Captain Nemo’s Nautilus

The Nautilus is the fictional submarin featured in Jules Verne’s novels “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” (1870) and “The Mysterious Island” (1874). Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton’s real-life submarine Nautilus (1800). Three years before writing his novel, Jules Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navy submarine Plongeur at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which inspired him for his definition of the Nautilus.

The Nautilus  is designed and commanded by Captain Nemo nad as described by Verne is “a masterpiece containing masterpieces”.  Electricity provided by sodium/mercury batteries (with the sodium provided by extraction from seawater) is the craft’s primary power source for propulsion and other services. The Nautilus is double hulled, and is further separated into water-tight compartments. Its top speed is 50 knots. Its displacement is 1,356.48 French freight tons immerged (1,507 submerged). In Captain Nemo’s own words:


Captain Nemo's SS Nautilus

Captain Nemo's SS Nautilus



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