Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, is a classic science-fiction novel first published in 1870. Professor Pierre Aronnax boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax's vessel and imprisons him along with his devoted servant, Conseil, and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. The survivors meet Captain Nemo, an enigmatic misanthrope who leads them on a worldwide, year-long underwater adventure.