The Sea Raiders sea monsters include Scylla and Charybdis of Greek mythology, and the kraken of medieval times which is thought to have been a giant squid. Previous fictional encounters with giant squids are described in chapter 59 of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" of 1851, and in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" of 1870. The narrator describes a recent period when a new sort of giant squid, a species named "Haploteuthis ferox", became known. (This fictitious name can be compared with the genus name "Architeuthis" of the giant squid.) As a part of the survey of the period, including early encounters
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas" (). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" — part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled "Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics" and published by State University of New York Press. In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, , with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas". He includes detailed notes,