Part 2 · Chapter 18The Poulps

The Nautilus stayed away from the American coast for a few days. It seemed like it didnn't want to risk the currents of the Gulf of Mexico or the waters around the Caribbean islands. On April sixteenth, we spotted Martinique and Guadaloupe from about thirty miles away.

I caught a glimpse of their tall peaks. The Canadian, who was counting on doing something in the Gulf - either landing or flagging down one of the many boats that travel between the islands - was seriously bummed.

Sneaking away would have been easy, if Ned Land could have grabbed a boat without the Captain finding out. But out in the open ocean, that was impossible. The Canadian, Conseil, and I talked about it for a long time. We'd been trapped on the Nautilus for six months.

We'd traveled seventeen thousand miles, and, as Ned Land said, there was no reason for it to end. We couldn’t expect anything from the Captain of the Nautilus, only from ourselves. Plus, he’s been acting really serious and withdrawn lately. He seemed to avoid me. I barely saw him.

He used to love explaining the underwater wonders to me; now he left me to my studies and didn’t come to the lounge anymore. What was going on with him? What was the reason? For my part, I didn’t want to take my fascinating and unique studies to the grave.

I had the chance to write the real story of the sea; and I wanted to see that book in print, sooner or later. The closest land was the Bahamas. Tall, underwater cliffs rose up, covered in thick seaweed.

It was around eleven o’clock when Ned Land pointed out a weird, prickly feeling, like a tiny ant sting, caused by the seaweed.

"Seriously," I said, "this is the perfect spot for poulps, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of those monsters."

"What?" Conseil asked. "Giant squid, real squid from the cephalopod family?"

"No," I said. "Poulps, but huge."

"I’ll never believe animals like that exist," Ned said.

"Well," Conseil said, with a totally serious expression, "I remember seeing a big ship dragged under the waves by an octopus’s arm."

"You saw that?" the Canadian asked. "Yeah, Ned." "With your own eyes?" "With my own eyes." "Where was that, exactly?"

"At St. Malo," Conseil answered.

"In the harbor?" Ned asked, sounding sarcastic.

"Nope," Conseil replied. "In a church."

"In a church!" the Canadian exclaimed.

"Yeah, friend Ned. In a picture showing that very poulp." "Awesome!" Ned Land laughed.

"He’s right," I said. "I’ve heard about that picture, but it’s based on a legend, and you know what to think about legends when it comes to natural history. Besides, when it comes to monsters, people’s imaginations tend to run wild."

Not only do people think these poulps can pull down ships, but a guy named Olaus Magnus wrote about an octopus a mile long that’s more like an island than an animal. There’s also a story about the Bishop of Nidros building an altar on a giant rock.

After mass, the rock started walking and went back into the sea. The rock was a poulp. Another Bishop, Pontoppidan, wrote about a poulp big enough for a cavalry regiment to maneuver on.

"And ancient naturalists described monsters with mouths like huge gulfs, too big to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar."

"But how much of those stories is actually true?" Conseil asked.

"Nothing, guys; at least, nothing that goes beyond what’s true to become a story or legend. But there has to be some reason for the storytellers' imaginations, right? You can’t deny that giant squids and cuttlefish exist."

Aristotle said a cuttlefish could be five cubits long - about nine feet two inches. Our fishermen often see some that are over four feet long. Some squid skeletons are preserved in museums in Trieste and Montpelier, and they measure two yards!

"Plus, according to some scientists, a squid only six feet long could have tentacles twenty-seven feet long. That’s enough to make a seriously scary monster."

"Do they still fish for them?" asked Ned.

"If they don’t fish for them, sailors at least see them. One of my friends, Captain Paul Bos of Havre, has often said he met one of these massive monsters in the Indian seas. But the most amazing thing, and something you can’t deny, happened a few years ago, in eighteen sixty-one."

"What happened?" asked Ned Land.

"This is it. In eighteen sixty-one, to the northeast of Tenerife - pretty much where we are now - the crew of the despatch-boat Alector saw a huge cuttlefish swimming around."

Captain Bouguer got close to the animal and attacked it with harpoons and guns, but didn’t have much luck because the bullets and harpoons just slid off the soft flesh. After a bunch of failed tries, the crew tried to loop a rope around its body.

"The rope slipped all the way to the tail fins and stopped there. They tried to haul it on board, but it was so heavy that the rope snapped the tail off, and it disappeared under the water." "Seriously! Is that true?"

"Totally true, my good Ned. They wanted to name this squid ‘Bouguer’s cuttlefish.’"

"How long was it?" asked the Canadian.

"Didn’t it measure about six yards?"

said Conseil, who was at the window, checking out the crazy twists and turns of the cliff. "Exactly," I replied.

"Wasn’t its head crowned with eight tentacles, beating the water like a bunch of snakes?" rejoined Conseil. "Exactly."

"Didn’t its eyes, at the back of its head, seem really big?" "Yes, Conseil."

"And wasn’t its mouth like a parrot’s beak?" "Spot on, Conseil."

"Okay," he said quietly, "if this isn’t Bouguer’s cuttlefish, it’s at least one of its relatives." I looked at Conseil.

Ned Land rushed to the window.

"What a freaky beast!" he cried.

I took a look myself, and honestly, I couldn't help but cringe. Right in front of me was this totally freaky monster, like something straight out of a fantasy movie. It was this huge cuttlefish, like, eight yards long!

It was swimming across from the Nautilus super fast, staring at us with these massive, creepy green eyes. Its eight arms - or, like, tentacles - were twice as long as its body, all twisted and wild. You could see, like, two hundred and fifty little air holes on the inside.

The monster’s mouth, this weird beak like a parrot’s, kept opening and closing. And its tongue, this spiky thing, shot out, quivering from what looked like a pair of giant shears. What a bizarre mix-up - a bird's beak on a mollusk!

Its long, sausage-shaped body was a huge, fleshy mass that probably weighed four or five thousand pounds, and the color kept changing, going from pale grey to reddish brown depending on how annoyed it was. What was bugging it? Probably the Nautilus, which was way more intimidating.

But seriously, these poulps are intense! The Creator really gave them some serious energy - look at how they move! And they even have three hearts! We just happened to stumble across this cuttlefish, and I wasn't going to miss the chance to study it closely.

I pushed aside the creeped-out feeling and grabbed a pencil to sketch it.

"Maybe this is the same one the Alector saw," Conseil said.

"Nah," replied the Canadian; "this one’s whole, and the other one was missing its tail."

"Doesn’t matter," I said. " These guys can regrow their arms and tails. And in seven years, Bouguer’s cuttlefish definitely had time to grow a new one."

Suddenly, more poulps showed up near the port light. I counted seven. They were following the Nautilus like a parade, and I could hear their beaks clicking against the metal hull. I kept working on my drawing. These monsters were swimming with such precision that they seemed frozen in place.

Then, the Nautilus just stopped. We felt this jolt that made the whole thing shake.

"Did we hit something?" I asked.

"Either way," replied the Canadian, "we’re floating, so we’re free."

The Nautilus was floating, alright, but it wasn't moving. A minute passed. Captain Nemo, followed by his lieutenant, walked into the drawing-room. I hadn’t seen him in a while. He seemed off, kind of dull. He didn’t even notice or talk to us.

He went straight to the panel, looked at the poulps, and muttered something to his lieutenant. The lieutenant left. Soon the panels shut. The ceiling lights turned on. I went over to the Captain.

"Quite a collection of poulps, huh?" I said.

"Indeed, Mr. Naturalist," he replied; "and we’re going to fight them - man against beast."

I stared at him. I thought I’d misheard him.

"Man against beast?" I repeated.

"Yes, sir. The propeller’s stopped. One of the cuttlefish’s horny jaws is tangled in the blades. That’s what’s keeping us from moving." "What are you going to do?"

"Surface and slaughter this vermin." "That’s a tough mission."

"Yes, indeed. The electric bullets don’t work against their soft flesh - they don’t even go off. But we’re going to attack them with hatchets."

"And the harpoon, sir," said the Canadian, "if you don’t mind my help." "I accept it, Master Land."

"We’ll follow you," I said, and, following Captain Nemo, we headed towards the central staircase.

There, about ten guys with boarding axes were ready to attack. Conseil and I grabbed two axes; Ned Land snatched a harpoon. The Nautilus had then surfaced. One of the sailors, up on the top rung, loosened the bolts on the panels.

But barely were the screws loose, when the panel shot up with force, clearly pulled by the suckers of an octopus’s arm. Immediately, one of these arms slid down the opening like a snake, and twenty others appeared above.

With a swing of the axe, Captain Nemo chopped through this huge tentacle, which slid down the ladder, wriggling. Just as we were pushing each other to reach the platform, two other arms, lashing out, came down on the seaman standing in front of Captain Nemo, and lifted him up with incredible power.

Captain Nemo yelled, and rushed out. We hurried after him.

One of these long arms glided through the opening.

What a scene! The unlucky guy, grabbed by the tentacle and stuck to the suckers, was balanced in the air at the whim of this enormous arm. He choked, he was suffocating, he cried, "Help! help! Those words, spoken in French, shocked me! I had a fellow countryman on board, maybe several!

That heartbreaking cry! I’ll hear it forever. The poor guy was lost. Who could save him from that crushing pressure? But Captain Nemo had rushed to the octopus, and with one blow of the axe had cut through one arm.

His lieutenant fought fiercely against other monsters creeping along the sides of the Nautilus. The crew fought with their axes. Conseil, the Canadian, and I plunged our weapons into the fleshy masses; a strong smell of musk filled the air. It was awful!

For a moment, I thought the unlucky guy, tangled with the octopus, would be ripped from its strong suction. Seven of the eight arms had been cut off. One only wriggled in the air, waving the victim like a feather.

But just as Captain Nemo and his lieutenant threw themselves on it, the animal shot out a stream of black liquid. We were blinded by it. When the cloud cleared, the cuttlefish had vanished, and my unfortunate countryman with it.

Ten or twelve octopuses now invaded the platform and sides of the Nautilus. We stumbled into the middle of this nest of serpents, which writhed on the platform in waves of blood and ink. It seemed like these slimy tentacles sprouted up like hydra’s heads.

Ned Land’s harpoon, with each thrust, was plunged into the staring eyes of the cuttle fish. But my brave companion was suddenly knocked over by the tentacles of a monster he couldn’t avoid.

Oh! How my heart pounded with emotion and horror! The formidable beak of a cuttlefish was open over Ned Land. The unlucky guy would be cut in two. I rushed to help him.

But Captain Nemo was ahead of me; his axe disappeared between the two enormous jaws, and, miraculously saved, the Canadian, getting up, plunged his harpoon deep into the triple heart of the octopus.

"I owed myself this revenge!" said the Captain to the Canadian.

Ned bowed without replying. The fight had lasted fifteen minutes. The monsters, defeated and mangled, finally left us, and disappeared beneath the waves. Captain Nemo, covered in blood, nearly exhausted, stared at the sea that had swallowed one of his companions, and big tears welled up in his eyes.