Phileas Fogg’s Chaotic Layover in Hong Kong
In 1872, Jules Verne’s famous hero, Phileas Fogg, embarked on an impossible journey: traveling around the world in less than eighty days. His quest brought him to Hong Kong, which turned out to be one of the most chaotic and pivotal turning points of the entire trip, nearly ruining his undertaking.
On October 2, Phileas Fogg left London at 8:45 PM. Traveling eastward, he stopped in France, Italy, Egypt, and India, where he boarded the steamer Rangoon. Leaving Calcutta on October 25, the steamship made a short stop in Singapore to take on coal before crossing the South China Sea northeastward, finally landing in Hong Kong at 1:00 PM on November 6, 1872—exactly 24 hours behind schedule due to a massive storm.
Their connecting steamer to Yokohama, the Carnatic, was scheduled to leave on November 6. However, because its boilers needed repairs, the departure was delayed until the morning of November 7.
Meanwhile, Detective Fix, who had been following Fogg since his departure from London in the belief that he was a bank robber, got Fogg's valet, Passepartout, heavily intoxicated in an opium den. Incapacitated, Passepartout was unable to inform Fogg that the Carnatic had finished its repairs early and was actually leaving on the evening of November 6 instead of the next morning.
The next morning, Fogg discovered that the Carnatic had already sailed. Unfazed, he immediately went down to the harbor and hired a local pilot captain named John Bunsby, who agreed to sail them through a typhoon to Shanghai on a small, sturdy pilot boat named the Tankadere, from whence Fogg pursued his journey.
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