Captain Nemo's Nautilus comes to life. Abstract Technology of the future. Discoveries and mistakes of Jules Verne (based on the works of Jules Verne) The submarine ship of Captain Nemo Nautilus

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"Nautilus" - the first nuclear submarine in the world

The first nuclear submarine in the world

The idea of the combat use of an underwater vessel, first expressed by Leonardo da Vinci, was popularized in Jules Verne’s novel “20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” written in 1870. The novel describes the Nautilus submarine, which rams and destroys surface ships using a metal "tusk" located on the bow of the boat. There was no talk of any prototypes of torpedoes or other weapons in the novel.

The first operational model of a submarine was created in 1620 for King James of England by the Dutch engineer Cornelius van Drebbel - a rowing submarine was built in London and successfully tested in the Thames. In Russia, attempts to build a submarine were made under Peter the Great.

During the First World War, submarines appeared with a diesel engine for movement on the surface, and an electric engine for movement under water. A generator was connected to the diesel engine, which produced electricity to recharge the batteries. The accelerated development of the submarine fleet during the First World War led to the fact that submarines became a formidable weapon. In total, during the war, 600 submarines of the warring states sank 55 large warships (battleships and cruisers), 105 destroyers, and 33 submarines.

The idea of using a nuclear reactor as a power plant for submarines originated in the Third Reich. Professor Heisenberg’s oxygen-free “uranium machines” (as nuclear reactors were called then) were intended primarily for the “submarine wolves” of the Kriegsmarine. However, German physicists failed to bring the work to its logical conclusion, and the initiative passed to the United States, which, after the end of the war, was for some time the only country in the world that had nuclear reactors and bombs.

In the early years of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, American strategists envisioned long-range bombers as carriers of the atomic bomb. The United States had extensive experience in the combat use of this type of weapon, American strategic aviation had a reputation as the most powerful in the world, and finally, US territory was considered largely invulnerable to an enemy retaliatory strike. However, the use of aircraft required their basing in close proximity to the borders of the USSR. As a result of diplomatic efforts, already in July 1948 the Labor government agreed to the deployment in Great Britain of 60 B-29 bombers with atomic bombs on board. After the signing of the North Atlantic Pact in April 1949, all of Western Europe was drawn into the US nuclear strategy, and the number of American bases abroad reached 3,400 by the end of the 1960s!

However, over time, the American military and politicians came to understand that the presence of strategic aviation in foreign territories was associated with the risk of changing the political situation in a particular country, so the fleet was increasingly seen as the carrier of atomic weapons in a future war. This trend was finally strengthened after the convincing tests of atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll.

In 1948, American designers completed the development of a nuclear power plant project and began designing and building an experimental reactor.
Thus, there were all the prerequisites for creating a fleet of nuclear submarines, which not only had to carry nuclear weapons, but also have a nuclear reactor as a power plant.

Construction of the first such boat, named after the fantastic submarine invented by Jules Verne, the Nautilus and designated SSN-571, began on June 14, 1952 in the presence of US President Harry Truman at the shipyard in Groton.

On January 21, 1954, in the presence of US President Eisenhower, the world's first nuclear submarine was launched from the Groton shipyard in Connecticut. The influence of the novel 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was so strong that the first nuclear submarine was named after Jules Verne's Nautilus. Eight months later - September 30, 1954 - the Nautilus was adopted by the US Navy.

On January 17, 1955, the Nautilus began sea trials in the open ocean, and its first commander, Eugene Wilkinson, broadcast in clear text: “We are going under atomic propulsion.”

Apart from the completely new Mark-2 power plant, the boat had a conventional design. With a Nautilus displacement of about 4,000 tons, the two-shaft nuclear power plant with a total power of 9,860 kilowatts provided a speed of more than 20 knots. The submerged cruising range was 25 thousand miles with a consumption of 450 grams of U235 per month. Thus, the duration of the voyage depended only on the proper operation of air regeneration means, supplies of waste products of the crew and the endurance of the personnel.

At the same time, however, the specific gravity of the nuclear installation turned out to be very large, because of this it was not possible to install some of the weapons and equipment provided for by the project on Nautilus. The main reason for the weight was biological protection, which includes lead, steel and other materials (about 740 tons). As a result, the entire Nautilus armament consisted of 6 bow torpedo tubes with an ammunition load of 24 torpedoes.

As with any new business, it was not without problems.

Even during the construction of the Nautilus, and specifically during testing of the power plant, a rupture occurred in the secondary circuit pipeline, through which saturated steam with a temperature of about 220 ° C and under a pressure of 18 atmospheres came from the steam generator to the turbine. Fortunately, it was not the main, but an auxiliary steam line.

The cause of the accident, as established during the investigation, was a manufacturing defect: instead of pipes made of high-quality carbon steel grade A-106, pipes made of the less durable material A-53 were included in the steam pipeline. The accident caused American designers to question the feasibility of using welded pipes in submarine pressure systems.

Elimination of the consequences of the accident and the replacement of already installed welded pipes with seamless ones delayed the completion of the construction of the Nautilus for several months.

After the boat entered service, rumors began to circulate in the media that Nautilus personnel had received serious doses of radiation due to deficiencies in the bioprotection design. It was reported that the naval command had to hastily carry out a partial replacement of the crew and dock the submarine to make the necessary changes to the protection design. How accurate this information is is still unknown.

On May 4, 1958, on the Nautilus, traveling submerged from Panama to San Francisco, a fire occurred in the turbine compartment. The fire of oil-soaked port turbine insulation was determined to have started several days before the fire, but its signs were ignored. The slight smell of smoke was mistaken for the smell of fresh paint. The fire was discovered only when it became impossible for personnel to remain in the compartment due to smoke. There was so much smoke in the compartment that the submariners wearing smoke masks could not find its source.

Without finding out the reasons for the appearance of smoke, the ship's commander gave the order to stop the turbine, float to periscope depth and try to ventilate the compartment through a snorkel. However, these measures did not help, and the boat was forced to surface. Increased ventilation of the compartment through an open hatch with the help of an auxiliary diesel generator finally brought results. The amount of smoke in the compartment decreased, and the crew managed to find the location of the fire. Two sailors in smoke masks (there were only four such masks on the boat) using knives and pliers began to tear off the smoldering insulation from the turbine body. A column of flame about a meter high emerged from under a torn piece of insulation. Foam fire extinguishers were used. The flames were extinguished and work to remove the insulation continued. People had to be changed every 10-15 minutes, as the acrid smoke penetrated even into the masks. Only four hours later, all the insulation from the turbine was removed and the fire was extinguished.

After the boat arrived in San Francisco, its commander implemented a number of measures aimed at increasing the fire safety of the ship. In particular, the old insulation was removed from the second turbine. All submarine personnel were provided with self-contained breathing apparatus.

In May 1958, while preparing the Nautilus for a trip to the North Pole by boat, the main condenser of the steam turbine unit began to leak. Sea water seeping into the condensate-feeding system could cause salinization of the secondary circuit and lead to failure of the entire power system of the ship. Repeated attempts to find the location of the leak were unsuccessful, and the submarine commander made an original decision. After the Nautilus arrived in Seattle, sailors in civilian clothes - preparations for the trip were kept in strict confidence - bought all the proprietary liquid from car stores to pour into car radiators in order to stop the leak.

Half of this liquid (about 80 liters) was poured into the condenser, after which the problem of condenser salinization did not arise either in Seattle or later during the trip. Probably the leak was in the space between the double tube plates of the condenser and stopped after filling this space with a self-hardening mixture.

On November 10, 1966, during NATO naval exercises in the North Atlantic, the Nautilus, which was launching a periscope attack on the American aircraft carrier Essex (displacement 33 thousand tons), collided with it. As a result of the collision, the aircraft carrier received an underwater hole, and the fencing of the retractable devices on the boat was destroyed. Accompanied by the destroyer, the Nautilus traveled under its own power at a speed of about 10 knots to the naval base in New London, America, covering a distance of about 360 miles.

On July 22, 1958, the Nautilus, under the command of William Andersen, left Pearl Harbor with the goal of reaching the North Pole.

It all started when, at the end of 1956, the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Burke, received a letter from Senator Jackson. The senator was interested in the possibility of nuclear submarines operating under the pack ice of the Arctic. This letter was the first sign that forced the command of the American fleet to seriously think about organizing a trip to the North Pole. True, some American admirals considered the idea reckless and were categorically against it. Despite this, the commander of the submarine forces of the Atlantic Fleet considered the polar campaign a decided matter.

Anderson began to prepare for the upcoming campaign with triple zeal. The Nautilus was equipped with special equipment that made it possible to determine the state of the ice, and a new compass MK-19, which, unlike conventional magnetic compasses, operated at high latitudes. Just before the trip, Anderson obtained the latest maps and directions to the depths of the Arctic and even made an air flight, the route of which coincided with the planned route of the Nautilus.

The submarine's first test run under the pack ice was unsuccessful. When the echometer recorded zero ice thickness, the boat tried to float. Instead of the expected ice hole, the Nautilus encountered a drifting ice floe. The boat's collision with it severely damaged its only periscope, and the commander of the Nautilus decided to return back to the edge of the packs.

The mangled periscope was repaired on the field. Anderson was quite skeptical about how stainless steel welders worked - even in ideal factory conditions, such welding required a lot of experience. However, the crack that had formed in the periscope was repaired, and the device began to operate again.

The second attempt to reach the pole also did not bring results. A couple of hours after the Nautilus crossed the 86th parallel, both gyrocompasses failed. Anderson decided not to tempt fate and gave the order to turn - in high latitudes, even a slight deviation from the correct course could be fatal and lead the ship to a foreign shore.

At the end of October 1957, Anderson gave a short report at the White House, which he dedicated to his recent trip under the Arctic ice. The report was listened to with indifference, and William was disappointed. The stronger the desire of the Nautilus commander to go to the Pole again.

While contemplating this voyage, Anderson prepared a letter to the White House in which he convincingly argued that crossing the pole would become a reality as early as next year. The presidential administration made it clear that the Nautilus commander could count on support. The Pentagon also became interested in the idea. Soon after this, Admiral Burke reported the impending campaign to the president himself, who reacted to Anderson's plans with great enthusiasm.

The operation had to be carried out in an atmosphere of strict secrecy - the command feared another failure. Only a small group of people in the government knew about the details of the campaign. To hide the true reason for installing additional navigation equipment on the Nautilus, it was announced that the ship would participate in joint training maneuvers along with the Skate and Halfbeak boats.

On June 9, 1958, the Nautilus set off on its second polar voyage. When Seattle was far behind, Anderson ordered the submarine's number to be painted over the wheelhouse fence to maintain incognito. On the fourth day of the journey, the Nautilus approached the Aleutian Islands. Knowing that they would have to go further in shallow water, the ship’s commander ordered the ascent. The Nautilus maneuvered in this area for a long time - looking for a convenient gap in the chain of islands to get to the north. Finally, navigator Jenkins discovered a sufficiently deep passage between the islands. Having overcome the first obstacle, the submarine entered the Bering Sea.

Now the Nautilus had to slip through the narrow and ice-covered Bering Strait. The route west of St. Lawrence Island was completely covered by pack ice. The draft of some icebergs exceeded ten meters. They could easily crush the Nautilus, pinning the submarine to the bottom. Despite the fact that a significant part of the path had been covered, Anderson gave the order to follow the opposite course.

The Nautilus commander did not despair - perhaps the eastern passage through the strait would be more welcoming to rare guests. The boat emerged from the Siberian ice and headed south from St. Lawrence Island, intending to sail into deep waters past Alaska. The next few days of the voyage passed without incident, and on the morning of June 17, the submarine reached the Chukchi Sea.

And then Anderson’s rosy expectations collapsed. The first alarming signal was the appearance of an ice floe nineteen meters thick, which went straight towards the submarine ship. A collision with it was avoided, but the instrument recorders warned: there was an even more serious obstacle on the boat’s path. Pressed close to the very bottom, the Nautilus slipped under a huge ice floe at a distance of only one and a half meters from it. It was possible to avoid death only by a miracle. When the recorder pen finally went up, indicating that the boat missed the ice floe, Anderson realized: the operation was a complete failure...

The captain sent his ship to Pearl Harbor. There was still hope that at the end of summer the ice boundary would move to deeper areas, and it would be possible to make another attempt to get closer to the pole. But who will give permission for it after so many failures?

The reaction of the highest US military department was immediate - Anderson was summoned to Washington for an explanation. The commander of the Nautilus carried on well, showing perseverance. His report to senior Pentagon officers expressed his firm confidence that the next, July, campaign would undoubtedly be crowned with success. And he was given another chance.

Anderson immediately took action. To monitor the ice conditions, he sent his navigator Jenks to Alaska. A legend was created for Jenks, according to which he was a Pentagon officer with special powers. Arriving in Alaska, Jenks took into the air almost the entire patrol aircraft, which carried out daily observations in the area of the future route of the Nautilus. In mid-July, Anderson, still in Pearl Harbor, received the long-awaited news from his navigator: ice conditions had become favorable for the transpolar crossing, the main thing was not to miss the moment.

On July 22, a nuclear submarine with obliterated numbers left Pearl Harbor. The Nautilus was moving at top speed. On the night of July 27, Anderson took the ship into the Bering Sea. Two days later, having traveled a 2,900-mile journey from Pearl Harbor, the Nautilus was already cutting through the waters of the Chukchi Sea.

On August 1, the submarine sank under the Arctic pack ice, which in some places went into the water to a depth of twenty meters. Navigating the Nautilus under them was not easy. Anderson himself was on watch almost all the time.

The ship's crew was excited about the upcoming event, which they wanted to celebrate properly. Some, for example, proposed to describe twenty-five small circles around the pole. Then the Nautilus could enter the Guinness Book of Records as the ship that was the first in the history of navigation to make 25 trips around the world in one voyage. Anderson rightly believed that such maneuvers were out of the question - the likelihood of going off course was too great. The commander of the Nautilus was worried about completely different problems. To cross the pole as accurately as possible, Anderson did not take his eyes off the indicators of the electronic navigation devices. On August 3, at twenty-three hours and fifteen minutes, the goal of the campaign - the North Geographic Pole of the Earth - was achieved.

Without staying in the area of the pole longer than required to collect statistical information on the state of ice and sea water, Anderson sent the submarine into the Greenland Sea. The Nautilus was to arrive in the Reykjavik area, where a secret meeting was to take place. The helicopter, which was waiting for the submarine at the rendezvous point, removed only one person from the submarine - Commander Anderson. Fifteen minutes later, the helicopter landed in Keflavik next to a transport plane ready to depart. When the plane's wheels touched the landing path of the airfield in Washington, a car sent from the White House was already waiting for Anderson - the president wanted to see the commander of the Nautilus. After the report on the operation, Anderson was again returned aboard the boat, which by this time managed to reach Portland.

Six days later, the Nautilus and its commander entered New York with honor. A military parade was organized in their honor...

Among modern myths there is one like this.
They say that experiments on establishing telepathic communication were carried out on the Nautilus submarine.

This information was voiced in the late 1950s by two French conspiracy theorists - Louis Pauvel and Jacques Bergier. Their article did not pass the attention of Soviet authorities protecting the country from a potential aggressor. On March 26, 1960, the Minister of Defense, Marshal of the USSR Malinovsky, received a report from engineer-colonel, candidate of sciences Poletaev:
“The American Armed Forces have adopted telepathy (transfer of thoughts over a distance without the help of technical means) as a means of communication with submarines at sea... Scientific research on telepathy has been going on for a long time, but since the end of 1957, large research organizations have become involved in the work USA: Rend Corporation, Westinghouse, Bell Telephone Company and others. At the end of the work, an experiment was carried out - transferring information using telepathic communication from the base to the Nautilus submarine, which was submerged under the polar ice at a distance up to 2000 kilometers from the base. The experiment was successful."

The minister, as expected, was keenly interested in such an amazing success of a potential enemy. Several secret meetings were held with the participation of Soviet parapsychology specialists. The possibility of opening works to study the phenomenon of telepathy in military and military medical aspects was discussed, but at that time they ended in nothing.

In the mid-1990s, correspondents from the Chicago magazine Zis Week conducted a series of interviews with the captain of the Nautilus Anderson. His answer was categorical: “There were definitely no experiments in telepathy. The article by Povel and Bergier is entirely false. On July 25, 1960, the day when, according to the authors, the Nautilus went to sea to conduct a telepathic communication session, the boat was in dry dock in Portsmouth.

These statements were verified by journalists through their channels and turned out to be true.
According to the author of the book “Parapsychological Warfare: Threat or Illusion” Martin Ebon, behind the articles about “Nautilus” there was... the USSR State Security Committee! The purpose of the “duck,” according to the author, is quite original: to convince the Central Committee of the CPSU to give the go-ahead to begin similar work in the Union. They say that party leaders, brought up in the spirit of dogmatic materialism, were prejudiced against idealistic parapsychology. The only thing that could push them to launch relevant research was information about successful developments abroad...

On March 3, 1980, Nautilus was removed from the fleet after 25 years of service and declared a National Historic Landmark. Plans were drawn up to convert the submarine into a museum for public display. After decontamination was completed and more preparatory work had been completed, on July 6, 1985, the Nautilus was towed to Groton, Connecticut, where the world's first nuclear submarine is open to the public at the US Submarine Museum.

Steampunk lives and wins! New achievements of this design style include a submarine made in the best traditions of the nineteenth century by the modern Captain Nemo.

Bob Martin came up with the idea for this submarine immediately after reading Jules Verne's classic book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. He took the submarine from the 1954 Disney animated film of the same name as the basis.
Of course, this is not a full-fledged submarine, but only a radio-controlled model of it.
The creator estimates the size of his brainchild compared to the original as one to thirty-two. As a result, the length of the modern Nautilus was about 170 centimeters.

As mentioned above, the boat is controlled using a radio remote control. It has dive and ascent control systems similar to those found in real submarines.

The boat also has interior and exterior lighting, as well as a lithium-ion battery that powers it with electricity. Inside the boat, everything is the same as the prototype - the captain's bridge, furniture, instruments, only many times smaller.

The production of this steampunk submarine, straight out of the pages of the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, cost Bob Martin fifteen thousand dollars. But he plans to more than compensate for them by selling the Nautilus to some collector willing to pay a lot of money for a childhood fantasy realized.

Submarines were already quite well known, they were built in a number of countries, and the writer knew quite well about them. So, back in 1862, he saw the “Plongeur” (“Diver”) under construction, which was considered a real giant among submarines. In 1867, returning to Paris after traveling to the United States, Verne visited the World Exhibition on the Champ de Mars, where the “Electric Fairy”, the project for the future Suez Canal, as well as the technologies of the first submarines and spacesuits, many of which the writer later introduced on his own, were presented. fantastic underwater ship.

It is difficult to determine exactly which submarine served as the final prototype of the Nautilus. So, in appearance it is very similar to the American submarine “Alligator”, launched in 1862. However, in terms of internal equipment, the Nautilus is closest to the French “Plongeur”: a compressed air tank in the bow, a mechanical propeller drive, purging of ballast tanks with compressed air, and also huge dimensions compared to other submarines.

It is widely believed that the Nautilus was named after the boat of the same name by Robert Fulton, which he demonstrated to Parisians on the Seine in May 1801. However, in his works, Verne, born in 1828, never mentions his name, especially since Fulton offered his submarines not only to France, but also to its potential enemy, England. Thus, Verne had no reason to name a fictional submarine after a real one. Moreover, the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea describes an episode when the passengers of the Nautilus observe a school of nautilus mollusks (in the novel they are called Argonauts) and compare the mollusks and their shells with Captain Nemo and his ship. The same episode reveals the meaning of the Nautilus motto - “Mobilis in mobili”.

"Nautilus" in the literary works of Jules Verne

Creation

Design

In the upper part there are 2 superstructures - a wheelhouse and, slightly behind it, a cabin for a spotlight with a reflector; before the Nautilus attacks, they are recessed into the hull. In the middle there is a boat, which is attached to the ship's hull with several bolts, and on top it is covered by an easily disassembled canopy. There is also a fence installed along the “deck”, which is retracted into the hull before an attack. On both sides there are large oval portholes, for the glazing of which (as well as the wheelhouse and searchlight cabin) 21 cm thick crystal is used. For diving and ascent, ballast tanks with a volume of 150.72 m³ are used, their filling and purging is carried out through 2 taps located in the stern parts of the ship, and the pumps for purging the tanks are so powerful that they provide ascent from a depth of up to 2 km. Thus, the novel describes an episode when pumps threw the remaining water from ballast tanks to a height of about 40 meters. All engines on the ship are electric, the source of electricity is heavy-duty sodium batteries. The maximum speed is 50 knots, the maximum diving depth is at least 16 kilometers. To obtain fresh water from seawater, the Nautilus uses a distillation unit. The absence of an air regeneration system (Nemo considered it unnecessary) and the need for regular ventilation deprive the ship of complete autonomy (the maximum duration of the Nautilus dive is about 5 days).

Internal layout

The salon is separated from them by a waterproof bulkhead. This is a spacious hall, 10 meters long, 6 wide and 5 high. Behind the patterned ceiling, designed in the spirit of Moorish vaulted roofs, powerful lighting lamps are hidden. Captain Nemo has set up a real museum of art and gifts of nature here. The walls are covered with woven wallpaper of a strict pattern. About 30 paintings in identical frames, separated from one another by shields with knight's armor, adorn the walls. Among the masters represented are: Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Titian, Veronese, Murillo, Holbein, Velazquez, Ribera, Rubens, Teniers, Dou, Metsu, Paul Potter, Gericault, Prudhon, Backhuisen, Berne, Delacroix, Enger, De Camp, Troyon, Meissonnier, Daubigny, while the works of the newfangled masters at that time are absent, which is specially mentioned. The entire wall between the doors is occupied by a huge harmonium, on which scores of Weber, Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Herold, Wagner, Auber, Gounod and many others are scattered. In the corners, on high pedestals, there are several marble and bronze copies of ancient sculptures. Next to works of art are creations of nature, represented by algae, shells and other gifts of ocean fauna and flora. In the middle of the salon, a fountain gushes from a giant tridacna, illuminated from below by electricity. The edges of the shell are gracefully jagged, and its diameter is about 2 meters. Around the shells in elegant display cases framed in copper, the rarest exhibits of oceanic waters are arranged by class and labeled.

Next to the salon and the second waterproof partition there is a library room (also known as a smoking room) about five meters long. Along the walls of the room there are bookcases made of black rosewood with bronze inlays, occupying the entire space from floor to ceiling. Slightly away from the cabinets, there are solid wide sofas upholstered in brown leather, and light mobile book stands are placed near the sofas. There is a large table in the middle of the library. There are 4 frosted glass lamps on the ceiling, and the ceiling itself is decorated with stucco. The Nautilus library has 20 thousand volumes.

Behind the third watertight bulkhead there is a small room in which a ladder leading to the boat is installed. Next comes another cabin 2 meters long (the professor’s friends lived in it - his servant Conseil and harpooner Ned Land), followed by a galley 3 meters long, located between two spacious pantries. Near the galley there is a comfortable bathroom with taps for hot and cold water. Afterwards there is a sailor's cabin 5 meters long.

The fourth waterproof bulkhead separates the cockpit from the engine room, which is about twenty meters long and brightly lit. The room consists of two halves: the first contains batteries that generate electrical energy, the second contains machines that rotate the ship's propeller.

If we consider only the cost of the hull and equipment, then the Nautilus at the time of its creation cost about two million francs, and taking into account the collections and works of art stored in it, at least four or five million francs.

"Nautilus" in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

The Nautilus appears on the very first pages of the novel and almost immediately shows its incredible sailing performance, overtaking all existing steamships. At first, everyone thinks that this is an animal: it is mistaken either for a giant cetacean (narwhal) or for a giant squid. Soon, by chance, three passengers get on board - Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil and harpooner Ned Land. They also learn the name of the ship, and the Nautilus soon shows them its capabilities.

So thanks to him, the heroes were able to see the life of the depths of the sea.

The depths of the sea were magnificently illuminated within a radius of one mile from the Nautilus. A wonderful sight! What a pen is worthy to describe it! What brush is capable of depicting all the tenderness of the colorful range, the play of light rays in transparent sea waters, starting from the deepest layers to the surface of the ocean!

Subsequently, the author more than once describes his admiration for the inhabitants of the depths in their natural environment. In the Sargasso Sea, the Nautilus dives to a depth of 16 kilometers without any damage.

The Nautilus slid into the bottomless depths, despite the enormous pressure of the external environment. I felt how the iron cladding of the ship creaked, how the struts bent, how the bulkheads trembled, how the glass in the salon windows seemed to bend inward under the pressure of the water. If our ship did not have the resistance of steel, as its commander said, it would, of course, be flattened!

Afterwards, the heroes on the Nautilus make a trip under the ice to the south pole, on the site of which there is a small island, and Nemo plants his flag at the pole.

The Nautilus helped its captain make many discoveries; it was thanks to him that Nemo opened a tunnel under the Isthmus of Suez, revealed the mystery of the death of La Perouse, was able to explore a number of underwater caves and found Atlantis.

At the same time, the Nautilus shows itself as a warship. Already at the beginning of the novel, his accidental collision with a passenger ship is mentioned, when the ram pierced five-centimeter steel with such ease that on the ship it was felt only as a slight jolt. After this incident, newspapers begin to blame the “giant narwhal” (for which the Nautilus was initially mistaken) for the death of every missing ship. But only from the second half of the novel, Aronnax and his companions were able to see with their own eyes the combat capabilities of the ship. The first combat use of the Nautilus described in the novel is very unusual: Nemo uses it to destroy a school of sperm whales.

Nautilus next to a sinking ship

Well, there was a battle! Even Ned Land was delighted and clapped his hands. The Nautilus in the hands of the captain turned into a formidable harpoon. He cut into these fleshy carcasses and cut them in half, leaving behind two bloody pieces of meat. The terrible blows of the tail on its casing were not sensitive to him. The pushes of powerful carcasses - he doesn’t care! Having destroyed one sperm whale, he rushed to another, turned from tack to tack so as not to miss the victim, gave first forward, then reverse, plunged, obedient to the will of the navigator, into the depths when the animal went under water, floated after him to the surface of the ocean , went into a frontal attack or struck from the flank, attacked from the front, from the rear, chopped, cut with his terrible tusk!
What a massacre there was! What a noise there was over the ocean waters! What a piercing whistle, what a death rattle escaped from the throats of the maddened animals! Agitated by the blows of the mighty tails, the calm ocean waters seethed as if in a cauldron!
This Homeric massacre went on for a whole hour, where there was no mercy for the big heads. Several times, united in groups of ten to twelve individuals, sperm whales went on the offensive, trying to crush the ship with their carcasses. The gaping toothy mouths and the terrible eyes of the animals darting about on the other side of the windows infuriated Ned Land. He showered the big-headed men with curses and shook his fist at them. Sperm whales dug their teeth into the iron plating of a submarine ship, like dogs dig into the throat of a hunted boar. But the Nautilus, by the will of the helmsman, either carried them along with it into the depths, or brought them to the surface of the waters, despite the enormous weight and powerful grip of the animals.

Also, the “Nautilus” shows itself as a “weapon of retaliation”, and if in one of the chapters it is only hinted at its battle with the frigate (in this case one of the sailors is mortally wounded), then towards the end of the novel it is described in detail how it drowns the military attacking it ship.

Meanwhile, the speed of the Nautilus increased noticeably. So he took a running start. His entire body shook. And suddenly I screamed: the Nautilus struck, but not as strong as one might have expected. I felt the piercing movement of a steel tusk. I heard clanging and grinding. The Nautilus, thanks to the powerful force of its forward thrust, passed through the ship's hull as easily as a sailmaker's needle through canvas.

At the end of the novel, in the process of escaping the passengers, the Nautilus falls into a huge whirlpool - the Maelstrom, but, as it later turns out in the novel “The Mysterious Island”, it managed to get out of it.

Last Harbor

Over time, all of Nemo's companions died and the captain, who turned 60 years old, was left alone with his ship. He took the Nautilus to one of the harbors that sometimes served as his anchorage. This harbor was located under Lincoln Island. Six years later, when a balloon carrying travelers from the United States crashed on the island, Nemo tried to sail away, but it turned out that under the influence of volcanic forces the basalt rock had risen, and the ship could not leave the underwater cave. The Nautilus was locked up. A few years later, Nemo, sensing his demise, called the colonists by telegraph to the Nautilus. After speaking with them, he made his final request to them:

...I want the Nautilus to be my grave. This will be my coffin. All my friends lie at the bottom of the sea, and I want to lie there too.

The colonists promised to fulfill his request and after Nemo’s death, they tightly closed all the doors and hatches on the Nautilus, after which they opened both purge valves at the stern. On October 16, 1868, in the Dakkar cave, the Nautilus sank under water forever, and on March 9, 1869, after a prolonged eruption of Mount Franklin, the walls of the cave collapsed and the mountain and a significant part of the island were destroyed from the water gushing into the mouth of the volcano. The Nautilus was finally buried under debris.

Inaccuracies and miscalculations in the description of "Nautilus"

Juulverne's description contains a number of inaccuracies.

Discrepancies in chronology

It is impossible to accurately determine the year the ship was built. Professor Aronnax finds in the ship's library the book "Principles of Astronomy" by Joseph Bertrand, published in 1865, from which he concludes that the Nautilus was built no earlier than 1865.

These obvious contradictions are caused by the fact that in the novels where “Nautilus” appears, fundamentally inconsistent dates are given:

In “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” the action takes place in 1867-1868, Captain Nemo is in his prime, the crew of the Nautilus is still quite large.
In “The Mysterious Island” the action takes place at the same time - in 1865-1869. But Captain Nemo is already an old man (at the end of the book he is about 70 years old), all his comrades are long dead, the Nautilus is locked in a cave. At the same time, Smith refers to the plot of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” as an old, well-known story. Interestingly, the life story of Captain Nemo, told to the colonists, gives dates corresponding to “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, although they contradict the chronology of this book.

The contradictions can only be resolved in one way - by “moving” the plot of the second novel into the future by 30 years. But then it will become impossible to link it to the American Civil War.

Technical inaccuracies and obvious miscalculations

The power plant of the Nautilus still remains a fantasy - even now there are no batteries or accumulators of acceptable size, weight and sufficient capacity to allow the Nautilus to complete the long flights described in the book without refueling and recharging. The sodium batteries described by the author are in principle not capable of this. This is not the only example of excessively powerful electrical devices in the novels of Jules Verne, for example, in the novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon” one of the design elements of the balloon’s power plant is an electric battery with equally unrealistic parameters; even modern batteries of such capacity simply would not lift a balloon.
The author overestimated the strength of the Nautilus hull. The descent to a depth of several kilometers described in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” would inevitably lead to the destruction of the Nautilus - the hull could not withstand such water pressure, no matter how durable it was, not to mention the searchlight, portholes in the wheelhouse and huge observation windows in the cabin of the ship.
The description of the ship's premises mentions a luxurious salon with a stunning museum collection of marine wonders, with a fountain in the middle and statues on stands. A rich library, shelves with valuable dishes, and a collection of framed paintings on the walls are also mentioned. This does not prevent Captain Nemo from organizing battles with sperm whales and ramming attacks on surface ships, although the jolts, rolls and pitching inevitable during such maneuvers would seriously damage all these values.
Jules Verne gracefully sidestepped the issue of supplying the Nautilus with high-quality consumables that require skilled workmanship, in the absence of an equipped coastal base with trained personnel. During the “tour of the Nautilus,” Captain Nemo mentions some of these materials (including food, clothes made of high-quality fabric, fine cigars) as being made from “sea” materials, which supposedly removes the question. In fact, even if we assume that a number of supplies (for example, electric bullets) have been stored since the construction of the ship, most consumable materials simply cannot be obtained under the described conditions. For example, it is possible to replace plant fibers or wool with algae in the production of fabrics, but this does not eliminate the need for spinning, weaving, and dyeing. It is impossible to place all the equipment necessary, even just for this technological cycle, on the Nautilus, not to mention the fact that specialists are needed to work on it.
Without an air regeneration system, even with periodic ventilation, life on the Nautilus would very soon become unbearable - people smoke on board, food supplies and used equipment are stored right there, including algae, fish and fishing nets. The kitchen and crew quarters are also located here, while the only hygienic devices mentioned are a washbasin and a single bathtub. In addition, the batteries themselves emit an unpleasant odor.
A crew is required to control the ship. After reducing the crew size below a certain limit, managing the Nautilus would first become extremely difficult, and then completely impossible (the fewer people, the more duties each of them would have to simultaneously perform). Captain Nemo piloted the Nautilus alone, at least during its last voyage across the Pacific Ocean, before the ship was moored in a cave. The level of automation that allows one person, who also needs periodic rest, to effectively control such a large and complex ship, has not yet been achieved.

Criticism

Other submarines in the works of Jules Verne

After “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Mysterious Island” (1875), J. Verne did not return to submarines for quite some time. Finally, in 1896, the novel “Flag of the Motherland” was published, which featured a submarine. Like the Nautilus, its main weapon is a ram, but it is much smaller in size, equipped with a periscope, and its source of electricity is batteries. There is no more detailed description of the submarine in the novel. It is not commanded by a noble captain, like Nemo, but by Ker Karraje, a villain who uses the submarine for pirate attacks on ships. Later in the novel, another submarine, the Sword, appears for a while, and then follows a description of the battle between two submarines, which ends in the defeat of the Sword. At the end of the novel, Ker Carrage and his submarine (which is not called anything other than a “tug”) die.

Cultural aspects

The Nautilus could have turned out to be an ordinary fantasy machine from a novel, if not for Captain Nemo. Nemo was originally conceived as a Polish revolutionary sinking Russian ships in cold blood, and the Nautilus was a killing machine. However, Etzel was against such a character and forced the writer to completely remake him. As a result, Nemo changed from a Pole to a Hindu, from a murderer-avenger to a rebel, a fighter against aggression, and also a marine scientist. Over time, many of the qualities of Captain Nemo began to be unwittingly assigned to his ship. The Nautilus ceased to be a killing machine and began to be considered not only a high-speed submarine, which is subject to all the depths, but also a weapon of retaliation, a research laboratory and the underwater abode of a hermit. With his help, Nemo not only sank the ships of the aggressors, but also helped the oppressed, and also studied underwater life. The famous maritime explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau often compared himself with the heroes of the novel:

Also in favor of “Nautilus” is the title of the novel, which was originally supposed to be called “Captain Nemo”, since the main emphasis in it was on the image of the captain. However, J. Verne soon changed the title to “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” and this played a significant role. So the name itself draws in the readers’ subconscious images of the depths of the sea, the ship itself, and only then the captain. Partly thanks to this, with the high popularity of the novel, the Nautilus became one of the most famous submarines in the world.

"Nautilus" in the works of other authors

It must be said that in a number of the films listed above, “Nautilus” has practically nothing in common with the description of Jules Verne. For example, in 2007, the film “30,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was released, where “Nautilus” is a fantastic submarine of enormous size, outwardly more similar to the Soviet submarine Project 941. The situation is approximately the same in the above-mentioned film “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (2003), where the “Nautilus” in appearance strongly resembles a colossal nuclear submarine, is capable of developing enormous speed and is armed with ballistic missiles.

Also, a ship named “Nautilus” appears in the TV series “Star Trek: Voyager” in the episode “Year to hell” (episodes 8 and 9 of season 4).

"Nautilus" in animation

As in the movies, in animation the Nautilus is sometimes very different from its description in the novel, both in appearance and size. For example, in the anime “Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water” it looks more like a futuristic ship from the future, and is several times larger than the literary original.

"Nautilus" appears in the following cartoons and anime:

"Brandy's Family on Mysterious Island" (1972)
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1972, 1975, 2002)
"Mysterious Island" (1975, 2001)
"The Underwater Adventures of Captain Nemo" (1975)
"The Great Sea Battle: 20,000 Miles of Love" (1981)
"Damu Toraburu Tondekeman" (1990)
"Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" (1990-1991)
"Space Strikers" (1995)

"Nautilus" in computer and video games

It is noteworthy that in the game “Mechanoids 2: War of the Clans”, published in 2006, a mechanoid named Nautilus appears. However, the player will never see the Nautilus itself.

Other

Also named “Nautilus” is the habitable space module BA 330 designed by NASA (its first launch into space is scheduled for 2014).

"Nautilus" and real submarines

Jules Verne was neither the author of the idea of a submarine ship, nor the first to call such a ship the Nautilus. Fulton's Nautilus is a real submarine, extremely imperfect, but nevertheless, it made real dives and moved under water, it was built back in 1800. During the Civil War in the United States, submarine and semi-submarine warships were built and used in combat (however, for the most part, without much success).

The length of the Nautilus was 70 meters, the maximum width was 8 meters, and the displacement was one and a half thousand tons. His main weapon is a steel ram of enormous hardness, capable of breaking through the hull of any ship. It was capable of descending to a depth of 16 thousand meters and accelerating underwater to 50 knots. And this was at a time when real submarines could move underwater at a speed of no more than 5 knots and dive to a depth of no more than 25 meters. In addition, none of the real submarines built or just conceived in the drawings had such a powerful, practically inexhaustible “fuel” with which the Nautilus was supplied - electricity. Electricity provides everything to the ship: it rotates the propeller and drives compressors, illuminates the depths of the ocean and the interior, allows you to cook food and obtain distilled water. The design of the ship includes all the basic elements of submarines, it uses the most modern, at that time, ideas and developments, and the method of diving using horizontal rudders is widely used by all modern submarines. The Nautilus even managed to get out of a huge whirlpool, and its reliability is evidenced by the fact that throughout the entire novel no technical problems are ever mentioned. For its time, the Nautilus was an ideal submarine ship. Nemo even allowed himself to remark:

...in the field of shipbuilding, our contemporaries are not far from the ancients. It took several centuries to discover the mechanical power of steam! Who knows whether even in a hundred years a second Nautilus will appear! Progress moves slowly, Mr. Aronnax!

To which Aronnax replied:

Absolutely right, your ship is ahead of its era by a century, if not centuries!

However, soon after the novel was published, progress in the development of the submarine fleet began to pick up speed. The production of submarines increased, and their design began to improve more and more. Already in 1886, a submarine with an electric engine was launched in England, which was named in honor of Captain Nemo's ship - “Nautilus”. In June 1904, Verne's article "The Future of the Submarine" was published in the magazine "Popular Mechanics", where he argued that the future belonged to mini-submarines, as it would find super-powerful sources of electricity for submarine liners and build a large vessel capable of withstanding pressure at significant depths. were, in the writer’s opinion, impossible tasks.

In the future, boats will be smaller than today and will be operated by one or two people.

The inability of submarines to sink to the ocean floor is more than compensated for by bathyscaphes. So on January 23, 1960, 92 years after the Nautilus dive, Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh ( English) on the bathyscaphe "Trieste" made a record dive to a depth of 11 kilometers into the Mariana Trench and discovered highly organized life there.

Modern submarines are dozens of times larger in displacement than Verne's Nautilus, in speed they have almost caught up with it (the speed record among submarines is 44.7 knots, set by the Soviet nuclear submarine Project 661), and their crew is more than a hundred people. They also have equipment and weapons that Verne could not even dream of (or refused for one reason or another to equip the Nautilus with them): periscope, sonar, air regeneration units, satellite communications, torpedoes, ballistic missiles and much, much more. . If in - years. The design of the Nautilus was considered fantastic, but after a little more than a century it turned out to be obsolete.

However, its design is still popular and is used in the tourism business. So in 2006, at an exhibition in Dubai, the Exomos company presented the Nautilus submarine project. The appearance of the submarine is as close as possible to the literary prototype. Its passenger capacity is 10 people, and its maximum diving depth is 30 meters. The cost of the submarine is $3 million.

Gallery

Notes

Illustration for the first edition of the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” 1869 (artists Neuville and Ryu)
Jules Verne. 20,000 leagues under the sea.
E.L. Brandis Next to Jules Verne. - ISBN 5-08-000087-2
Nautilus C 2000 Induction Flow Meter. Archived
Podmoskovye.ru. Holidays in the Moscow region. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
HOTEL NAUTILUS - INN BUSINESS CLASS HOTEL. (inaccessible link - story) Retrieved March 20, 2009.
Diving Center Nautilus. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
Diving club "Nautilus". Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
Nautilus Restaurant (Dinopark). Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
Vl. Gakov. Captain of the Nautilus. (inaccessible link - story)
Edouard Launay. In the footsteps of Captain Nemo. French writers. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
Shapiro L. S. Nautilus and others. Russian submarine fleet. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
It is worth noting that at the end of the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Nautilus attacks an English ship (this is not directly indicated, but is quite clearly hinted at).
Jules Verne. Indian Ocean // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Mobilis in mobili // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Part three. Chapter XVI // Mysterious Island.
Jules Verne. Some numbers // 20,000 leagues under water.
The artist gave Professor Aronnax the features of J. Verne.
Jules Verne. Floating Reef // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Jules Verne. Everything is electric // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Black River // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Hecatomb // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Lack of air // 20,000 leagues under water.
The artist depicted him this way at the writer’s personal request, even though it ran counter to the description in the novel.
Jules Verne."Nautilus" // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Sea Dweller // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The actual maximum depth of the Sargasso Sea is 6,995 m, the actual maximum known depth of the ocean is 11,022 m, in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean.
Jules Verne. Sargasso Sea // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. South Pole // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Red Sea // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Jules Verne. Vanikoro // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Jules Verne. The Vanished Continent // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

The idea of creating a huge underwater ship did not arise immediately for J. Verne. “Nautilus” owes its appearance in the writer’s fantasy, first of all, to its captain, Nemo. In 1866, Jules Verne wrote to his publisher Etzel:
"Alligator"

It is necessary that my unknown person should not have the slightest contact with the rest of humanity, from which he is completely separated. He does not live on the earth, he does without the earth. The sea is enough for him, but the sea needs to give him everything, including clothes and food. He never sets foot on any continent...

The writer decided to place his hero in the depths of the ocean, and for this he needed a submarine ship. This is how the image of the future Nautilus began to take shape. In the 1860s, submarines were already quite well known, they were built in a number of countries and the writer knew quite well about them. So, back in 1862, he saw the “Plongeur” (“Diver”) under construction, which was considered a real giant among submarines. In 1867, returning to Paris after a trip to the USA, Verne visited the World Exhibition on the Champ de Mars, where the “Electric Fairy”, the project for the future Suez Canal, as well as the technologies of the first submarines and spacesuits, many of which the writer later introduced on his own, were presented. fantastic underwater ship.

It is difficult to determine exactly which submarine served as the final prototype of the Nautilus. So, in appearance it is very similar to the American submarine “Alligator”, launched in 1862. However, in terms of internal equipment, the Nautilus is closest to the French Plongeur: a compressed air tank in the bow, a mechanical propeller drive, purging of ballast tanks using compressed air, and also huge dimensions compared to other submarines.
Model "Plongeur" in the National Maritime Museum, Paris

It is widely believed that the Nautilus was named after the boat of the same name by Robert Fulton, which he demonstrated to Parisians on the Seine in May 1801. However, in his works, Verne, born in 1828, never mentions his name, especially since Fulton offered his submarines not only to France, but also to its potential enemy - England. Thus, Verne had no reason to name a fictional submarine after a real one. Moreover, the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea describes an episode when the passengers of the Nautilus observe a school of nautilus mollusks (in the novel they are called Argonauts) and compare the mollusks and their shells with Captain Nemo and his ship. The same episode reveals the meaning of the Nautilus motto - “Mobilis in mobile”.
[edit] “Nautilus” in the literary works of Jules Verne
[edit] Creation

After the defeat of the sepoy uprising in India and the return of British rule, Prince Dakkar, having lost his wife and two children, along with a handful of people loyal to him, moves to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. There he designs and creates blueprints for his future submarine. Then he sends orders with drawings for the manufacture of individual components of the ship to different parts of the world, signing all the drawings with different names and indicating the fictitious purpose of each order. The keel is created by Creusot, the propeller shaft by Pen and Company in London, the hull sheeting by Laird in Liverpool, the propeller by Scott in Glasgow, the tanks by Keil and Company in Paris, the engines by Krupp in Prussia, the ram in the Motal workshops in Sweden, measuring instruments from the Garth brothers in New York, etc. After this, Prince Dakkar, who henceforth calls himself Captain Nemo, creates a wooden shipyard on the island where he assembles a ship, which receives the name “Nautilus”. After assembling the ship, Nemo burns all traces of people on the island and begins traveling in the depths of the sea on his ship.
[edit] Construction

The ship has a spindle-shaped shape, its length is 70 m, and its width is up to 8 m. The underwater displacement of the ship is 1500.2 tons, the surface displacement is 9/10 of the underwater one. The Nautilus has two hulls, one external, the other internal; they are connected to each other by iron beams with an I-section, which give the vessel extreme strength; riveted joints are replaced by welding. The double skin of the ship is made of sheet steel, the specific gravity of which is 7.8 t/m;. The thickness of the outer skin is at least 5 cm, the keel is 50 cm high and 25 cm wide. Also, when describing the design, Nemo talks about horizontal rudders located in the middle of the hull on the sides, but they are not mentioned later in the novel. The bow is crowned by the main weapon of the ship - a ram, which has the shape of an isosceles triangle in diameter. In the stern there is a propeller with a diameter of 6 meters, its maximum rotation speed is 120 rpm. In the upper part there are 2 superstructures - a wheelhouse and, slightly behind it, a cabin for a spotlight with a reflector; before the Nautilus attacks, they are recessed into the hull. In the middle there is a boat, which is attached to the ship’s hull with several bolts, and on top it is covered by an easily disassembled canopy. There is also a fence installed along the “deck”, which is retracted into the hull before an attack. On both sides there are large oval portholes, for the glazing of which (as well as the cabin and searchlight cabin) 21 cm thick crystal is used. For diving and ascent, ballast tanks with a volume of 150.72 m are used; they are filled and purged through 2 taps located in the aft part of the ship, and the pumps for purging the tanks are so powerful that they ensure ascent from any depth. Thus, the novel describes an episode when pumps threw the remaining water from ballast tanks to a height of about 40 meters. All engines on the ship are electric, the source of electricity is heavy-duty sodium batteries. The maximum speed is 50 knots, the maximum diving depth is at least 16 kilometers. To obtain fresh water from seawater, the Nautilus uses a distillation installation. The absence of an air regeneration system (Nemo considered it unnecessary) and the need for regular ventilation deprive the ship of complete autonomy (the maximum duration of the Nautilus dive is about 5 days).
[edit] Internal layout
Salon

If you go from the stem to the midships, the first 7.5 meters are occupied by an air storage tank. Behind it is a 2.5 meter long cabin in which Professor Aronnax lived. Next comes the captain's cabin, 5 meters long. The captain's cabin is described as a harsh room, with only an iron bed, a work desk, a few chairs and a washbasin as furniture.

The salon is separated from them by a waterproof bulkhead. This is a spacious hall, 10 meters long, 6 wide and 5 high. Behind the patterned ceiling, designed in the spirit of Moorish vaulted roofs, powerful lighting lamps are hidden. Captain Nemo has set up a real museum of art and gifts of nature here. The walls are covered with woven wallpaper of a strict pattern. About 30 paintings in identical frames, separated from one another by shields with knightly armor, adorn the walls. Among the masters represented are: Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Titian, Veronese, Murillo, Holbein, Diego Velazquez, Ribeira, Rubens, Teniers, Gerard Dou, Metsu, Paul Potter, Gericault, Prudhon, Backhuisen, Berne, Delacroix, Enger, De Camp, Troyon, Meissonnier, Daubigny, while the works of the newfangled masters of that time are absent, which is specially mentioned. The entire wall between the doors is occupied by a huge harmonium, on which scores of Weber, Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Herold, Wagner, Auber, Gounod and many others are scattered. In the corners, on high pedestals, there are several marble and bronze copies of ancient sculptures. Next to works of art are creations of nature, represented by algae, shells and other gifts of ocean fauna and flora. In the middle of the salon, a fountain gushes from a giant tridacna, illuminated from below by electricity. The edges of the shell are gracefully jagged, and its diameter is about 2 meters. Around the shells in elegant display cases framed in copper, the rarest exhibits of oceanic waters are arranged by class and labeled.

Next comes the dining room, 5 meters long, decorated and furnished in strict taste. At both ends of the dining room there are tall oak stands inlaid with ebony, on their shelves with wavy edges there are utensils made of expensive earthenware, porcelain, crystal and silver. There is a table in the middle of the hall. To soften the light from the ceiling lamps, subtle ceiling paintings were used.

So thanks to him, the heroes were able to see the life of the depths of the sea.

The depths of the sea were magnificently illuminated within a radius of one mile from the Nautilus. A wonderful sight! What a pen is worthy to describe it! What brush is capable of depicting all the tenderness of the colorful range, the play of light rays in transparent sea waters, starting from the deepest layers to the surface of the ocean!

The Nautilus slid into the bottomless depths, despite the enormous pressure of the external environment. I felt how the iron cladding of the ship creaked, how the struts bent, how the bulkheads trembled, how the glass in the salon windows seemed to bend inward under the pressure of the water. If our ship did not have the resistance of steel, as its commander said, it would, of course, be flattened!

Afterwards, the heroes on the Nautilus make a trip under the ice to the south pole, on the site of which there is a small island, and Nemo plants his flag at the pole.

I, Captain Nemo, on March 21, 1868, reached the South Pole, at 90 degrees south latitude, and took possession of this part of the globe, equal to one-sixth of all known continents.

Well, there was a battle! Even Ned Land was delighted and clapped his hands. The Nautilus in the hands of the captain turned into a formidable harpoon. He cut into these fleshy carcasses and cut them in half, leaving behind two bloody pieces of meat. The terrible blows of the tail on its casing were not sensitive to him. The pushes of powerful carcasses - he doesn’t care! Having destroyed one sperm whale, he rushed to another, turned from tack to tack so as not to miss the victim, gave first forward, then reverse, plunged, obedient to the will of the navigator, into the depths when the animal went under water, floated after him to the surface of the ocean , went into a frontal attack or struck from the flank, attacked from the front, from the rear, chopped, cut with his terrible tusk!

What a massacre there was! What a noise there was over the ocean waters! What a piercing whistle, what a death rattle escaped from the throats of the maddened animals! Agitated by the blows of the mighty tails, the calm ocean waters seethed as if in a cauldron!
This Homeric massacre went on for a whole hour, where there was no mercy for the big heads. Several times, united in groups of ten to twelve individuals, sperm whales went on the offensive, trying to crush the ship with their carcasses. The gaping toothy mouths and the terrible eyes of the animals darting about on the other side of the windows infuriated Ned Land. He showered the big-headed men with curses and shook his fist at them. The sperm whales dug their teeth into the iron plating of the submarine, like dogs gnawing at the throat of a hunted boar. But the Nautilus, by the will of the helmsman, either carried them along with it into the depths, or brought them to the surface of the waters, despite the enormous weight and powerful grip of the animals.

Meanwhile, the speed of the Nautilus increased noticeably. So he took a running start. His entire body shook. And suddenly I screamed: the Nautilus struck, but not as strong as one might have expected. I felt the piercing movement of a steel tusk. I heard clanging and grinding. The Nautilus, thanks to the mighty force of its forward thrust, passed through the hull of the ship as easily as a sailmaker's needle through canvas.

At the end of the novel, in the process of escaping the passengers, the Nautilus falls into a huge whirlpool - the Maelstrom, but, as it later turns out in the novel The Mysterious Island, it managed to get out of it.
[edit] Last Harbor

...I want the Nautilus to be my grave. This will be my coffin. All my friends lie at the bottom of the sea, and I want to lie there too.

Juulverne's description of the Nautilus contains a number of inaccuracies.
[edit] Discrepancies in chronology

It is impossible to accurately determine the year the ship was built. Professor Aronnax finds in the ship's library a book by Joseph Bertrand "Principles of Astronomy", published in 1865, from which he concludes that the Nautilus was built no earlier than 1865.

The novel The Mysterious Island indicates that the Nautilus was built after the end of the Sepoy Mutiny, that is, not earlier than 1859. , and by the time the colonists arrived on the island, Nemo had already spent 6 years there. It turns out that the Nautilus was laid up already in 1859, and in 1865 it was locked in a cave. It follows from this that the ship sailed in the ocean for less than a year, and Nemo himself spent only 9 years on it, which is much less than the 30 years that engineer Cyrus Smith called it.

These obvious contradictions are caused by the fact that in the novels where “Nautilus” appears, fundamentally inconsistent dates are given:

* In “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” the action takes place in 1867-1868, Captain Nemo is in his prime, the crew of the Nautilus is still quite large.
* In "The Mysterious Island" the action takes place at the same time - in 1865-1869. But Captain Nemo is already an old man (at the end of the book he is about 70 years old), all his comrades are long dead, the Nautilus is locked in a cave. At the same time, Smith refers to the plot of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” as an old, well-known story. Interestingly, the story of Captain Nemo's life as told to the colonists gives dates that correspond to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, although they contradict the chronology of this book.

The contradictions can only be resolved in one way - by “moving” the plot of the second novel into the future by 30 years. But then it will become impossible to link it to the American Civil War.
[edit] Technical inaccuracies and obvious miscalculations

* When Aronnax first leaves the Nautilus, he describes how the surface of the ship is covered with metal plates laid like tiles, which makes them look like scales from a distance. However, when he first landed on the Nautilus, and also repeatedly subsequently, he described its surface as completely smooth, making the ship look like a whale.
* At the time of writing the novel, torpedoes had already appeared in the fleet, but J. Verne did not equip the Nautilus with them. However, in the novel “The Mysterious Island,” at the site of the explosion of the pirate ship, Cyrus Smith finds the remains of an object similar to a sea mine, and Nemo later says that he blew up the ship with a torpedo.
* The power plant of the Nautilus still remains a fantasy - even now there are no batteries or accumulators of acceptable size, weight and sufficient capacity to allow the Nautilus to complete the long flights described in the book without refueling and recharging. The sodium batteries described by the author are in principle not capable of this. This is not the only example of excessively powerful electrical devices in the novels of Jules Verne, for example, in the novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon” one of the design elements of the balloon’s power plant is an electric battery with equally unrealistic parameters; even modern batteries of such capacity simply would not lift a balloon.
* The author overestimated the strength of the Nautilus hull. The descent to a depth of several kilometers described in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” would inevitably lead to the destruction of the Nautilus - the hull could not withstand such water pressure, no matter how durable it was, not to mention the searchlight, portholes in the control room and huge observation windows in the cabin of the ship.
* The description of the ship's premises mentions a luxurious salon with a stunning museum collection of marine wonders, with a fountain in the middle and statues on stands. A rich library, shelves with valuable dishes, and a collection of framed paintings on the walls are also mentioned. This does not prevent Captain Nemo from organizing battles with sperm whales and ramming attacks on surface ships, although the jolts, rolls and rolls inevitable during such maneuvers would seriously damage all these values.
* Jules Verne gracefully sidestepped the issue of supplying the Nautilus with high-quality consumables that require skilled workmanship, in the absence of an equipped coastal base with trained personnel. During the “tour of the Nautilus,” Captain Nemo mentions some of these materials (including food, clothes made of high-quality fabric, fine cigars) as being made from “sea” materials, which supposedly removes the question. In fact, even if we assume that a number of supplies (for example, electric bullets) have been stored since the construction of the ship, most consumable materials simply cannot be obtained under the described conditions. For example, it is possible to replace plant fibers or wool with algae in the production of fabrics, but this does not eliminate the need for spinning, weaving, and dyeing. It is impossible to place all the equipment necessary, even just for this technological cycle, on the Nautilus, not to mention the fact that specialists are needed to work on it.
* In the absence of an air regeneration system on board, even with periodic ventilation, life on board the Nautilus would very soon become unbearable - people smoke on board, food supplies and used equipment are stored right there, including algae, fish and fishing nets. The kitchen and crew quarters are also located here, and only the washbasin is mentioned among the hygienic devices. In addition, the batteries themselves emit an unpleasant odor.
* A crew is required to operate the ship. After reducing the crew size below a certain limit, managing the Nautilus would first become extremely difficult, and then completely impossible (the fewer people, the more duties each of them would have to simultaneously perform). Captain Nemo piloted the Nautilus alone, at least during its last voyage across the Pacific Ocean, before the ship was moored in a cave. The level of automation that allows one person, who also needs periodic rest, to effectively control such a large and complex ship, has not yet been achieved.

[edit] “Nautilus” in the works of other authors

In 1993-2002 V. Hohlbein published a series of books under the general title “Children of Captain Nemo” (another name is “Operation Nautilus”). The novels are set in 1916, during the First World War, and the main character is the young son of the Prince of Dakkar named Michael. The main action takes place on board the Nautilus, but the ship itself, judging by the rare mentions of its design, differs in many ways from the ship from the novels of J. Verne. Thus, Holbein’s Nautilus is equipped with a periscope, which did not yet exist in 1869, a searchlight is placed on the bow of the ship, and internal combustion engines are used as engines (fuel supply pumps are mentioned more than once in the novel). In total, the series includes 12 books, the first of which (“Abandoned Island”, “Girl from Atlantis”) have already been translated into Russian.

[edit] Other submarines in the works of Jules Verne
"Grozny" in different environments

In 1904, the novel “Lord of the World” was published, where “Terrible” appears - a machine capable of moving through the air, on land, on water and under water. "Grozny" has a spindle-shaped metal body 10 meters long. The hull is quite narrow, and it becomes sharper at the bow than at the stern. The vehicle is driven on land by 4 spoked wheels with thick tires, and driven underwater by 2 Parsons turbines. For orientation under water, a periscope is installed in the bow. To move through the air, wings are used, which are usually pressed to the sides and spread out only in flight. The energy source is powerful electric batteries. The captain of the Terrible is Robur, who previously appeared in the novel Robur the Conqueror. At the end of the novel, he, imagining himself the Master of Nature, drives the car into the very center of a thunderstorm, where the Terrible is struck by lightning and falls into the ocean.

Both novels were published in large quantities and translated into many languages of the world, but they never reached the popularity of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Mysterious Island,” and “Terrible” remained just one of the writer’s fictions.
[edit] Nautilus on the screen
[edit] In films and television
Nautilus in the 1954 film Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
The bow compartment of the Nautilus in the 1916 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

“Nautilus” is present in all films and television films adapting the corresponding works of Jules Verne or based on them or with the participation of their heroes. In particular, “Nautilus” can be seen in the following films and television films:

* "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1907, 1916, 1927, 1952, 1954, 1997, 1997 (II), 2007)
* "The Mysterious Island" (1902, 1921, 1929, 1941, 1951, 1961, 1963, 1973, 1975, 1995, 2001, 2005)
* "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City" (1969)
* "Captain Nemo" (1975)
* "The Return of Captain Nemo" (1978)
* "Nemo" (1984)
* "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003)
* "30,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (2007)

However, in most films, Nautilus is very different from the description in the book. Outwardly, it most often looks like a large fish, but in some films (for example, “Captain Nemo”) it looks like a modern submarine and is even equipped with a periscope. There is also a wide range of sizes, from fairly modest to colossal. For example, in the 1954 film 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea its length is 32 meters (based on the length of its life model), and in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen it is several hundred meters long. The type of attack of the Nautilus often changes, for example, in 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1954) it does not pass through the hull of the ship, but makes a hole in its bottom using a fin - a “saw”, installed in the bow, and in the nautilus in the 1916 film "Nautilus" is armed with torpedoes.

It must be said that in a number of the films listed above, “Nautilus” has practically nothing in common with the description of Jules Verne. For example, in 2007, the film “30,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was released, where the “Nautilus” is a fantastic submarine of enormous size, outwardly more similar to the Soviet submarine Project 941. Things are approximately the same in the above-mentioned film “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003), where the Nautilus looks very much like a colossal nuclear submarine, is capable of enormous speed and is armed with ballistic missiles.

Also, a ship named "Nautilus" appears in the TV series "Star Trek: Voyager" in the episode "Year to hell" (episodes 8 and 9 of season 4).

In January 2009, director McG announced his intention to make a film based on the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Walt Disney Pictures. According to him, the film will be about the life of the young Prince Dakkar and the creation of the Nautilus.
[edit] In animation

"Nautilus" appears in the following cartoons and anime:

* "Brandy's Family on Mysterious Island" (1972)
* "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1972, 1975, 2002)
* "Mysterious Island" (1975, 2001)
* "The Underwater Adventures of Captain Nemo" (1975)
* "The Great Sea Battle: 20,000 Miles of Love" (1981)
* "Damu Toraburu Tondekeman" (1990)
* "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" (1990-1991)
* "Willy Fog 2" (1993)
* "Space Strikers" (1995)
* "Johnny Bravo" (2000)

[edit] Nautilus in computer and video games
"Nautilus" in the game "Return to the Mysterious Island"

In 1984, Synapse Software released the game "Nautilus" where the player's task is to control a submarine and repel attacks from octopuses and surface ships.

In 1988, Coktel Vision released the video game "20,000 Lieues sous les Mers", where the appearance of the Nautilus was copied from modern submarines, and the interior was decorated in the steampunk genre.

On October 10, 2002, Cryo Interactive Entertainment released the game “The Worlds of Jules Verne: The Secret of the Nautilus” where all the main action takes place inside the Nautilus.

On November 3, 2004, The Adventure Company released the game Return to the Mysterious Island, which depicts the Nautilus largely as described in the novel.

In 2007, 1C released the game “Rex and Captain Nemo”, where the image of “Nautilus” was borrowed from the shell of the mollusk of the same name.

There is a modification of the game “Far Cry” (2004) called “The Mysterious Island” based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne.

It is noteworthy that in the game “Mechanoids 2: War of the Clans”, published in 2006, a mechanoid named Nautilus appears. However, the player will never see the Nautilus itself.
[edit] Nautilus and reality

Initially, the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was supposed to be called “Captain Nemo”, since the main emphasis in it was on the image of the captain, but after J. Verne changed the name, and this played in favor of “Nautilus”. So the name itself draws in the readers’ subconscious images of the depths of the sea, the ship itself, and only then the captain. Thanks to this, as well as the high popularity of the novel, the Nautilus became one of the most famous submarines in the world.
[edit] Nautilus and real submarines

The length of the Nautilus was 70 meters, the maximum width was 8 meters, and the displacement was one and a half thousand tons. His main weapon is a steel ram of enormous hardness, capable of breaking through the hull of any ship. It was capable of descending to a depth of 16 thousand meters and accelerating underwater to 50 knots. And this was at a time when real submarines could move underwater at a speed of no more than 5 knots and dive to a depth of no more than 25 meters. In addition, none of the real submarines built or just conceived in the drawings had such a powerful, practically inexhaustible “fuel” with which the Nautilus was supplied - electricity. Electricity provides everything to the ship: it rotates the propeller and powers the compressors, illuminates the depths of the ocean and the interior, allows you to cook food and obtain distilled water. The design of the ship includes all the basic elements of submarines, it uses the most modern, at that time, ideas and developments, and the method of diving using horizontal rudders is widely used by all modern submarines. The Nautilus even managed to get out of a huge whirlpool, and its reliability is evidenced by the fact that throughout the entire novel no technical problems are ever mentioned. For its time, the Nautilus was an ideal submarine ship. Nemo even allowed himself to remark:

...in the field of shipbuilding, our contemporaries are not far from the ancients. It took several centuries to discover the mechanical power of steam! Who knows whether even in a hundred years a second Nautilus will appear! Progress moves slowly, Mr. Aronnax!

To which Aronnax replied:

Absolutely right, your ship is ahead of its era by a century, if not centuries!

In the future, boats will be smaller than today and will be operated by one or two people.

SSN-571 "Nautilus"

But by the 1930s. submarines reach the size of the Nautilus. In 1931, the world's first attempt was made to sail to the North Pole in a submarine. It was carried out by polar explorers G. Wilkins and H. Sverdrup on the O-12 submarine, converted from a combat submarine to a research submarine and given the name “Nautilus”. On August 28, the boat reached a record latitude for ships - 82° N. sh., but due to unfavorable ice conditions on September 6 it was forced to turn back. However, this voyage confirmed the possibility of using submarines for scientific research, since during the voyage valuable data was collected on the topography of the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. In 1954, the world's first nuclear submarine, SSN-571, was launched in the United States. The nuclear reactor has become a powerful, almost inexhaustible source of energy for submarines, making them completely autonomous. SSN-571 was the most advanced submarine at that time, for which it received the name “Nautilus”. In the summer of 1958, under conditions of increased secrecy, SSN-571 “Nautilus” made a trip under the polar ice and on August 3 at 23.15 she passed the North Pole underwater for the first time in history. Subsequently, she will make a number of major campaigns in which she will further glorify the name she received. On March 17, 1959, exactly 91 years after the Nautilus's under-ice voyage to the South Pole, the SSN-578 Skate submarine repeated its achievement by surfacing at the North Pole. And in 1966, Soviet nuclear submarines for the first time in history circumnavigated the world without a single ascent along the route.

The inability of submarines to sink to the ocean floor is more than compensated for by bathyscaphes. So on January 23, 1960, 92 years after the dive of the Nautilus, Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh on the bathyscaphe Trieste made a record dive to a depth of 11 kilometers into the Mariana Trench and discovered highly organized life there .

Modern submarines are dozens of times larger in displacement than Verne's Nautilus, in speed they have almost caught up with it (the speed record among submarines is 44.7 knots, set by Soviet nuclear submarines of Project 661), and their crew is more than a hundred people. They also have equipment and weapons that Verne could not even dream of (or refused for one reason or another to equip the Nautilus with them): periscope, sonar, air regeneration units, satellite communications, torpedoes, ballistic missiles and much, much more. . If in 1860-1870. The design of the Nautilus was considered fantastic, but after a little more than a century it turned out to be obsolete.

A specially equipped ship is sailing through the Red Sea. In its bow, near the bottom, there is a cabin with wide underwater windows. Sitting in it, you can view the water column for tens of meters all around. A school of dolphins appears. They swim in front of the glass, racing with the ship, and the camera captures their elusive graceful movements. I can’t help but remember Jules Verne’s book “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” which we all were fond of as children. There, Captain Nemo's companions conducted their observations of underwater inhabitants in the same way.

"Calypso" approached the giants, and an unusual sight opened up to the eyes of underwater observers: huge animals swam at the very bow of the ship, maintaining speed with barely noticeable movements. And again the ears of the observers looking out of the windows, like Ned Land and Professor Aronnax from Julierne's Nautilus, caught the thin voices of the leviathans.

"Nautilus" was for its time a perfect design, a technical breakthrough, an ideal submarine, its name became the most popular among submarines. Subsequently, not only submarines, but also other equipment and mechanisms began to be named in his honor; “Nautilus” almost became a brand. So in 1970, the name “Nautilus” was given to a series of mechanical sports simulators, which radically changed the method of training bodybuilders. The famous rock band Nautilus Pompilius, although it was named after the mollusk Nautilus, its name was so often associated with the literary Nautilus that the lead singer, Vyacheslav Butusov, was often called Captain Nemo. In 2003, Rover Computers named its new series of laptops, the RoverBook Nautilus, after the sci-fi submarine. The company's president commented on the name as follows:

At one time, the ideas presented in Jules Verne's novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” were truly revolutionary. And in many ways they remain so today.

Also named “Nautilus” is the habitable space module BA 330 (English) designed by NASA (its first launch into space is scheduled for 2012).
[edit] Criticism

In 1968, issue No. 3 of the journal Science and Life published an article by shipbuilding engineer A. Grossman, “The comfortable Nautilus and the cramped Panther.” In it, the author argued that the Nautilus was impossible in reality, since it would not be able to dive under water, and the weight of the ship was greatly overestimated. The engineer’s arguments were that the ship has too spacious rooms with a minimum of equipment, which is why the Nautilus, with large volumes, is too light and, according to Archimedes’ law, will constantly float on the surface. His statements seemed so convincing to the public that a number of printed publications published this article on their pages. Even when in 1971, in issue No. 5 of the same magazine, an article by engineer G. Nadyarnykh “Into the Depths of the World Ocean” was published, where in a footnote to the text the author pointed out the fallacy of Grossman’s article, most readers simply did not pay attention to this connection.

It is quite simple to prove the inconsistency of Grossman's article. The volume of the ship is 1500 m; that is, in order for the Nautilus to sink under water, its weight must be at least 1500 tons. The total weight of the ship consists of the following:

1. Water ballast - about 150 tons (150.72 tons).
2. Outer hull - about 400 t (394.96 t).
3. Inner hull - about 400 tons (the thickness of its walls is not indicated in the novel, but there is no point in making them thinner than the walls of the outer hull).
4. Keel - about 60 tons (62 tons).
5. Bulkheads, frames, supports, propeller shaft, battle tusk, hold deck - about 150 tons.

Total: in order for the Nautilus to dive under water, its vehicles, equipment, batteries, furnishings, solid ballast, etc. must weigh about 340 tons, which is quite feasible in practice. The lightness of wooden cabinets and some equipment is easily compensated by heavy ballast. So, for example, if its weight is taken to be 240 tons, and the material is lead, then it will occupy a volume of about 21 m3, which is 1.4% of the total volume of the ship.
[edit] Gallery

"Mobilis in mobile"

Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax on the Nautilus plan

In the captain's cabin

In the library room

In the engine room

Nautilus in the Strait of Gibraltar

Nemo on the deck of the Nautilus

In the ice near the south pole

Nautilus in a cave on Lincoln Island

The colonists came to the Nautilus to see Nemo

Nautilus at Disneyland Paris
[edit] Notes

1. ; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Illustration for the first edition of the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” 1869 (artists Newville and Ryu)
2. ; 1 2 3 Jules Verne. 20,000 leagues under the sea.
3. ; 1 2 3 E.L. Brandis Next to Jules Verne. - ISBN 5-08-000087-2
4. ; Nautilus C 2000 Induction Flow Meter. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
5. ; Podmoskovye.ru. Holidays in the Moscow region. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
6. ; HOTEL NAUTILUS - INN BUSINESS CLASS HOTEL. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
7. ; Diving Center Nautilus. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
8. ; Diving club "Nautilus". Retrieved March 20, 2009.
9. ; Nautilus Restaurant (Dinopark). Retrieved March 20, 2009.
10. ; 1 2 3 Vl. Gakov. Captain of the Nautilus.
eleven. ; Edouard Launay. In the footsteps of Captain Nemo. French writers. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
12. ; Shapiro L. S. Nautilus and others. Russian submarine fleet. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
13. ; It is worth noting that at the end of the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Nautilus attacks an English ship (this is not directly indicated, but is quite clearly hinted at).
14. ; 1 2 Jules Verne. Indian Ocean // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
15. ; Jules Verne. Mobilis in mobile // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
16. ; 1 2 3 4 5 Jules Verne. Part three. Chapter XVI // Mysterious Island.
17. ; 1 2 3 4 Jules Verne. Some numbers // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
18. ; 1 2 3 4 Jules Verne. Floating Reef // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
19. ; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jules Verne. Everything on Electric Power // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
20. ; 1 2 3 Jules Verne. Black River // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
21. ; 1 2 Jules Verne. Hecatomb // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
22. ; Jules Verne. Lack of air // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
23. ; The artist depicted him this way at the personal request of the writer, although this went against the description in the novel.
24. ; 1 2 3 4 Jules Verne. "Nautilus" // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
25. ; Jules Verne. Dweller of the Seas // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
26. ; The actual maximum depth of the Sargasso Sea is 6,995 m, the actual maximum known depth of the ocean is 11,022 m, in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean.
27. ; Jules Verne. Sargasso Sea // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
28. ; Jules Verne. South Pole // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
29. ; 1 2 3 Jules Verne. Red Sea // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
thirty. ; 1 2 Jules Verne. Vanikoro // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
31. ; Jules Verne. The Vanished Continent // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
32. ; Jules Verne. Sperm whales and whales // 20,000 leagues under the sea.
33. ; Jules Verne. Coral Kingdom // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
34. ; Jules Verne. Captain Nemo's last words // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
35. ; 1 2 Jules Verne. Part three. Chapter XVII // Mysterious Island.
36. ; Jules Verne. Part three. Chapter XIX // Mysterious Island.
37. ; Jules Verne. Whale of unknown species // 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
38. ; Jules Verne. Part three. Chapter IV // Mysterious Island.
39. ; Jules Verne. Flag of the homeland.
40. ; Jules Verne. Lord of the world.
41. ; Director McG will send the Nautilus sailing, Lenta.ru (01/08/2009). Retrieved January 25, 2009.
42. ; Exclusive: McG Wants A Bad Boy To Go 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea! (English), LatinoReview.com (01/13/2009). Retrieved January 25, 2009.
43. ; 8-Bit Product Reviews: S.A.M., Alien Voice Box, Nautilus, K-razy Antik (English). Classic Computer Magazine Archive.
44. ; 20,000 Lieues sous les Mers (French). Mobilis in Mobile ~ Le mythe du Nautilus et du capitaine Nemo:.
45. ; Review of "The Worlds of Jules Verne: The Mystery of the Nautilus (IGROK)". on the 7Wolf website.
46. ; Return to Mysterious Island. on the Absolute Games website.
47. ; Rex and Captain Nemo. on the LCI website.
48. ; Nautilus in the “Mysterious Island” modification for the game Far Cry
49. ; Project for improving the submarine device by E. Campbell and D. Asch (Great Britain). Submarine "Nautilus".. Assault on the depths. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
50. ; Mary Seelhorst. The predictions of the great science fiction writer did not always come true. Popular Mechanics (September 2003). Retrieved January 25, 2009.
51. ; CM. Ignatiev. On the issue of the first research submarines. Assault on the depths. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
52. ; L. Zhiltsov. Americans in the Arctic. Russian submarine fleet. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
53. ; Strictly speaking, the circumnavigation of Soviet submarines was not entirely circumnavigation. The nuclear submarines left the Kola Peninsula and, heading west, ended their journey in the Far East, not reaching the starting point of the route about 10 thousand km.
54. ; Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh made the deepest possible deep-sea dive on Earth in the Trieste bathyscaphe. Around the world. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
55. ; O. Stryuk. Captain Nemo's Nautilus awaits tourists in Dubai, cTravel.ru (2006-03-13). Retrieved January 24, 2009.
56. ; 1 2 Jacques-Yves Cousteau “In a world of silence.” - AST, 2003. - ISBN 5-17-016766-0
57. ; Roger Schwab. Rise of the Machines. The Age of Nautilus: how it was and how it could be. Be healthy! © Hardgainer.RU. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
58. ; Dmitry Bebenin. Captain Nemo - before and after Nautilus. Website about the group Nautilus Pompilius. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
59. ; Mobile computers RoverBook Nautilus “Mobilis in Mobile”, OMAR (13-02-2003). Retrieved January 24, 2009.
60. ; G. Prokopik. Jules Verne was right! 2Lib.ru. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
61. ; The artist gave Professor Aronnax the features of J. Verne.
62. ; 1 2 Illustration for the first edition of the novel “The Mysterious Island” 1874 (artists Newville and Ryu)
63. ; Participated in the filming of the film “20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

[edit] Sources and literature
[edit] Sources

* Vl. Gakov. Captain of the Nautilus. Encyclopedia of Fiction. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
* Edouard Launay. In the footsteps of Captain Nemo. French writers. Retrieved January 25, 2009.

[edit] Literature

* Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. - Pravda, 1990. - ISBN 5-253-00490-4
* Jules Verne The Mysterious Island. - Siberian branch: Children's literature, 1990. - ISBN 5-08-007459-0
* E.L. Brandis Next to Jules Verne. - Leningrad: Children's literature, 1991. - ISBN 5-08-000087-2

[edit] See also

* Captain Nemo
* History of submarine shipbuilding

1. Captain Nobody's Ship

“The year 1866 was marked by an amazing incident, which is probably still remembered by many. Not to mention the fact that rumors circulating in connection with the inexplicable phenomenon in question worried residents of coastal cities and continents, they also sowed anxiety among sailors. Merchants, shipowners, ship captains, skippers, both in Europe and America, sailors of the navies of all countries, even the governments of various states of the Old and New Worlds were preoccupied with an event that defied explanation.

The fact is that for some time, many ships began to encounter some long, phosphorescent, spindle-shaped object in the sea, far superior to a whale, both in size and speed of movement.

The entries made in the logbooks of different ships are surprisingly similar in describing the appearance of the mysterious creature or object, the unheard-of speed and strength of its movements, as well as the peculiarities of its behavior. If it was a cetacean, then, judging by the descriptions, it was larger in size than all representatives of this order hitherto known to science. Neither Cuvier, nor Lacepede, nor Dumeril, nor Quatrefage would have believed in the existence of such a phenomenon without seeing it with their own eyes, or rather, with the eyes of scientists...”

Thus begins a book that was destined to immediately become a classic of literature and the emerging genre of science fiction. In 1869, Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was published. Since perhaps not all readers remember well the plot twists and turns of this novel, I will allow myself to briefly recall them. The US is equipping the frigate Abraham Lincoln to hunt the mysterious sea animal. The largest specialist in marine biology, Pierre Aronnax, a professor at the Paris Museum, is taking part in this expedition. After a long chase, the Abraham Lincoln is overtaken by a mysterious monster, which turns out to be an amazing underwater vessel.The imaginary beast emerges victorious from the fight. Finding themselves overboard, Aronnax, his servant Conseil and the Canadian harpooner Ned Land end up on an underwater vessel called the Nautilus ("Ship" in Latin) and become prisoners of its captain, named "Nemo" ("Nobody", again , in Latin). Thus begins the fascinating journey of the heroes through the depths of the World Ocean. Professor Aronnax, through whose mouth the author speaks, introduces readers to the inhabitants of the depths of the sea, talks about treasures that ended up on the ocean floor, discusses the future development of the water space of our planet - in a word, he acts as a guide, mandatory for science fiction of that period. All this information, of course, could be gleaned by an inquisitive reader from contemporary scientific literature, but learning about the world and at the same time, holding your breath, following the twists and turns of an adventure plot is much more interesting!And, moreover, it would not be so easy for an enthusiastic reader to find out about the design features of an underwater vessel - after all, in reality such ships did not yet exist. Although Nautilus had predecessors. We will not consider man's long-standing attempts to conquer the depths of the sea, ideas that are not viable; Let us mention only a few completely viable and sound projects, which the author of “Twenty Thousand Leagues” knew very well. This is the "Turtle", built in 1775 by the American David Bushnell. It was intended for combat operations, but did not have time to fight seriously. Soon after this, in 1806, the American inventor R. Fulton (creator of one of the first steamships) developed a project for a military submarine vessel. However, one should not think that such attempts took place only in the New World. Nothing happened! The Nautilus's immediate predecessors, metal-hulled attack submarines, were designed, built and tested in Europe. A contemporary of Jules Verne, the French inventor O. Rioux, installed a steam engine on one of his boats in 1861; On the second I tried to use an electric one. Did not work out.

In 1863, Jules Verne witnessed the launching of the French submarine “Diver” (designed by Charles Brun), the largest of those existing at that time - its displacement was already 426 tons, and its crew was 12 people!

From here, the French novelist was already very close to dreaming of building a boat with a displacement of only three times greater than that of the “Diver” (1500 tons, by the way, almost a hundred times more than Schilder’s submarine). And equip the boat with an electric motor. Thanks to this, the Nautilus has an almost unlimited power reserve - because it does not require fuel. And in general, electricity on board an underwater vessel, invented by a French science fiction writer, works wonders.

It should, however, be noted that both the design of the Nautilus and the description of the underwater world seen by its passengers make today’s experts smile skeptically. However, some of his learned contemporaries were skeptical of Jules Verne’s fantasies. One can count many mistakes both in the story about the inhabitants of the depths of the sea and in the story about the fantastic abilities of the ship. Suffice it to say that Jules Verne’s Nautilus is capable of easily diving to any depth - despite the fact that already at a depth exceeding several hundred meters, the pressure would simply crush the boat. But what an amazing thing! We all know about the mistakes Jules Verne made while working on this novel. Nevertheless, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” continues to be read and republished and filmed until today, that is, 140 years! We can say with confidence that this will continue to be the case, and our grandchildren’s grandchildren will also read this magical book. Why?

Because the novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, after all, is not about a submarine or about whales and octopuses. This is a novel about an amazing man who called himself Captain Nemo - Captain Nobody.

2. Nobody, Captain of the Ship

“...The Stranger deserves a more detailed description. I did not hesitate to recognize the main character traits of this man: self-confidence, as evidenced by the noble carriage of his head, the look of black eyes filled with cold determination, calmness, for the pallor of his skin spoke of composure, inflexibility of will, which was indicated by the rapid contraction of the brow muscles , - finally, courage, for his deep breathing revealed a large reserve of vitality.

I will add that he was a proud man, his gaze, firm and calm, seemed to express the sublimity of his thoughts; and in his entire appearance, in his posture, movements, in the expression of his face, according to the observations of physiognomists, the directness of his nature was evident.

...How old was this man? He could have been given thirty-five or fifty! He was tall; a sharply defined mouth, magnificent teeth, a hand, thin in the hand, with elongated fingers, highly “psychic”, borrowing a definition from the dictionary of palmists, that is, characteristic of an exalted and passionate nature, everything about him was filled with nobility. In a word, this man was a perfect example of male beauty, the likes of which I have never met...” This is how the main character of the novel first appears before Professor Aronnax (and the reader) - a brilliant inventor and captain of a perfect underwater vessel, a brave traveler, a tireless fighter against injustice and a defender of the oppressed. At first, Professor Aronnax can only guess who his hospitable host was before, what kind of tragedy left a stamp of sadness on his brow. Gradually we become aware of a lot - but not everything. At times we perceive him as a science-obsessed scientist, completely absorbed in exploring the deep sea. At times - as a formidable and even cruel avenger (although it is not known to whom and for what). At times he seems like a misanthrope who has gone to sea to forget about humanity. The novel ends with a successful escape returning Aronnax, Conseil and Land to their former lives - but the mystery of Captain Nemo remains unsolved. The novel ends with the following words:

“However, what happened to the Nautilus? Could he resist the mighty embrace of the Maelstrom? Is Captain Nemo alive? Does he continue to swim in the depths of the ocean and carry out his terrible retribution, or is his path cut short at the last hecatomb? Will the waves ever bring to us the manuscript that describes the story of his life? Will I finally know his real name? Will the missing ship reveal its nationality to the nationality of Captain Nemo himself?

Hope. I also hope that his mighty structure defeated the sea even in its most terrible abyss and that the Nautilus survived where so many ships perished. If this is so, and if Captain Nemo still lives in the vastness of the ocean, as in his chosen fatherland, let the hatred subside in this hardened heart! Let the contemplation of so many natural wonders extinguish the fire of revenge! Let the formidable judge in it give way to a peaceful scientist who will continue his research into the depths of the sea.

If his fate is bizarre, it is also sublime. Didn't I understand him? Didn’t I live his supernatural life for ten months? Already six thousand years ago, Ecclesiastes asked this question: “Who could ever measure the depths of the abyss?” But of all people, only two have the right to give him an answer: Captain Nemo and I.”

About who the captain of the “Ship” really was, what made him become a sea tramp; finally, what goal he set for himself and who was his enemy - we learned about all this from the second novel about the adventures of Captain Nemo (and the final one - the entire trilogy, which includes, in addition to those mentioned, also the wonderful novel "The Children of Captain Grant") - from the novel The Mysterious Island, published in 1874, five years after the first public appearance of Captain Nobody:

“Captain Nemo was a Hindu, Prince of Dakkar, son of the Raja, ruler of Bundelkhand - at that time a territory independent from the British - and nephew of the Indian hero Tippo Sahib. When the boy was ten years old, his father sent him to Europe, wanting to give him a complete education. At the same time, the Raja secretly hoped that his son would have the opportunity to fight with equal weapons against those whooppresses his homeland...

This Hindu concentrated in himself all the hatred of the vanquished for the winner. The oppressor did not find forgiveness from the oppressed. The son of one of the three princes whom the United Kingdom managed to subjugate only legally, a nobleman from the Tippo-Sahib family, overwhelmed from childhood by a thirst for revenge, protest and love for his poetic homeland, bound by the chains of the English, did not want to set foot on the land cursed by him, the owners which condemned India to slavery...

In 1857 the great Sepoy Mutiny broke out. His soul was Prince Dakkar. He organized this gigantic protest. He gave all his talents and all his fortune to this business. He did not spare himself: fighting in the front ranks of the fighters, he risked his life, like any of the unsung heroes who rose to free his homeland. In twenty battles he received a dozen wounds, but did not die even when the last fighters for independence fell, struck by British bullets...

The warrior turned into a scientist. He built his workshops on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. There, according to his drawings, an underwater ship was created. By means that will one day become known to everyone, Prince Dakkar was able to harness the enormous mechanical power of electricity. Extracting it from inexhaustible sources, the scientist used electricity for all the needs of his floating projectile - it moved, warmed and illuminated the underwater ship. The sea with its huge treasures, myriads of fish, endless fields of algae, huge sea mammals - not only everything that nature buried in the sea, but also what people lost in its depths, went to satisfy the needs of the prince and his crew. Thus, the dearest wish of Prince Dakkar was fulfilled - after all, he did not want to have any connection with the earth. He named his ship "Nautilus", himself - Captain Nemo and disappeared into the depths of the sea..."

So, here it is, the secret of an amazing hero. He dedicated his life to exploring the oceans, helping fighters against oppression in all corners of the globe - and, of course, revenge. Revenge on those whom he considered responsible for the death of his family, on those who oppressed and humiliated his homeland. That is, the British. This went on for many years. During this time, his comrades died, and he himself grew old and decrepit. Nemo-Dakkar spent the last six years completely alone, in his brainchild “Nautilus”, in the bay of a desert island. Until a group of “Robinsons” appeared here unwillingly - participants in the American Civil War, soldiers of the northern army, captured by the southerners and escaped with the help of a balloon. Captain Nemo saves them and reveals to them the secret of his life. The novel “The Mysterious Island” ends with a pathetic scene: a volcanic eruption destroys the island, which became the last refuge of the Nautilus, destroying the submarine ship and its old captain.

It would seem that the i's are dotted. Captain Nemo's secret is revealed. The reader can calmly take a breath and sympathize with his beloved hero, who, in full accordance with the romantic canon, is deeply unhappy, persecuted by soulless enemies (in this case, the English colonialists).

It is clear that Prince Dakkar is a fictitious person. But we can assume that Jules Verne had in mind a real person who became the prototype of the brave captain and explorer. Moreover, in the story about the former life of his hero, the writer mentions Raja Tippo-Sahib, who actually lived in India at the beginning of the 19th century (today the spelling “Tippo-Sahib” is accepted). Tippo Sahib was an implacable fighter against the British colonialists. It’s difficult to talk about nephews - in the East family ties are very extensive. Surely Tippo Sahib had nephews. And it is unlikely that the French writer made any specific relative of the Mysore Rajah the hero of the novel. In fact, Tippo Sahib himself could in some ways resemble Captain Nemo. He was very competent in technical types of weapons. The famous Congreve missiles of their time should, in fact, be called Tippo Sahib missiles. It was he who successfully used this type of weapon against the British. And Congreve improved samples of Indian missiles captured from the defeated Indians.

Among the possible prototypes of the Jules Verne hero, one of the leaders of the sepoy uprising, Nana Sahib, is often named. Moreover, his life's ending is not defined. His army was defeated by the British, but he himself did not die in battle and was not captured - he disappeared. He could, probably, after some time float up on the captain's bridge of the Nautilus.

For a long time, the version that it was the biography of Nana Sahib that inspired Jules Verne to create a biography of his hero was extremely popular. Suffice it to recall the Soviet three-part film “Captain Nemo”. Its creators were apparently absolutely sure of the identity of the real Nana Sahib and the fictional Captain Nemo. So much so that the script was based on two novels, but the second one was not “The Mysterious Island”, but… “The Steam House”! Meanwhile, it is a careful reading of this work by Jules Verne that convinces us that Nana Sahib and Prince Dakkar (aka Captain Nemo) were different people in the eyes of the writer himself.

3. Through the jungle, by rail

“On the evening of March 6, 1867, the residents of Aurangabad could read the following announcement:

“Two thousand pounds as a reward to the one who brings alive or dead one of the former leaders of the sepoy uprising, information has been received about whose presence in the Bombay district. The criminal's name is Nabob Dandu-Pan, but is better known by the name..."

The last lines with the name of the nabob, hated, always cursed by some and secretly revered by others, were missing from that advertisement that had just been pasted on the wall of a dilapidated building on the banks of the Dudma. The lower corner of the poster, where the name was printed in large letters, was torn off by one fakir.

The shore was completely deserted, and no one noticed his trick. Along with this name, the name of the Governor-General of the Bombay District, which bore the signature of the Viceroy of India, also disappeared.”.

This is how the novel “The Steam House” begins. Literally after a few pages the reader learns the real name of the wanted man, which appeared in the torn piece of the advertisement:

“— Misfortune to those who fall into the hands of Dandu-Pan! Englishmen, you are not finished with Nana Sahib yet.

The name of Nana Sahib inspired the greatest horror of all with which the revolution of 1857 created its bloody fame ... "

The plot of The Steam House revolves around the deadly feud between Nana Sahib and the English Colonel Munro. The reason for this enmity is known from the very first pages:

“On the fifteenth of July, the second massacre in Kanpur. And this time the massacre extended to several hundred children and women - and Lady Munro was among the latter; the victims were deprived of their lives after terrible torture carried out on the personal orders of Nana Sahib, who called in the butchers of Muslim slaughterhouses as his assistants. At the end of this bloody fun, the bodies of the tortured victims were thrown into a well, which became notorious in India.”

Of course, Jules Verne would not be Jules Verne if he had not paid tribute to the other side - the English colonialist. Having listed the cruelties of the rebels, he presents exactly the same account to the British.

The uprising was suppressed, Nana Sahib disappeared - and reappeared in India:

“Nana Sahib’s hatred for the conquerors of India was one of those that fades in a person along with life. He was the heir of Bayi Rao, but after the death of the Peshwa in 1851, the East India Company refused to pay the pension of eight thousand rupees to which he was entitled. This was one of the reasons for the hostility that gave rise to such terrible consequences.”

Well, he came here, risking his life, in order to take revenge on his mortal enemy:

“Colonel Munro is alive, who killed my friend with his own hands, wound!”

However, not only this:

“Dandu-Pan,” answered Sahib, “will not only be a Peshwa crowned in the fortified castle of Bilgur, he will be sovereign over the entire sacred territory of India.

Having said this, Nana Sahib fell silent, crossed his arms, and his gaze took on that motionless and indefinite expression, which is characteristic of the eyes of people who are not looking at the past or present, but looking into the future.

So, Colonel Munro, who lost his wife during the sepoy uprising, retired. To amuse him, his friends persuade him to travel around India using an exotic means of transportation: an artificial elephant with a steam engine, built by the engineer Banks for the Rajah of Bhutan. The Raja died, the heirs did not want to pay. Munro sets out on a journey with a deadly enemy at his heels.

As usually happens in the novels of the French writer, the intrigue is interspersed with lengthy descriptions of the flora and fauna of India, historical information - and, of course, technical information about the wonders of technology, in this case - a steam house, which is dragged along the rails by a giant machine in the shape of an elephant. It all ends with the miraculous salvation of Munro, the appearance of his wife (the unfortunate woman, it turns out, did not die, but went crazy from the misfortunes she suffered) and retribution against the villain - Nana Sahib. He is killed when a giant elephant explodes.

In a word, it is unlikely that Nana Sahib could become the prototype of Prince Dakkar. The wild Indian Rajah, as Jules Verne imagined him, does not fit too well with the noble intellectual exploring the depths of the sea. Nana Sahib in “The Steam House,” by the way, is also an ardent opponent of technological progress, which he sees as a product of the hated West. No, he was not the prototype of Nemo - and could not be.

It is clear that the one person whose life was taken as a basis by the writer did not exist in nature. At the same time, Captain Nemo has individual traits of many real people whom the French science fiction writer met: scientists, sailors, writers, revolutionaries...

Among the latter, we mention Giuseppe Garibaldi, not only a revolutionary, but also a sailor who dreamed of a “maritime republic of revolutionaries.” This floating republic could float freely on the waves and bring freedom to those who need it. Agree, his dream is very close to the actions of Captain Nemo.

And yet, still...

There are several oddities in the character's biography. And it’s difficult to say whether they are the result of the author’s negligence or are there other reasons?

For example: in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo is thirty-five years old - although at times he looks a little older. This age is also confirmed by the fact that in “The Mysterious Island” it is specified: he took part in the uprising at the age of thirty, several years before meeting Professor Aronnax. But in the same “Mysterious Island” he appears before us as a decrepit old man (at that time), well over sixty. His story also shows that about three decades passed between the first and second novels. Since the heroes of “The Mysterious Island” escape from captivity in 1865 (as already mentioned, during the war between North and South), Professor Aronnax had to get on the “Nautilus” in 1836. And the sepoy uprising occurred in 1857! And it ended in 1858! What the hell is this?! Suppose the author forgot about the time of action of “Twenty Thousand Leagues” (Jules Verne designated it as 1866), and, tying the action of “The Mysterious Island” to the events of the American Civil War, gave up on the confusion in dates. Happens. It's rare, but it happens.

But the fact that he mixed up historical events and forced Captain Nemo to participate in events in which he could not participate in any way is somehow hard to believe.

4. A Tale of Two Mutinies

In 1997, in the American scientific journal Scientific American for the month of April, an article by philologists Arthur B. Evans and Ron Miller appeared, dedicated to the long-unpublished and even considered lost novel by J. Verne, “Paris in the 21st Century.” The authors have long been engaged in the work of the great French science fiction writer. One of them, Arthur Evans, is co-editor of the journal Science Fiction Studies, and also the author of a new translation into English of the novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”

The article in question is devoted mainly to the relationship between Jules Verne and his regular publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. In addition to Etzel’s role in the non-publication of “Paris...” (the publisher considered the new book too pessimistic; indeed, the novel today would be called a dystopia - a case uncharacteristic of the work of the French writer), Evans and Miller touch on the publisher’s interference in Verne’s work on other books. In particular, over “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”:

“It should be noted that the process of creating the novel turned out to be quite stormy. Verne and Etzel disagreed about the biography of the main character, Captain Nemo. Etzel saw him as an uncompromising fighter against slavery. This would explain and ideologically justify the ruthless attacks on sea vessels. However, Verne wanted to make the main character a Pole who fought against Tsarist Russia (with an allusion to the bloody suppression of the Polish uprising five years earlier). But Etzel feared that diplomatic complications would arise in this case. In addition, the Russian book market, which is very promising, would probably be closed to Verne’s book.

Then the author and publisher came to a compromise. They agreed not to reveal the true motives of Captain Nemo's actions and to make him an abstract fighter for freedom and against oppression. To make the original concept more concrete, the creators of the 1954 film “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” had Captain Nemo attack arms dealers.”.

I think that for Etzel, of course, the possible loss of large profits was more important than diplomatic complications: after all, the publisher is not the president or the minister. The appearance at one time of A. Dumas’s novel “Notes of a Fencing Teacher,” which sympathetically depicted the Decembrists, caused a ban on the sale of the book in Russia, but did not cause any political or diplomatic complications. As for the compromise that Evans and Miller write about, it was given to Jules Verne with great difficulty. This is what he wrote to his publisher in the midst of their dispute:

“Since I cannot explain his hatred, I will remain silent about the reasons for it, as well as about the past of my hero, about his nationality and, if necessary, I will change the denouement of the novel. I do not wish to give this book any political overtones. But to admit even for a moment that Nemo leads such an existence out of hatred of slavery and clears the seas of slave-trading ships, which are now nowhere to be found, means, in my opinion, to go the wrong way. You say: but he is committing something heinous! I answer: no! Don't forget what the original concept of the book was: a Polish aristocrat whose daughters were raped, his wife hacked to death with an ax, his father killed by a whip, a Pole whose friends are dying in Siberia, sees that the existence of the Polish nation is threatened by Russian tyranny! If such a person does not have the right to sink Russian frigates wherever he encounters them, then retribution is just an empty word. I would drown in such a situation without any remorse..."

As a matter of fact, all this is quite well known. And the point of view expressed in the quoted article is quite popular: initially Nemo was supposed to be a Pole, a Polish rebel, an implacable enemy of Russia. Participant in the Polish uprising of 1863, suppressed by Russian troops several years earlier. As a result of a compromise between publisher and writer, the captain of the Nautilus became an abstract rebel, a rebel. Only in The Mysterious Island did Jules Verne turn him into an Indian and one of the leaders of the sepoy uprising. Accordingly, his revenge (in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”) faded into the background, turning the mysterious character into an inquisitive researcher and a brilliant inventor - and only then into a defender of the oppressed and a champion of some kind of justice. And to say that - he speaks European languages perfectly, loves to insert a Latin saying into his speech (he even gave his ship and himself Latin names, and even took the Latin motto) - all this, of course, is much more characteristic of a Polish aristocrat than of an Indian rajah. But what does this “pre-biography” of a literary hero have to do with the mystery of the missing thirty years of his life? If in 1865 thirty years could not have passed since the Sepoy uprising of 1857, then certainly no thirty years had passed since the even closer events of 1863!

For many researchers and lovers of the work of the great French science fiction writer, including those who considered the “Polish line” in the origin of “Captain Nobody,” this discrepancy remained a monument to blatant authorial negligence, in no way connected with the controversy over nationality Captain Nemo.

Meanwhile, it seems to me that there is no discrepancy. Well, almost not. And it is precisely this period - three decades (or so) - that once again indicates the Polish “origin” of Captain Nemo and his “participation” in the Polish uprising. "How so? - the reader will ask. - After all, the Polish uprising took place in 1863, two years, and not thirty before the events described in “The Mysterious Island”! Is not it?"

Both so and not so. Because nowhere in the correspondence between Jules Verne and Pierre-Jules Hetzel is it said that the writer is referring to the Polish uprising of 1863. This is what current literary scholars think, “by default.” But if an opinion becomes the opinion of the majority, this does not mean that it is correct. Of course, the events in Poland in 1863-1864 were still fresh in memory. But this is the only argument. And it is by no means unconditional when it comes to literary creativity. Because, again, there is that same missing thirty years.

In the illustrations for the first edition of the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo is given the features of Colonel Charras, a participant in the 1830 revolution who died in exile. I draw your attention to the fact that the “graphic prototype” of Captain Nemo turns out to be a participant in the revolution THIRTY YEARS ago, and not at all a contemporary of the author. So, did Nemo take part in the July Revolution (as the revolution of 1830 is called in France)? Of course not. There is already quoted correspondence. Consequently, Captain Nemo was a Pole (and remained so - at least in the novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” he is clearly not an Indian, but a European).

Back to square one? Nothing happened!

Let's just remember that there were TWO Polish uprisings against Russia in the 19th century. One, as we have already said, in 1863-1864, that is, practically at the same time as the events of the novel.

The second (or rather, the first) - in 1830-1831. Thirty years before Cyrus Smith and his comrades escaped from Southern captivity in a hot air balloon and ended up on a mysterious island, which he named Abraham Lincoln Island!

Here it is - the missing thirty years, over which critics, readers and admirers of Jules Verne puzzled. Yes, Nemo could have participated in the Polish uprising - and this does not contradict the internal chronology of the novels (not counting the actual date set at the beginning of the first of them - 1866). By the way, they knew very well about that uprising in France; in some ways, perhaps even better than about some other historical events. Because at least all (I emphasize - all) commanders of the Polish rebels - generals Chlopicki, Radziwill, Skrzynetsky, Dembinsky, Malakhovsky - were in the past generals or officers of Napoleon's army and, as luck would have it, holders of the Order of the Legion of Honor! He was supported by the European-famous poet Adam Mickiewicz and composer Frederic Chopin (the latter, by the way, then lived in Paris). Among the leaders - political, military, ideological - of the 1863 uprising there were no such personalities anymore.

That is, I do not at all want to say that the uprising of 1863 had a lesser response in the hearts of the French than the previous one. But the uprising of 1830... it looked MORE LITERARY in the second half of the 60s. And it was led by generals who in France were considered FRENCH heroes.

So, I believe, Jules Verne had the idea to make his hero a participant in that already legendary rebellion. And the action of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, apparently, should have unfolded not in 1866, but in 1836. And then, I repeat, the entire internal chronology of the novel comes together. And there is no bewilderment about Nemo’s rapid aging in “The Mysterious Island,” and even in the reverse flow of time (from 1866 to 1865).

“But what,” you ask, “what about a submarine ship? The appearance of such a ship thirty years earlier was simply impossible!”

To this we can answer: was it possible for a projectile to fly to the Moon? Or the aircraft of Robur the Conqueror? Or the balloon invented thirty years earlier (though not by Jules Verne, but by Edgar Allan Poe) for flying to the moon?

In a fantasy novel (even a science fiction novel), the Nautilus could well have been built in 1834.

Yes, by the way, it was built. It was in 1834 that Schilder's submarine was tested in St. Petersburg. The first submarine with an all-metal hull! And it could carry mines to blow up enemy ships. Of course, she was far from the brainchild of Captain Nemo - Schilder's ship had a displacement of 16 tons - exactly 100 times less than the Nautilus. And there was no engine on it - the boat was driven by rowing devices controlled by sailors.

But, I repeat, we are dealing with a science fiction novel...

Jules Verne. "Twenty thousand leagues under the sea." Per. N.G. Yakovleva and E.F. Korsha. “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Mysterious Island” cited by: Jules Verne. Collected works in 12 volumes. 1956 T. 4th.Here and further approx. author.

Jules Verne. Steam house. Per. V. Torpakova. Hereinafter, the novel is quoted from the publication: “Jules Verne. Memories of childhood and youth. Uncle Robinson. Steam house." 2001.

Arthur B. Evans and Ron Miller. "Jules Verne, Misunerstood Visionary", Scientific American, No. 4, 1997.

The writer’s card index contains a card with the intriguing inscription “White Raja, son of the Englishman Mr. N. One of the creators of the Monitor.” Researchers managed to decipher the mysterious recording. The “Mr. Y” mentioned in this card turned out to be a military topographer from England. During the years of his service, he traveled through half of the Indian lands, and even threw in his lot with the adopted daughter of the Raja of the Principality of Bundelkhand. The family had two children - a boy and a girl. The topographer sent his son to study in England. Having received an engineering education, the young man returned to his homeland. At that time, his father had already resigned, because he knew that popular uprisings were brewing, and he did not want to speak out against the Indian people.
Not wanting to participate in popular unrest, “Mr. Y” decided to leave with his family to his homeland, England. But the family opposed the move and he left alone. When the sepoy uprising broke out in India, the son of a retired military surveyor took a direct part in the unrest in one of the regions of the country. He was known under the pseudonym White Raja. Realizing that the popular uprising would be suppressed, the young man returned to his hometown of Bundelkhand, took his wife and mother, and they finally left for England.
But the English authorities began searching for the White Raja. Trying to escape arrest, he left for America, where the Civil War had broken out at that time. The young man took the side of the northerners in this fight.
Residents of the southern United States at that time were working on the construction of the warship Merrimack, which had a pair of engines and an armored steel hull. How could the wooden sailing ships of the northerners fight such a “monster”?
After analyzing the situation, White Raja decided to turn to the Swedish shipbuilder D. Erikson for help. He invited the scientist to use his own funds to build a ship that would combine an armadillo and a submarine. According to the White Raja's design, the deck of this ship should have only had a pipe and two gun turrets.
After considering this proposal, Erickson made the necessary changes to the project and submitted it to US President Lincoln for consideration. The project was approved. Construction of the vessel began immediately.
Meanwhile, the Southern battleship was doing its dirty work. They had already sunk three sailing ships of the northerners. But the construction of the new ship, designed by the White Raja, was coming to an end. The ship was named "Monitor". As soon as he entered the battle, the Merrimack, having encountered unexpected resistance from an equally strong enemy, took to flight.
This is how the man who invented the ancestor of modern submarines left his place in history. It is a pity that his real name is not known, just as his future life is not known. Jules Verne, when creating a novel about Captain Nemo, used only those few facts from the biography of the White Rajah that he managed to collect. However, Nana Sahib was not forgotten by him.
Jules Verne underestimated technological progress
It is not known whether Jules Verne’s novel influenced progress in the field of shipbuilding, but the writer’s assumptions on this matter, put into the mouth of Captain Nemo, were erroneous. As the legendary captain said in the novel, “...in the field of shipbuilding, our contemporaries are not far from the ancients. It took several centuries to discover the mechanical power of steam! Who knows whether even in 100 years a second Nautilus will appear!
But technological progress outstripped Jules Verne's expectations. Less than 16 years after the publication of the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (1870), a submarine with an electric engine was launched in England. She was named after the Julierne submarine - Nautilus. Since that time, shipbuilding has accelerated, and in the early 30s of the twentieth century, submarines were created that were not inferior in size to their forefather, the Nautilus, and in many respects superior to it in technical parameters. And in 1954, American shipbuilders built the world's first submarine with a nuclear reactor - SSN-571. The engine, which uses powerful atomic energy, allows submarines to be completely autonomous. The year 1966 was marked by the launch of the first Soviet nuclear submarines, which circumnavigated the world without surfacing.

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