That, at least, doesn’t surprise me. Everyone in that book must be quite the talker, to get the word count that high.
Obviously you haven’t read Melville’s masterpiece. It’s not the dialogue that drives the word count.
Damned if I can do the math but isnt 20,000 leagues like 50 miles?
A league is around 15,000 to 18,000 feet depending on which countries leagues. You might be thinking of fathoms which are 6 feet.
No. Various definitions for one “league” exist but they’re all at least a couple of miles. Maybe you’re thinking of “fathoms”, which are about six feet?
EDIT: I see we’ve reached the same conclusion here.
It’s more like 70,000 miles or 3 and a half times the circumference of the earth. (Kelsey Grammer as James Mason as Captain Nemo: A league is not a measure of depth below sea leve! It is a measure of horizontal distance traveled!
That’s actually the first thing I thought of when I read that question, too. Loved that sketch.
And don’t even get him started on Han Solo and parsecs.
In other words, while they were submerged, they traveled a distance of 20,000 leagues.
They’re deepwater creatures. They apparently are preyed on by Sperm whales.
There are two animals we’re talking about here: the giant squid, Architeuthis, and the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis.
The “colossal squid” dissected was believed to be a juvenile; I’ve read that they are assumed to reach the size of Sperm whales, but only counting tentacle length as part of the overall size. The wiki has size estimates.
Sperm whales have been found with sucker scars on their flesh. Some early researchers reportedly tried to calculate squid size based on these scars. I read an account I cannot currently substantiate that one scare found was three feet across, which, if the ratios hold true, indicates a squid 300 feet long. But that seemed sensationalistic and speculative.
It’s enough that the colossal squid is the largest invertebrate, with a flesh-cutting beak that’s the largest in the animal kingdom, and the largest eyes too. We know little about their lives, deep-living animals that they are, but consider what we do know:
[ul]
[li]cephalopods are unusually intelligent predators[/li][li]colossal squid have swiveling hooks as well as suckers on their tentacles[/li][li]they are jet-propelled[/li][li]they have blinding ink[/li][li]they do not have “sex” per se, instead the savage male impales passing females with a “spermatopohore” that burrows through her flesh to her reporductive organs[/li][li]many squid can control light-emitting organs to change color and brightness – I don’t know about colossal squid in this regard, but it’s possible that colossal squid can flash-blind enemies in the dark, or lure them with light displays that mimic food[/li][/ul]
Monstrous enough for you yet? 
20,000 LEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAGGGGGGUES.
There was actually a reasonable fan-wank of that one. The idea is that the route goes through an area peppered with wormholes, so the fastest route is the one that takes you the closest to their event horizons, i.e., the shortest. Thus, Han measured his impressive run in distance, not time.
Or, you know, George Lucas is a fucking idiot who has some very clever people to explain away his mistakes after the fact.
So is my friend Phil McKracken
I remember being younger and all the “Monsters of the Deep” style books would show a squid and sperm whale locked in titanic struggle. It was a little disappointing to learn later that, while the squid may not always go quietly into that good night, they’re largely just eaten rather than holding their own in a fight.
My preferred interpretation is that it’s just Han who’s an idiot. You’ll note that when he says that, Obi-Wan sort of rolls his eyes at him.
Nvm, deleting the off topic post.
35 Posts, and no one has said:
Release the Kraken!
Psst, post 9.
King Edward VII of the U.K. made the Kessel run in less than a mile! 
But only once, for twenty minutes.
Regards,
Shodan
My understanding is that those older estimates were mostly thrown out when it was pointed out that, if a sperm whale is scarred by a squid when it was younger (and smaller), then as it grows to its adult size, the sucker scar grows with it.
There’s a fifties b-movie called The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, where the titular monster is found the titular distance beneath the non-titular ocean. Which is so deep beneath the ocean’s surface, that it goes straight through the Earth and ends up somewhere around the orbit of the moon on the opposite side.