June 7, 2005
Still no word on who inspired Nemo, though . . .
by Dennis Johnson
The underwater vessel that might have been the inspiration for Captain Nemo‘s submarine, the Nautilus, in the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, has been discovered by a British explorer just off the coast of Panama beneath not 20,000 leagues but a mere three meters of water. As Steven Morris reports in a Guardian story, the cigar-shaped, cast-iron sub, The Explorer, originally constructed five years before Verne’s book for use by Union forces in the American Civil War, was found by Colonel John Blashford-Snell of the Scientific Exploration Society. Like the Nautilus, the Explorer “has a lock-out system, which allows submariners to leave, collect items from the seabed and then return to the vessel,” notes Morris. Says Blashford-Snell, “As far as I’m aware the Explorer possessed the world’s first lock-out system and its very uniqueness might have stimulated Verne’s imagination.”
Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.