January 1, 1868

On the morning of January 1, 1868, Conseil joined Professor Aronnax on the platform of the Nautilus to offer New Year's greetings. The exchange immediately revealed the divergent paths the three captives' minds had taken. Conseil, ever the stoic classifier, framed the year in terms of the voyage's wonders: "We're certainly seeing some unusual things, and for two months we've had no time for boredom. The latest wonder is always the most astonishing, and if this progression keeps up, I can't imagine what its climax will be." He concluded that a happy year would be one that let them "see everything." Aronnax agreed, noting that he had adjusted "very nicely to the diet on board." Conseil even praised Captain Nemo, observing that he "really lives up to his Latin name, since he couldn't be less in the way if he didn't exist."

The Canadian's Dissent

Ned Land's thoughts were "exactly the opposite" of Conseil's. The harpooner, a man of "practical mind and a demanding stomach," was "tired of staring at fish and eating them day in and day out." He suffered acutely from the "shortage of wine, bread, and meat"—a deprivation unsuitable for "an upstanding Anglo-Saxon, a man accustomed to beefsteak and unfazed by regular doses of brandy or gin." Conseil summarized the division neatly: "I think as much about staying as Mr. Land about making his escape. Thus, if this new year isn't a happy one for me, it will be for him, and vice versa." The date thus formalized the opposing poles of the prisoners' experience: scientific rapture versus the ache for a lost, terrestrial life.

The Voyage's Trajectory

By January 2, the Nautilus had fared 11,340 miles—5,250 leagues—from its starting point in the seas of Japan. The ship entered the dangerous waterways of the Coral Sea, off the northeast coast of Australia, and soon approached the Torres Strait, a passage Captain Nemo intended to use to reach the Indian Ocean. This course, which brought the ship closer to European seas, offered Ned Land a glimmer of hope. The new year thus began not with a change in circumstance but with a sharpened awareness of the stakes: for Aronnax and Conseil, a continuation of marvels; for Ned Land, a countdown to escape.