Robur the Conqueror by Verne Jules; Evans Arthur B.; Kirstukas Alex

Author:Verne, Jules; Evans, Arthur B.; Kirstukas, Alex
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2017-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

The hurricane carried the Albatross over ice fields.

But Robur no longer knew where he was, on account of the compass needle’s fluctuations in the vicinity of the magnetic pole. He would have to wait for the sun to show itself in conditions appropriate for an observation. Unfortunately, thick clouds filled the sky that day, and the sun did not appear.

This was a disappointment, all the more palpable because the two propulsion propellers had undergone certain damages during the storm.

Robur, greatly annoyed by the accident, could travel only at relatively moderate speeds all through that day. When he passed over the antipodes of Paris, he did so at only six leagues per hour. Besides, he had to be wary of aggravating the damages. If the two propellers had been unable to function, the aircraft’s situation over the vast seas of the Pacific would have been very much jeopardized. The engineer wondered as well whether he ought not to proceed with repairs right then and there, so as to ensure the continuation of the voyage.

The next day, July 27, at around seven a.m., land was sighted to the north. They soon determined that it was an island. But which one, of those thousands scattered across the Pacific? Nonetheless, Robur resolved to stop there, without landing. To his mind, that day would suffice to repair the damages, and he would be able to leave that very evening.

The wind had calmed completely—a favorable circumstance for the work that had to be done. If it remained stationary, at least the Albatross would not be carried off to who knows where.

A cable 150 feet long, with an anchor at its end, was cast overboard. When the aircraft arrived on the shore of the island, the anchor scraped over the first reefs, then hooked itself solidly between two rocks. Then the cable was drawn tight by the action of the suspension propellers, and the Albatross hovered immobile, like a ship lying at anchor on a coast.

This was the first time it had touched land since its departure from Philadelphia.

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