
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice
by Jules Verne
'The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice' Summary
The novel, set in 1861, described adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition. On the shore of the island of "New America (Actually New Foundland)" he discovers the remains of a ship used by the previous expedition from the United States. Doctor Clawbonny recalls in mind the plan of the real Ice palace, constructed completely from ice in Russia in 1740 to build a snow-house, where they should spend a winter. The travellers winter on the island and survive mainly due to the ingenuity of Doctor Clawbonny (who is able to make fire with an ice lens, make bullets from frozen mercury and repel attacks by polar bears with remotely controlled explosions of black powder).
When the winter ends the sea becomes ice-free. The travellers build a boat from the shipwreck and head towards the pole. Here they discover an island, an active volcano, and name it after Hatteras. With difficulty a fjord is found and the group get ashore. After three hours climbing they reach the mouth of the volcano. The exact location of the pole is in the crater and Hatteras jumps into it. As the sequence was originally written, Hatteras perishes in the crater; Verne's editor, Jules Hetzel, suggested or rather required that Verne do a rewrite so that Hatteras survives but is driven insane by the intensity of the experience, and after return to England he is put into an asylum for the insane. Losing his "soul" in the cavern of the North Pole, Hatteras never speaks another word. He spends the remainder of his days walking the streets surrounding the asylum with his faithful dog Duke. While mute and deaf to the world, Hatteras' walks are not without a direction. As indicated by the last line "Captain Hatteras forever marches northward".
Book Details
Authors

Jules Verne
France
Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. His reputation was markedly different in an...
Books by Jules VerneDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad
The Shadow-Line is another one of Conrad’s stories that deals with a hero who is faced by a problem that comes from an unexpected source, and for whic...

Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett
"It seemed as if all the clocks in Deephaven, and all the people with them, had stopped years ago, and the people had been doing over and over what th...

Last Entry by William Clark Russell
This classic seafaring novel set in 1837 follows a wealthy former seaman and his daughter as they set sail on his newly restored schooner, headed for...

Typhoon by Joseph Conrad
Typhoon is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, begun in 1899 and serialized in Pall Mall Magazine in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in...

My Life at Sea by William Caius Crutchley
Captain William Caius Crutchley's 'My Life at Sea' offers a captivating glimpse into the world of maritime life during the era of sailing ships. The b...

Futility, Or the Wreck of the Titan by Morgan Robertson
The story is about a fictional ocean liner called the Titan, which is considered to be unsinkable but eventually sinks after striking an iceberg. The...

Redburn: His First Voyage by Herman Melville
The book is semi-autobiographical and recounts the adventures of a refined youth among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool. M...

Moby Dick, or the Whale by Herman Melville
Few things, even in literature, can really be said to be unique — but Moby Dick is truly unlike anything written before or since. The novel is nominal...

The Cruise of the Walrus on the Broads by Arthur Henry Patterson
"The Cruise of the Walrus on the Broads" invites readers on a mesmerizing voyage. Arthur Henry Patterson's novel immerses us in the world of boating,...
Reviews for The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice
No reviews posted or approved, yet...