The Strange Tale of Ernest Legouvé

Ernest “Ernie” LeGouve is another one of the characters in my story. He’s had some heinous injuries; some low spine problems and both legs were amputated, but that doesn’t slow him much; he’s got various exoskeletons depending on which legs he wants at the moment, and he’s still a far better fighter than most.

His name is a tribute to a real person, via a reef and a ship. And a phantom island.

A phantom island appears on at least one map … but it’s not really there. Maybe it vanished. Maybe the cartographer was mistaken. I was idly reading about these while thinking about writing a portal fantasy involving an island that vanishes and reappears.

As I continued down the list, I noticed Ernest Legouve Reef.

“A reef supposedly found by the captain of the French ship, Ernest Legouvé, which is near the exact location of the fictional Lincoln Island, the main setting for Jules Verne's book The Mysterious Island …”

Mysterious Island is a classic foundational work in my genre, so my interest was piqued. The reef, which is over near New Zealand, was first reported in 1902 “by the captain of the French ship the Ernest‑Legouvé … It was searched for in 1982 and 1983 but not found, leading to it being considered a phantom island. Nevertheless, it is marked in the 2015 edition of the National Geographic Atlas of the World.  … In its location and description, the Ernest Legouve Reef could be considered the real-life approximation of the remains of the fictional "Lincoln Island" of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island … In Verne's, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, the main characters spend a couple of days on a so-called "Gueboroar Island" (possibly Gabba Island, or Golboa), which contains many similarities with the fictional Mysterious Island. … ”

Moreover, the ship Ernest‑Legouvé, which discovered the reef, was named after a man named Ernest Legouvé. A progressive fellow who supported women’s rights, a champion fencer and an esteemed playright. Also a friend and contemporary of Jules Verne.

So … 1874. Jules Verne publishes Mysterious Island, giving the location.
1902, a ship named after Verne’s buddy Ernest discovers a reef in that location; names it after the ship.

And at least one person thinks possibly this involved a conspiracy by LeGouve to get Verne into the Académie Française.

“…Vernian scholar, William Butcher … explains that the real-life man, Ernest Legouvé (1807-1903), ‘was a friend of Verne's who promised to help putting his friend ‘on the map,’ by using the reef's coordinates and description in the novel, in exchange for access to the Académie.

“It would be a strange coincidence indeed for a reef to be discovered by a ship named after Verne's friend at coordinates that Verne wrote into a novel 30 years before the discovery, and there not be some connection. As Butcher concludes: "Just as the missing day in Around the World emerges in the most surprising places, so the Mystery of the Island is a wide-ranging one."

Therefore, I felt strongly compelled to name a character after Ernest LeGouve, just so I could write a convoluted blog post explaining why.