 He is accompanied by Cyrus Headley, a young research zoologist and Bill Scanlan, an expert mechanic working with an iron works in Philadelphia who is in charge of the construction of the submersible which the team takes to the bottom of the Atlantic.The novel first appeared in 1928 as a serial in "The Saturday Evening Post".It also appeared as a serial in "The Strand Magazine" from October 1927 to February 1928.