Nautilus (Jules Verne)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Submersible Nautilus
Ship data
Builder: deserted island in the pacific ocean
Crew: unclear, possibly 20 men;
up to 5 guests
Building-costs: 5,000,000 old French francs
Technical specifications
Displacement : 1,506 t
Length: 70 m
Width: 08 m
Machinery: battery-operated electric drive
Drive: 1 wave;
1 propeller Ø 6.00 m
Top speed: 54 kn
Armor
Belt armor: 15.24 cm (6  " )
Dinghies
Dinghies : 1
Whereabouts
On June 20, 1863 allegedly sunk in the Maelstrom on:

68 °  N , 13 °  O . Eventually finds a last refuge in the submarine harbor on the island of Lincoln.

Illustration of the Nautilus by Alphonse de Neuville from the French first edition by Vingt mille lieues sous les mers . The ship was rarely shown in the novel in full view

The Nautilus is a fictional submarine from the novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869-70) and The Mysterious Island (1874-75) by Jules Verne , which is under the command of Captain Nemo .

The purpose of the Nautilus

The meaning and background of the construction of the Nautilus is not fully explained in the novel. On the one hand, the boat is a kind of asylum for “dropouts” from the earthly world and at the same time an undersea research station. On the other hand, it is a tool of revenge with which Nemo - formerly a victim of oppression - appears as the avenger of the oppressed and sinks the ships of those whom he sees as his former enemies or the enemies of a peaceful coexistence of humanity. The ram of the Nautilus , with which he destroys the hulls below the surface of the water, serves him for this purpose .

Only in Verne's novel The Mysterious Island is this factualized more clearly. Nemo was the Indian Prince Dakkar, who was sent to England as a boy to study there. After returning to India, he marries and plans to drive out the English who are occupying India. However, his revolt was bloodily suppressed and his entire family was killed.

He turns his back on the world bitterly. With only a few, but loyal companions, he withdraws and uses the rest of his fortune to build the Nautilus . Then he begins his campaign of revenge. He found the lost Spanish Armada and raised the gold, which he used from then on to support the freedom struggle of oppressed peoples.

In the submarine harbor on the island of Lincoln , as the castaways call it, Nemo dies after discussing his story with the colonists. Nevertheless, he still does them one last service and is ultimately more or less directly responsible for their survival. He actively helped them in the course of the novel and ensured with a message in a bottle or with a message that the colonists could be rescued just in time before the island sank completely into the sea.

The ship

In some German translations of the novel, the boat is referred to as the Nautilus, in common usage and in the translations of the films, however, the female form ( the Nautilus), which is common for ships, has become established.

According to the rather vague information in the novel, the boat is 70 meters long and 8 meters wide at its thickest point. It weighs 1,506 tons . Jules Verne thought of the Nautilus as a sleek, cigar-shaped submarine. Over the years, however, book illustrators and film designers developed their own designs which, over time, continued to deviate from the original.

The Nautilus is divided into different departments. It is difficult, however, to enumerate them lengthways from bow to stern, especially since Verne never wrote anything more precise about the location of the individual rooms. The Nautilus also has up to three decks. The following are the rooms Jules Verne mentions in his books:

  • Captain's cabin
  • Officers' cabins
  • Library (with 12,000 books)
  • Dining room
  • Salon (with library, organ, art and natural science collections)
  • caboose
  • bathroom
  • Crew room
  • several crew accommodations
  • Engine room
  • Card room
  • Diving lock
  • Navigating bridge

The main connection in the ship is a spiral staircase that leads to all decks. The ship has six windows. Four of them, one for each direction, are on the navigating bridge. Two convex panorama windows - can be closed with an iris diaphragm - are located in the salon. The Nautilus has a total of four access hatches, three on the top and one diver's lock on the bottom. Opposite the glass control pulpit on the top there is a strong reflector that can illuminate the surroundings for about a kilometer and is perceived from the outside as a luminous oval.

The Nautilus was built on the lonely island of Vulcania in the Pacific , where Nemo obtained each individual part under a different name from a different manufacturer and then destroyed the traces of his work. The total value (including the works of art) was about 5,000,000 francs, according to the novel. Her home port is still Vulcania .

Drive and energy

Verne anticipated several technical developments at the Nautilus : All important equipment such as drive, control, lighting, etc. are operated electrically. The electricity required is generated (presumably on the principle of the fuel cell ) using sodium amalgam , an alloy of sodium and mercury . The sodium is obtained from table salt, which in turn comes from the sea water by distillation; the energy required for this comes from coal mined under the sea.

Furthermore, the transformer (to generate very high voltages) and powerful electric motors and headlight lamps (presumably based on the principle of the arc lamp ) are used.

The Nautilus can dive up and down with the help of its oars and chambers between the inner and outer walls, which are either flooded or emptied with electric pumps . Fresh air must be taken in when surfacing and can also be stored in compressed air tanks.

There is still much speculation about the propulsion system of the Nautilus . The often-voiced assumption that it was powered by nuclear power is completely unfounded, since the use of nuclear power was only discovered later and there are no corresponding references to be found in the novel. The energy is transferred to a shaft that is connected to the propeller, which can accelerate the ship to a maximum of 54 knots (approx. 100 km / h).

Defense Mechanisms

The Nautilus , which Verne has thought up, has, unlike other versions hardly weapons . Their only defense mechanisms are the armor over 15 centimeters thick and an electric shock system that energizes the entry / exit conductors and thus expels unwanted people or prevents prisoners from escaping. The ram at the bow was used as an attack weapon. In The Mysterious Island , Verne describes how the island and the colonists are attacked by pirates, but their ship suddenly explodes. Later, Cyrus Smith finds the case of a torpedo (what at the time called a sea ​​mine ) at the site of the wreck , which suggests that the Nautilus had this weapon.

The crew

The ship's commander is Captain Nemo. Nothing precise can be said about the strength of the crew; it is probably 20 men. The sailors have been extremely devoted to the Nautilus and Nemo since the start of the voyage .

About the origins of Nemo and his people, one learns in Verne's novel The Mysterious Island that he and his crew come from India. It is clear, however, that Nemo is fluent in several languages, including German, English , French and Latin . A seaman also called one of his companions in French for help in fear of death.

There are also three guests on the Nautilus for a short time : the French naturalist Professor Arronax, his servant and assistant Conseil and the Canadian harpooner Ned Land are on board the Nautilus from November 6, 1862 to June 17, 1863 ; this period is the content of the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .

Representation in other works

1954 Walt Disney film

The most famous design of the Nautilus today comes from Harper Goff , who designed it for the 1954 film adaptation of Walt Disney. When designing the submarine, Goff was inspired by alligators and sharks , which corresponded to his conception of fearsome sea monsters. He combined the alligator's eyes, which are the only part of the animal that can protrude out of the water, with the slender streamlined shape , dorsal fin and pronounced caudal fin of a shark. The distinctive rivets of the Nautilus gave Goff the effect of rough, strongly structured alligator skin. In addition, Goff oriented himself here on the common shipbuilding practice of the 1860s, in which the rivet construction played an increasing role. So that the submarine could drill its way through a ship's hull when rammed , Goff designed a massive ram at the tip of the Nautilus , which merges into a sawtooth crest on four sides of the hull . To protect the propeller , Goff put a protective ring around it. Goff was convinced that Verne suggested nuclear power as the driving force behind the Nautilus . As a result, he designed an engine room , which is vaguely referred to in the film as the “compression room ” and can be understood as a fantastic-looking staging of a nuclear reactor .

In some Walt Disney parks and resorts there are replicas of Goff's nautilus . In most cases, a replica of the upper deck lies in an artificial lake. The visitor does not enter the boat, but is led to another part of the exhibition, which leads him through some replicas of the Nautilus interior film set. These are less true to the original replicas than rooms inspired by the Nautilus design. However, visitors to the Disneyland Resort from 1955 to 1966 had the opportunity to see and, in some cases, enter the original film sets in the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Exhibition . The original upper deck was also on display here.

Replica of the Nautilus at Walt Disney World Resort

At Walt Disney World Resort , the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage existed from 1971 to 1994 . Several replicas of the Goff- Nautilus drove on a rail through an artificially created lake. The boats did not dive, but remained on the surface for the journey. The impression of diving nevertheless arose for the visitors, as they sat in the vehicle under the surface of the water on seats in front of several portholes. In addition to coral reefs and marine animals, there were also movable dolls at the bottom of the lake, which "reenacted" some scenes in the Disney film in diving suits.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In the comic series (since 1999) and its film adaptation (2003), the Nautilus also appears as an important means of transport under the command of Captain Nemo. Nemo is also shown here as an Indian.

literature

  • Helmut Brauer: “Nautilus” submarine model. Construction - building - technology. Ship model book. 2nd, revised edition. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen-Schwenningen 1996, ISBN 3-7883-1623-3 .
  • Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual. Deutscher Bücherbund / Bertelsmann, Stuttgart / Munich 1992.
  • Volker Dehs , Ralf Junkerjürgen: Jules Verne. Voices and interpretations of his work. Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005.
  • Wolfgang Hohlbein : Operation Nautilus . (= 12-part youth book series). Overjoyed. Vienna 2001–2002.
  • Jules Verne : 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. (Original title: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers ). Anaconda, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-86647-934-0 .
  • Jules Verne: The Mysterious Island. (Original title: L'île mystérieuse ). Impian, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-96269-005-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Mysterious Island, Chapter Sixteenth. zeno.org , accessed January 2, 2014 .