Grand Banks

The Grand Banks of Newfoundland form a vast, shallow underwater plateau in the North Atlantic, a region defined by its unique oceanography and its dual role as a prolific fishing ground and a treacherous graveyard for ships. For the Nautilus and its passengers, this area becomes a crucial waypoint, a place of ecological observation, historical reflection, and the final, fateful prelude to Captain Nemo's ultimate act of vengeance.

Geography and Oceanography

The Grand Banks are not a landmass but an immense submarine plateau, the result of marine sedimentation. They are formed by an extensive accumulation of organic waste, brought either from the equator by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream or from the North Pole by the countercurrent of cold water that skirts the American coast. Erratically drifting chunks from ice breakups also collect here, contributing to the debris. The sea over the Grand Banks is of no great depth, a few hundred fathoms at best. However, to the south, there is a sudden, deep depression, a 3,000-meter pit. It is at this point that the Gulf Stream widens, its waters coming to full bloom, losing speed and temperature but turning into a sea. The Nautilus navigated these waters on May 15, passing off the southern tip of the Grand Banks.

A Rich Ecosystem and a Site of Observation

The Grand Banks are a huge boneyard formed from fish, mollusks, and zoophytes dying over it by the billions. The waters teem with life, and the Nautilus's passage startled a variety of fish. Among them were a one-meter lumpfish, blackish on top with orange on the belly, a good-sized eelpout, and an emerald moray whose flavor is excellent. Wolffish with big eyes in a head somewhat resembling a canine's were also present, as were viviparous blennies whose eggs hatch inside their bodies like those of snakes. The nets also hauled in a bold, vigorous, and muscular fish armed with prickles on its head and stings on its fins: the bullhead of the northerly seas, a real scorpion measuring two to three meters and the ruthless enemy of cod, blennies, and salmon. The Nautilus's fishermen had some trouble getting a grip on this animal, which, thanks to the formation of its gill covers, can protect its respiratory organs from any parching contact with the air and can live out of water for a good while. The cod species, the gadoid family, were detected in their waters of choice over these inexhaustible Grand Banks. Professor Aronnax, observing the tight ranks of cod, explained to Conseil that while cod appear flat at the grocery store, in the water they are spindle-shaped and perfectly built for speed. He further noted the astonishing fertility of these fish, stating that a single female can contain 11,000,000 eggs, a fact that sustains the massive fishing industry despite the prodigious quantities caught by Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans, Danes, and Norwegians.

A Graveyard of Ships and a Historical Archive

The Grand Banks are also a battlefield where every ship defeated by the ocean still lies. The floor of this sea is littered with wrecks, some already old and encrusted, others newer and reflecting the Nautilus's beacon light on their ironwork and copper undersides. Among these vessels are those that went down with all hands, with their crews and hosts of immigrants, at trouble spots so prominent in the statistics: Cape Race, St. Paul Island, the Strait of Belle Isle, and the St. Lawrence estuary. The Nautilus navigated through this gloomy rubble as if passing the dead in review. This region is also the terminus of the Atlantic Cable, which reaches its end point at Heart's Content. The Nautilus took an easterly heading to go along the plateau on which the telegraph cable rests, where multiple soundings have given the contours of the terrain with the utmost accuracy. On May 17, about 500 miles from Heart's Content and 2,800 meters down, Professor Aronnax spotted the cable lying on the seafloor, a long snake covered with seashell rubble and bristling with foraminifera.

The Final Waypoint to Vengeance

After leaving the Grand Banks, the Nautilus did not continue north but instead took an easterly heading. It was on this course that the Nautilus arrived at the precise spot in latitude 47° 24' and longitude 17° 28', where Captain Nemo revealed the wreck of the Avenger, a French ship of the line that sank in 1794 after a heroic battle rather than surrender to the English. This revelation, and the proximity to the ship that would soon be attacked, set the stage for the final, dreadful act of vengeance. The Grand Banks, therefore, serve as the last geographical marker before the narrative plunges into its darkest and most violent climax, a place where the natural world's bounty and the historical world's tragedies converge.