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Re: Les Forceurs de blocus

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 10:28:08 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Jan Rychlik has drawn our attention to the fact that Verne was often more
accurate in geographical than historical terms....there is in fact evidence
of this in Les Forceurs de blocus. On the 13th January 1863 as the Delphin
approaches the coast of Carolina, Crockston spies the Charleston lighthouse.
Verne continues..."Si le Delphin fut arrivé de nuit, ce phare, situé sur
l'île Morris, et élevé de cent quarante pieds au-dessus du niveau de la mer,
eut été aperçu depuis plusieurs heures, car les éclats de son feu tournant
sont visibles a une distance de quatorze milles". If we ignore the pedantic
point that Charleston light was only 102 feet high, more fundamentally, all
the lights from Virginia to Texas had been extinguished by the Confederates
in 1861 and their mechanisms removed to protect against incursion by
Northern vessels. Moreover, in the case of Morris Island lighthouse, this
was completely demolished in 1862 by the Confederates in order to prevent
its use by the Union army as a watchtower (it overlooked Fort Sumter and the
entrance channels to Charleston Harbour). The role that Verne gives to the
lighthouse in guiding the Delphin is thus historically impossible which in
turn suggests that he used ante bellum sources for his description of
navigation in Charleston Harbour.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Wed 25 Aug 2004 - 12:54:31 IDT

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