Cunard Line

The Cunard Line was the dominant force in transatlantic steam navigation during the mid-19th century, a company whose name was synonymous with safety, speed, and punctuality. Founded in 1840 by the shrewd industrialist Samuel Cunard, the company initially established a postal service between Liverpool and Halifax with three wooden paddle-wheel ships. Over the next two decades, it expanded its fleet with increasingly powerful and larger vessels, including the Arabia, the Persia, the China, the Scotia, the Java, and the Russia. By 1867, the company owned twelve ships, eight with paddle wheels and four with propellers, and its vessels were among the biggest ever to plow the seas, second only to the Great Eastern.

Reputation and Impeccable Record

The Cunard Line was known the world over for its shrewd management and unparalleled reliability. In twenty-six years, its ships had made 2,000 Atlantic crossings without a single voyage canceled, a delay recorded, a man, a craft, or even a letter lost. This flawless record meant that passengers chose the Cunard line in preference to all others, despite strong competition from France. The company's reputation was so sterling that any accident involving one of its finest steamers was guaranteed to provoke an immense uproar, as the public trusted the line implicitly.

The Scotia Incident and the Monster

On April 13, 1867, the Cunard steamer the Scotia, one of the company's finest vessels, was traveling at 13.43 knots in a smooth sea when it was struck by an unknown object. The collision was scarcely noticeable to the passengers, but crewmen in the hold soon discovered that the fifth compartment was flooding rapidly. The ship, divided into seven watertight compartments, was in no immediate danger of sinking, but the leak was considerable. Upon reaching dry dock in Liverpool, engineers discovered a perfectly symmetrical gash in the shape of an isosceles triangle, two and a half meters below the waterline. The breach in the sheet iron was so clean that it must have been produced by a perforating tool of uncommon toughness, which had then withdrawn itself with a backward motion that seemed inexplicable.

Catalyst for the Expedition

The damage to the Scotia, a ship belonging to the most trusted company on the Atlantic, was the last straw that aroused public passions all over again. The incident transformed the debate from a scientific problem into a question of real and serious danger. From that moment on, any maritime casualty without an established cause was charged to the monster's account. The public demanded that the seas be purged of this fearsome cetacean, and the United States government was the first to act, fitting out the high-speed frigate Abraham Lincoln under Commander Farragut to hunt down the creature. The Scotia's wound was the undeniable, concrete proof that the phenomenon was real and deadly, and it was this event that ultimately led Professor Aronnax to join the expedition that would bring him face to face with Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.