The steamship Forward is in danger of being trapped by mountains of ice. Explosives are planted to try and clear the way…
But the path was not yet free; large blocks of ice remained suspended above the pass on the adjacent mountains , and there was every reason to fear that they would fall and close up the passage…
“Wolsten!” said Hatteras, “Load the gun in the bow with triple charge. And wad it as hard as possible.“
“Are we to attack the mountain with cannonballs?” asked the doctor.
“No,” answered Hatteras, “that would be useless. No bullet, Wolsten, but a triple charge of powder. Look sharp!“
A few minutes after, the gun was loaded.
“Brunton!” he called to the engineer, “ a few turns ahead.“
Brunton opened the sliders, and the screw being put in movement the Forward neared the mountain.
“Aim at the pass!” cried the captain to the gunsmith. The latter obeyed, and when the brig was only half a cable’s length from it Hatteras called out—
“Fire!“
A formidable report followed his order, and the blocks of ice, shaken by the atmospheric commotion, were suddenly precipitated into the sea; the disturbance amongst the strata of air had been sufficient to accomplish this.
    Translators and editors of Jules Verne’s books have much to answer for. Most often, when I seek out a copy of one of his books in a second-hand bookshop, some detective work must follow in order to determine just exactly which book it is. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras is an example. This fine yarn of a British expedition to try and find the North Pole was divided into two halves, each given, in this case, the title of the two parts assigned by Verne—The English at the North Pole and The Ice Desert. The English versions were published as two separate books, with no direct reference that the one was a part of the other. Perhaps the English publishers didn’t actually read it, because the expedition reaches the North Pole in the second volume, not the first, and the first ends when their ship is accidentally blown up and they are trapped on the ice—hardly a satisfactory conclusion to any book. Then, the title of the first misbegotten volume was changed to Captain Hatteras, just to confuse everyone. Finally, the two parts were put back together and it was published under the original title—The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, but then in the 1950s, they were separated again, only this time the connection between the two volumes was noted. Confused?
    Interestingly, at the time Verne wrote the book, it was believed that, due to the fact that on a rotating body, the heat accumulates towards the axis, therefore the ice at the extremities of the earth would be melted and a sea would form at the centre. He places the north pole on an island in that sea. He wasn’t right about everything. But poor Captain Hatteras is driven mad by the hardships of the journey, and dies a pathetic lunatic, anticipating the tragedy, although not the facts, of Scott’s expedition at the other end of the world, fifty years later.