Round the Moon · Chapter
XX: The Soundings of the Susquehanna explained
Aboard the corvette Susquehanna, Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield oversee deep-sea soundings for a submarine cable project.
What happens
Aboard the corvette Susquehanna, Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield oversee deep-sea soundings for a submarine cable project. As the crew discusses the fate of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Ardan, a young midshipman proposes using a giant alphabet visible through the Long's Peak telescope to communicate with the moon. Later, a fiery bolide crashes into the ship's bowsprit, and the midshipman exclaims that the travellers have returned.
Themes in this chapter
Human Audacity and Ingenuity
The crew's discussion of establishing graphic communication with the moon via a giant alphabet and the plan to colonize the lunar world exemplifies boundless American ambition.
The Sublime and the Unknown
The sudden appearance of the fiery bolide from the sky, its thunderous crash, and the mystery of the travellers' fate evoke the awe and danger of the unknown.
National Identity and Rivalry
The officers' pride in American ingenuity and their plans to conquer the moon reflect a sense of national destiny and rivalry with other nations.
Characters to notice
- Captain Blomsberry
Commands the Susquehanna, oversees soundings, and is cousin-german to Colonel Blomsberry.
- Lieutenant Bronsfield
Leads the sounding operation and engages in speculative conversation about the lunar travellers.
- Impey Barbicane
Mentioned as one of the travellers; the crew imagines him organizing notes on the moon.
- Captain Nicholl
Mentioned as beginning levelling operations on the lunar surface.
- Michel Ardan
Imagined by the officers as smoking a cigar while exploring lunar solitudes.
- J. T. Maston
Mentioned as a future candidate to join the travellers on the moon.
Key passages
“But it is very easy to establish graphic communication with the earth... Our industrious friends will construct a gigantic alphabet! They will write words 600 feet long, and sentences a league long, and then they can send up news!”
The midshipman proposes that the travellers could build enormous letters on the moon's surface, visible through the Long's Peak telescope, to send messages to Earth.
Highlights the theme of human audacity and ingenuity.
“A few feet nearer and the Susquehanna would have gone down with all on board. At that moment Captain Blomsberry appeared half-clothed... and the midshipman... cried out— 'Commander, it is "they" come back again.'”
The bolide narrowly misses sinking the ship, and the midshipman excitedly declares that the returning projectile has arrived.
Climactic moment blending the sublime and the unknown with the fate of the travellers.