Jules Verne

In Search of the Castaways Jules Verne

ON the 26th of July, 1864, a magnificent yacht was steaming along the North Channel at fullspeed, with a strong breeze blowing from the N. E. The Union Jack was flying at the mizzen-mast, and a blue standard bearing the initials E. G., embroidered in gold, and surmounted by a ducalcoronet, floated from the topgallant head of the main-mast. The name of the yacht was theDUNCAN, and the owner was Lord Glenarvan, one of the sixteen Scotch peers who sit in theUpper House, and the most distinguished member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, so famousthroughout the United Kingdom. Lord Edward Glenarvan was on board with his young wife, Lady Helena, and one of his cousins, Major McNabbs. The DUNCAN was newly built, and had been making a trial trip a few miles outside the Firth ofClyde. She was returning to Glasgow, and the Isle of Arran already loomed in the distance, when thesailor on watch caught sight of an enormous fish sporting in the wake of the ship. Lord Edward, who was immediately apprised of the fact, came up on the poop a few minutes after with his cousin, and asked John Mangles, the captain, what sort of an animal he thought it was."Well, since your Lordship asks my opinion," said Mangles, "I think it is a shark, and a fine largeone too.""A shark on these shores!""There is nothing at all improbable in that," returned the captain. "This fish belongs to a speciesthat is found in all latitudes and in all seas. It is the 'balance-fish, ' or hammer-headed shark, if I amnot much mistaken. But if your Lordship has no objections, and it would give the smallest pleasureto Lady Helena to see a novelty in the way of fishing, we'll soon haul up the monster and find outwhat it really