E01
With Jules Verne Around the World
The sailors of Lord Edward Glenarvan's yacht Duncan caught a hammerhead shark in Scottish waters. Inside the fish they found a bottle with a letter pleading for help, written in three languages: English, German, and French. Although the water had badly damaged the text, they were able to make out that the English ship Britannia, which had disappeared at sea a year before the events of the novel, had been wrecked, and that three people had survived: Captain Grant and two sailors, and that they had found refuge on some land lying at 37° south latitude. The longitude, as well as the land itself on which the shipwreck victims had come ashore, could not be determined. The British Admiralty refuses Glenarvan support, citing the vagueness and incompleteness of the information. The real reason for the refusal is the nationalist convictions of the missing Captain Grant, who dreamed of an independent Scotland. The main goal of his voyages was to find and found New Scotland. Captain Grant's son and daughter come to Glenarvan's house in the hope of learning about their father. Lady Helen Glenarvan persuades her husband to set out in search of the captain on the yacht Duncan. The Duncan leaves Glasgow and sets sail. On board are Lord Glenarvan himself with his wife, his cousin Major MacNabbs, and also Robert and Mary Grant. The yacht Duncan is commanded by Captain John Mangles. There turns out to be an extra passenger on the ship — the famous French geographer Jacques Paganel, who in his absent-mindedness boarded the wrong vessel. He had been heading to India on an assignment from the Geographical Society. The passengers persuade him to stay, and Paganel joins the search for Captain Grant.
