Sargasso Sea debris can absorb toxic chemicals from ocean pollution, potentially poisoning anything that eats it. The Sargasso Sea is often portrayed in literature and the media as an area of mystery. The Sargasso Sea features in classic fantasy stories by William Hope Hodgson, such as his novel "The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"" (1907), Victor Appleton's Don Sturdy novel "Don Sturdy in the Port of Lost Ships: Or, Adrift in the Sargasso Sea", and several related short stories. Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" describes the Sargasso Sea and gives an account of its formation. The Sargasso Sea is
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is known to be responsible for many serious changes in Verne's books. In the original text the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, avenging his family who were killed by the Russians in retaliation for the captain's taking part in the Polish January Uprising of 1863. As France was at the time allied with the Russian Empire, the target for Nemo's wrath was changed to France's old enemy, the British Empire, to avoid political trouble. Professor Pierre Aronnax does not suspect Nemo's origins, as these were explained only later, in Verne's next book. What remained in