CHAPTER SUMMARY AND NOTES

CHAPTER 32

Summary

Fogg’s last hope seemed to have gone with the ‘China’, the boat that leaves for Liverpool from New York. Passepartout is crushed by the fact that the boat has been missed because of him. Fogg merely says that they will decide the next day, on what needs to be done. They stay the night at a Hotel and the next day, Fogg leaves the hotel alone, in order to look for a ship. He sees a trading vessel of fine lines-the ‘Henrietta’ and goes to meet the Captain. Fogg wants to know, whether the Captain-Andrew Speedy-will take passengers to Liverpool. The latter refuses but Fogg manages to strike a deal, for a journey to Bordeaux. He offers two thousand dollars for each person and there are four. Thus, the foursome-Fogg, Aouda, Passepartout and Fix board the ship-Henrietta-for Bordeaux.

Notes

Once again, Fogg shows his calm demeanor. The ship ‘China’ had left only forty-five minutes before they reached New York. The group now has no way of traveling to Liverpool at the speed that the ‘China’ would have taken. While everybody is upset, Fogg makes the most reasonable and practical suggestion and that is to check into a hotel for the night and have some rest. It is really humorous to note that while Fogg sleeps soundly, both Aouda and Passepartout cannot rest because of their anxiety. They do not know how they are going to come out of their predicament. The next morning Fogg goes looking for a ship alone. One can almost imagine this handsome Englishman, going about calmly trying to find a solution to his problem. It is the best way, which works for him. The man is designed to find solutions and to work efficiently. He does find a reasonable looking ship-the Henrietta but this time the Captain of the ship is unreasonable. So far, Fogg has been lucky to come across reliable and good-natured sailors to take him on special boats but we now see that Fogg’s luck is running into a bad patch. Andrew Speedy is greedy and selfish. But, Fogg manages to strike a deal and that is to take the passengers to Bordeaux. We wonder why Fogg agrees to Bordeaux and the question in our mind is answered in the next chapter.

While all that Fogg is thinking about is the completion of his journey, Passepartout is very worried about the financial loss that he has caused his master. Fix has something else to mope about, he knows that Fogg has already spent a great part of the reward money, so he wonders what will be left for himself after Fogg is arrested.

Our passengers start their journey on the Henrietta. We wait and see what happens next.

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