Birkenhead is Mysterious Island Part Two

[John Lamb]

Dear all,

I hope those of you who chose to do so enjoyed reading Birkenhead is Mysterious Island Part One.    

These really are ‘similarities beyond coincidence’ and show how Verne as a geographer must have made extensive field notes of Birkenhead and Wirral landmarks, he probably arranges all these individual notes on the floor before rearranging them to start his plot line.  

Verne actively gives clues to where we really are by using 15 of Ferat’s illustrations to represent their Birkenhead and Wirral counterparts, something I only really encountered in one other Verne novel – The Floating Island (see previous post).

As we saw in part one Ferat replicates Birkenhead Woodside tram station, Hamilton Square (adding two chimneys so the hot air balloon can knock them down), the rock formations on Hilbre island and Wormhole cave (both inside and outside) as well as the sculpture of Tell the Dog (Top).  

In part two Ferat will carry on where he left off, replicating the rockery in Birkenhead Park as the lower slope of Mount Franklin, the granite entrance to Thomas Brassey’s Great Culvert and iron ladder at Birkenhead Woodside (Granite House and vertical ladder), the footbridge at Tranmere (Birkenhead) Pool as the footbridge over the Mercy. the Bidston semaphore system (Pencroff’s scarecrows) and the north end of Hilbre Island. Jups wooden structure on the islet is also a giveaway. 

It is the castaways hunting of seal colony at Hilbre Island as well as Verne's 30 feet tidal range here (there are no tides in the South Pacific) that first pointed me to the fact that we are on the Wirral Peninsula and not in the South Pacific where there are no tides.  Verne basing his map of Mysterious Island on Birkenhead Park Lower lake is again a ‘similarity beyond coincidence’...but given the location of Dakkar's Grotto ....utterly brilliant. 

My favourite two clues are how Verne confirms that the Mercy River is the old Tranmere Brook by relating its position to the Birkenhead Dock Railway cutting using four compass directions as well as vertical heights and horizontal distances. He uses a step by step guide to central Birkenhead. Notice how Verne’s ‘chemical novel’ also uses the patent of Prices Birkenhead candles.

I will post part three in the next few days whereby the real life telegraphic cable from Bidston Hill, Birkenhead to Lady’s Cave on Hilbre Island becomes the cable laid by Captain Nemo from the Corral to Dakkar’s Grotto and Captain Nemo's Nautilus.

 Birkenhead ...both the birthplace and final resting place of Captain Nemo's Nautilus. 

Again …similarities beyond coincidence.

 Please feel free to grill me...the silence is deafening. 

Best John