every American and European article, but I still wasn’t any closer to figuring it out. This whole mystery was messing with my head. Not being able to make up my mind, I went back and forth.

There had to be something going on, and the skeptics were being asked to look at the damage the Scotia had suffered.

When I got to New York, the whole thing was a huge deal. The idea of a floating island and an unreachable sandbank, pushed by people who weren’t exactly experts, was dropped. And honestly, unless this sandbank had some kind of engine inside, how could it move so fast?

The idea of a massive wreck floating around was tossed out too, for the same reason.

So, only two possibilities were left, which split everyone into two camps: one side believed in a monster of incredible strength, and the other thought it was a super-powerful submarine.

But even though that idea seemed believable, it didn't hold up under closer examination. Was it really likely that some random person would have a machine like that? Where was it built? When? And how could they have kept it a secret? Sure, a government could have something like that.

And these were crazy times, with people inventing more and more powerful weapons. First came the chassepots, then torpedoes, then submarine rams - and hopefully, a reaction to all that.

Still, the war machine theory fell apart when governments started making statements. Because everyone was so interested and transatlantic communication was messed up, their words couldn’t be doubted. But how could the construction of this submarine have gone unnoticed?

It would have been nearly impossible for a private person to keep it a secret, and for a government constantly watched by rivals, it was absolutely impossible.

After looking into it in England, France, Russia, Prussia, Spain, Italy, and America, even in Turkey, the idea of a submarine monitor was officially rejected.

When I got to New York, a bunch of people wanted my take on what was going on. I’d published a book in France - a big two-volume quarto - called "Mysteries of the Great Submarine Grounds. It was well-received by experts and made me pretty well-known in this kind of obscure area of Natural History.

People were asking for my advice. As long as I could deny that this stuff was real, I just said no way. But soon, I was cornered and had to give a clear explanation. Even "the Honorable Pierre Aronnax, Professor at the Paris Museum," was called upon by the New York Herald to give an opinion.

I did something - I spoke, because I couldn't keep quiet. I talked about the whole thing, politically and scientifically, and here's an excerpt from an article I wrote after really thinking about it, published on April twentieth. It went like this:

After looking at all the different ideas, rejecting every other suggestion, we have to admit that there’s a marine animal of incredible power out there.

"The deep ocean is totally unknown to us. We can’t reach the bottom with soundings. What’s happening down there - what creatures live, or can live, twelve or fifteen miles beneath the surface - what their bodies are like - we can only guess."

But the problem that’s been put to me might change how we see the situation. Either we know all the kinds of creatures that live on our planet, or we don’t.

If we don’t know them all - if Nature still has secrets about fish for us - then it makes sense to believe that there are fish, or other kinds of cetaceans, or even entirely new species, built to live in the depths that soundings can’t reach.

And, by some weird accident - either totally random or just plain strange - they sometimes come to the upper levels of the ocean.

But, if we do know every living thing, then we have to look for this animal among the marine creatures we already know. In that case, I’d say it’s probably a giant narwhal.

"Regular narwhals, or sea unicorns, can grow up to sixty feet long. If we make one five or ten times bigger, give it strength to match its size, and sharpen its weapons, we get the animal we’ve been looking for."

It would have the size described by the officers of the Shannon, the tool that made the hole in the Scotia, and the power to punch through a steamer’s hull.

"Narwhals are armed with a kind of ivory sword, a halberd, as some naturalists put it. The main tusk is as hard as steel. Some of these tusks have been found stuck in the bodies of whales, which the unicorn always attacks and wins."

Others have been pulled out of the bottoms of ships - piercing them all the way through, like a gimlet pierces a barrel. The Paris Faculty of Medicine Museum has one of these weapons, two and a quarter yards long and fifteen inches wide at the base.

"Okay, now imagine that weapon is six times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful. Launch it at twenty miles an hour, and you’ve got a shock strong enough to cause the disaster we’re seeing."

Until we know more, I’m sticking with the idea of a sea unicorn, gigantic in size, armed not with a halberd, but with a real spur - like the armored frigates, or ‘rams’ of war, that have incredible mass and power.

"So, that’s how I’m explaining this puzzling thing, unless there’s something even more out there than anything we’ve ever guessed, seen, felt, or experienced - which is definitely possible."

Honestly, those last words were kinda lame on my part. But, I wanted to protect my reputation as a professor and not give the Americans too much to laugh about - they really know how to laugh when they do.

I was holding onto a way out for myself. Basically, though, I was admitting that this "monster" was real. My article became a big deal and got a ton of buzz. It gathered a bunch of supporters. The solution I proposed, at least, gave everyone a lot of room to imagine.

People love thinking about huge, supernatural creatures. And the ocean is the perfect place for those kinds of giants - way bigger than anything we have on land, like elephants or rhinos.

The business and shipping papers mostly looked at it from that angle. The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Lloyd’s List, the Packet-Boat, and the Maritime and Colonial Review - all papers for insurance companies that were threatening to raise their rates - all agreed. Public opinion was set.

The United States jumped on it first, and in New York, they started planning an expedition to hunt down this narwhal. They quickly got a super-fast frigate, the Abraham Lincoln, ready to go. The armories opened up to Commander Farragut, who hurried to get the frigate armed.

But, you know how it is - the second they decided to hunt the monster, it vanished. For two whole months, no one heard a thing about it. No ship spotted it. It was like this unicorn somehow knew about all the plans being made around it.

It had been talked about so much, even through the Atlantic cable, that people joked that this skinny thing had stopped a telegram mid-transmission and was totally milking it for all it was worth.

So, the frigate was armed and loaded for a long hunt, with some serious fishing gear, but no one knew what to do next. Everyone got impatient, until, on July second, they learned that a steamer from San Francisco to Shanghai had seen the animal three weeks earlier in the North Pacific Ocean.

The news caused a huge wave of excitement. The ship was restocked with food and coal.

Three hours before the Abraham Lincoln left the Brooklyn pier, I got a letter that said this:

To Professor ARONNAX, Museum of Paris, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York.

SIR, - If you’d be willing to join the Abraham Lincoln on this expedition, the United States Government would be happy to have France represented in the whole thing. Commander Farragut has a cabin set aside for you.

"Very sincerely yours, "J.B. HOBSON, "Secretary of Marine."