What is unusual about the first words spoken by the stranger Walton tells in Letter 4?

The first words Victor utters to Walton question his destination. These words are unusual because they're out in the middle of nowhere, and Victor is on the brink of death. A very strange question indeed.....

On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in English, although with a foreign accent. "Before I come on board your vessel," said he, "will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?"

You may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a question addressed to me from a man on the brink of destruction and to whom I should have supposed that my vessel would have been a resource which he would not have exchanged for the most precious wealth the earth can afford. I replied, however, that we were on a voyage of discovery towards the northern pole.