Originally published in 1896, The Missing Men of the Sirius tells the extraordinary adventure of three French sailors whose ship was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea. While everyone believed them dead, they are captives inside the sunken wreck; they escape and discover an underground Egyptian city and, through mazes and tombs, eventually manage to return to the surface unharmed. The Missing Men of the Sirius is pure entertainment, designed for amusement. Its Vernian component does add a special element with its determined celebration of maritime heroism, and steadfast championship of the virtue of scientific thinking and technological ingenuity.