CHAPTER SUMMARY AND NOTES

CHAPTER 33

Summary

After one day of being on the ‘Henrietta’, Fogg takes over as the Captain of the ship after having bribed the entire crew and after locking Andrew Speedy in a cabin. Fogg wished to take the ship to Liverpool. Everything went well for the first few days and then the ship got caught in a gale. The ship has to fight the wind and they lose time as a result. Also since the ship had been traveling on full steam the vessel runs out of coal, as fuel. Fogg nevertheless asks the engineer to run the ship on full steam. He then summons Speedy and pays him enough money to be allowed to burn parts of the ship, in order to use them as fuel. Speedy appreciates the large sum of money and lets Fogg do whatever he wants with the ship. The ship manages to reach Queenstown Harbor and Fogg plans to go to Liverpool from here. They reach Liverpool, and now have only six hours in which to reach England. At this moment, Fix arrests Fogg.

Notes

In this chapter we learn why Fogg had agreed to board the ship to Bordeaux. He did not plan to go there and he takes over the ship and proceeds towards Liverpool instead. As we can all see, beneath the calm exterior is the fiery warmth of passion. Fogg bribes the entire crew and locks Andrew Speedy in his cabin. Fogg is definitely a courageous man who knows how to achieve his goal. When it is required that he be civilized, he is but when he sees that Speedy is going to be difficult, he changes his tactics too.

Fogg takes over the ship and when he does, it is not that he does not know how to control it. We learn that Fogg must have been a sailor once upon a time as he handles the ship with courage and expertise.

Throughout the chapter, Fogg is the dynamic force; he is the creator of action while all others are spectators. Passepartout admires FoggÂ’s bold decision Aouda is worried for Fogg, while Fix does not know what to think, as he is so astounded.

Fogg guides the ship through a hurricane and when they run out of fuel the ship’s wood is used to provide power. Fogg’s dynamism and ‘never say die’ attitude sees him through every situation. Andrew Speedy pays him a compliment, when he says that Fogg has some of the Yankee in him. That would mean that Fogg is strong, brave and adventurous and has the unflagging spirit.

They manage to reach Queenstown Harbor with a lot of difficulty and after Fogg gives a lot of money to Speedy. Now they have only a few hours left and they move rapidly towards London. But, when they are in Liverpool, Fix finally does what he had been planning to do since such a long time. He arrests Fogg.

We see in this chapter that things do not move too smoothly for Fogg. But he faces the obstacles with spirit and manages to reach quite close to England. The arrest of course is the most difficult hurdle to cross. We wonder why Passepartout had not informed Fogg about Fix. It would have saved the hero of the story a lot of trouble.

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