The climax is the moment of greatest tension in a story. In 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, the climax takes place when Captain Nemo takes the crazy decision to sink the ship after it comes under attack by an unidentified warship. Nemo seems completely oblivious to the loss of...
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life that this will cause.
No wonder, then, that Aronnax and the other men make the decision to escape from the ship, and even more importantly, to escape from the borderline insane, egomaniacal Nemo, whose very presence threatens their existence. The tension builds as we wonder how—and indeed, if—the men are going to be able to escape. On the face of it, things don't seem at all hopeful. The situation's pretty desperate, what with Aronnax and his men caught between the demented Nemo on the one hand and the huge warship on the other.
The climax of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is when the men try to escape the ship.
The climax of a story is the most exciting part, when everything changes.
When the men first join Nemo, they mostly enjoy the adventure even though Nemo seems a bit unstable. They remain his prisoners or his guests until he gets the ship stuck in an ice pack at the South Pole. It is at that point that they start to worry for their safety, especially when they get attacked by a giant squid. Even though we never are entirely sure what happened, we know that Arronax is not going to be looking for any more creatures.