Context for Ana, Matthias and Rafael – a two minute read. As requested …best John.

[John Lamb]

How Jules Verne’s 1895 novel The Floating Island is inspired by the town of Birkenhead.

 

Previous context. Birkenhead supplies the ships for seven of Verne’s 54 novels including the fuselage of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires start in Birkenhead with the ship Forward in The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. Liverpool and Birkenhead were the first towns visited by Verne outside France in 1859. In Backwards to Britain. Verne described his trip from Liverpool Pier Head to Birkenhead on the Mersey Ferry. The Floating Island is supposed to be set in San Diego, but the Floating Island itself is inspired by Birkenhead and Liverpool.

Verne himself said of Liverpool.

The town which I know best in England is Liverpool, and as I stayed there for some time with friends, I had a good opportunity of studying it, especially the docks and the Mersey.

 

(Deep breadth) Both Birkenhead / Liverpool and the Floating Island have.

1.       A Pier Head

2.       A fast ferry connecting to a quay.

3.       A tram running from that quay to a great park (emulating George Francis Train -the first man to go around the world in eighty days and his tram (Europe’s first) from Birkenhead Woodside Ferry to Birkenhead Park (the World’s first public park and model for Central Park New York)).

4.       A signature gate to the park opening on to a wide road.

5.       A view from the park hotel extended for a mile down a superb road planted with trees.

6.       A town plan based on a chess board.

7.       A great square with an English ‘lawn’.

8.       A third avenue being the centre for entertainment and business (Birkenhead’s Argyle St).

9.       A direct ‘connection’ via submarine telegraphic cable to the United States.

10.  A population firmly divided into Protestants and Catholics

11.  A church ‘that would not be elevated to the sky’ – Birkenhead’s proposed Our Lady’s Cathedral – a church that was built, but without its intended spire.

12.  A St Mary’s parish church built in the gothic style.

13.  A St Mary’s Church which has ‘slender pinnacles’.

14.  A St Mary’s church has a viewing platform open to the public (still open today overlooking Laird’s shipyard, the shipyard that built the hull of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus).

15.  A one ‘o’clock gun.

16.  The gun is fired from the town’s observatory using a telegraphic wire.

17.  A tower and observatory next to one another.

18.  A tower, octagonal in design with an oversized flag (Bidston Lighthouse, Birkenhead pre 1868) and probably based on Joseph Cachin’s depiction of Bidston (Birkenhead) lighthouse in ‘Phare de Biston’ by Joseph Calchin (Paris Library).

19.  A town associated with the Vanderbilts (three Vanderbilt members of the Birkenhead Yacht Club).

20.  A park described as an ‘English Garden’ by Verne and ‘Peoples’ Garden’ by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park, New York.

21.  A park with a serpentine lake. Birkenhead’s serpentine lake was called this by the designer Sir Joseph Paxton.

Here is the context of the Verne Hawthorne comparison, which was analysed by A.I. in isolation to contextualise it within the other 29 links to Birkenhead.

22.  A park with a large group of girls.

23.  A park where the girls are described according to their class.

24.  A park where the description of the girls is at the most extreme end spectrum of their social class.

25.  A park where the girls are American or compared to American girls.

26.  A park where the girls’ appearance is related to climate.

27.  A park where the mixing or non-mixing of the classes is explicitly expressed as being responsible for the girls’ appearance.

Back to the remainder of the novel.

28.  A fort four miles away from the park (Verne’s fort at ‘Birkenhead Point’ in Backwards to Britain and A Floating City).

29.  A fort has a tower next to it and is in one corner of the landmass (Fort Perch Rock and lighthouse, both referred to together by Verne in Hatteras / The Floating City and his Mersey notebook).

30.  A lake in the park is associated with crocodiles.

31.  A town hall fronted by a square.

32.  A park which is attacked by wild animals (not Birkenhead Park but the park it inspired, Central Park, New York and the Great Wild Animal Hoax of Verne’s one time sponsor Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald).

33.  An association with ‘The Birkenhead drill’ –  commonly known as ‘Women and children first’. Verne - the women and children were moved into the interior compartments where they would be sheltered from the projectiles’.

34.  A Protestant / Catholic riot that attracts great publicity.

35.  A Protestant / Catholic riot with Verne’s illustration of a knocked over top hat on the bottom left hand corner and the almost identical illustration of the Birkenhead Protestant / Catholic riots in the Journel Universal, Paris of 1850).

 

 This also needs to be seen in the context of Verne basing The Mysterious Island on Birkenhead (see previous posts) and Captain Nemo’s Nautilus being based on the Birkenhead built Confederate warship CSS Alabama and its real life Captain Rafael Semmes.

 Here is how Verne mimics Semmes in real life with Nemo.

 

Both Semmes and Nemo are philosopher captains with their origins in Mobile, they both are captains of ironclad rams who have lost their vessels during a great storm, down a whirlpool and by an explosion. Both captains have ships related to the word Nautilus, which is either 85% or 95% built in Birkenhead by John Laird, in secret, to a secret design and finished on a remote island, both Semmes and Nemo speak several languages and have a multinational crew in a vessel exactly 230feet long, both vessels are known for their speed, agility and having a recess in their hull together with a water condenser, both Semmes and Nemo sink ships around the world and are denounced as pirates and feature in Gordon Bennett’s the New York Herald, both captains cause great consternation in Liverpool, have a vessel whose appearance  deceives enemy shipping and threatens to put up insurance costs, both captain’s voyage for 70,000 miles (twenty thousand leagues depending on both your definition of miles and leagues), both captains are chased by just one ship and by a commander named Farragut of the United States Navy sailing out of Brooklyn, together with ‘Abraham Lincoln’, both Semmes and Nemo have a portrait of a civil war President and soldier above their bed, and many ships chronometers on their bedroom wall and both captains have a bounty put on their head by Farragut, both captains are so infamous they are sung about in cafes, jeered at in newspapers and in theatres, both their vessels are compared to sea monsters and their captains  debate whether marine animals can pierce a ship’s hull, both their vessels are illuminated by an eerie light and both captains have a great love of marine life, both talk about sleeping whales and whether right whales can cross the equator, both captains destroy those who kill whales, both captains talk at great length about the formation of coral, referring to it as ‘madrepores’  and debate whether coral is animal, mineral or vegetable, both talk about coral mausoleums, both captains describe the Gulf Stream, its source and effects, both praise the oceanographer Mathew Fontaine Maury and regret his fall from grace after the American Civil War, both captains encounter an imaginary island, sail through both white water and water they describe as clear as air, both encounter the waters of the Amazon but prefer to steer clear of the waters of Brazil. Both captains describe serpents climbing through holes on deck, and encounter schools of argonauts or nautilus, both captains have their own pleasure boat and use it to collect curiosities and sea shells for their on board museum, both captains encounter fake Havanna cigars, kill a single albatross and use light traps to catch fish, both are known for their impeccable manners and hospitality despite taking numerous prisoners onboard, both seek sanctuary in the shelter of a volcanic island which is their de facto base where they take on coal, both captains are mentioned in two Jules Verne novels, smoke a daily cigar, have large amounts of gold onboard which is obtained from sunken ships, both captains have extremely strong views about British rule in India, and an island rebellion, both state they enjoy food a Malay would cook, both captains lament the demise of sail to be replaced by steam and write at length about the loss of the ship Florida, both describe sailing in the Indian Ocean as tedious to anyone but the natural historian and then encounter ships from the P and O Line. Both captains undergo a physical and mental decline that ultimately is responsible for their ship being lost to the world, both captains have their final battle in the vicinity of the English Channel with a wooden ship protected by armour above the waterline, both captains circle around the enemy ship and are compared to animals and prey, both captains lose their ship down a whirlpool on June 19th or within a few days of this date, both captains write their onboard manuscript which then disappears into the sea, both captains grieve over their lost wife, family and country, both start weeping and dismiss their crew politely so they can grieve in private, both hold an elaborate funeral and release a book of their experiences (Semmes in November 1864 (in French!!!) and January 1869, Verne in March 1869)) both captains and their vessels are compared by Jules Verne in a letter to Hetzel.

 

 ‘Criticism without looking at context is ignorance, criticism while refusing to look at context is imbecility.

 

Best John

[Rafael Ontivero]

Well, I only see one thing:

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[John Lamb]

Dear Raphael,

I would concentrate on what Verne said. 

Do you really think that there is no connection at all (0%, zero, zilch) between the CSS Alabama and the Nautilus? (and by further association Birkenhead and the Mysterious Island and the Floating Island?). William Butcher said there were 'clear connections' between the Alabama and the Nautilus as far back as 1998. I have simply expanded upon those connections, that is all.

By maintaining the 0% stance (even Butcher did not do that in 1998) you do yourself a disservice and you will eventually  be undermined by other literary scholars outside Verne circles who have a more open view to go beyond 0% (it's not hard, go on just try a little!) and I am afraid also by their use of A.I. to help them consolidate an opinion. 

If any confirmation does not come from within Vernian circles then I am confident it will eventually come from the larger literary gene pool, who while valuing the importance of translation do not see it as the be all and end all, who do not rely on it not being a relationship because 'Verne didn't say so in his notes', and it will come  perhaps most of all from those who have good manners to not use the most vulgar and obscene language when they have lost the argument.

Best John

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/91076405-A4BC-444E-9ED4-ADE275CF5C5D%40gmail.com.

[Rafael Ontivero]

John,

Using Arvensa PDF’s, that contains all Verne books plus a bunch of other stuff (near 8 millions of words), Birkenhead word appears 16 times with a “weight” of 27 (a way DEVONthink internal ML has to measure the relevance of a word inside of a database, in this case including my entire Verne documents a lot of Spanish, biographies and articles. 

That is a high relevance, but this must be taken as a grain of salt. The real word graph in relation to Verne books is this:

(The other only included a part of Verne stuff and made me fun see you there. And this demonstrate that I have your works).

Anyway, I’m not discussing the influence of Birkenhead in Verne books. I don’t have enough historical and Verne expertise, but now Occam appears and tells me that a “floating island” has to have most of those installations. Could they have relation? I don’t know.

What I think we are discussing is your possible 'satirisation' of Nathaniel Hawthorne… and I’m almost sure there is nothing. Anyway, I don’t understand what is the relation of Birkenhead and Hawthorne or why you have cited me to discuss about Birkenhead. AFAIK I’ve not said one word about that topic.

El 8 jun 2026, a las 11:39, John Lamb <cads...@gmail.com> escribió:

Dear Raphael,

I would concentrate on what Verne said. 

Do you really think that there is no connection at all (0%, zero, zilch) between the CSS Alabama and the Nautilus? (and by further association Birkenhead and the Mysterious Island and the Floating Island?). William Butcher said there were 'clear connections' between the Alabama and the Nautilus as far back as 1998. I have simply expanded upon those connections, that is all.

By maintaining the 0% stance (even Butcher did not do that in 1998) you do yourself a disservice and you will eventually  be undermined by other literary scholars outside Verne circles who have a more open view to go beyond 0% (it's not hard, go on just try a little!) and I am afraid also by their use of A.I. to help them consolidate an opinion. 

If any confirmation does not come from within Vernian circles then I am confident it will eventually come from the larger literary gene pool, who while valuing the importance of translation do not see it as the be all and end all, who do not rely on it not being a relationship because 'Verne didn't say so in his notes', and it will come  perhaps most of all from those who have good manners to not use the most vulgar and obscene language when they have lost the argument.

Best John

On Mon, Jun 8, 2026 at 10:05 AM Rafael Ontivero <rafael....@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, I only see one thing:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/CAJ0ud42vNRV6XYqNaoGgBB0DdmZqbYjC3fFr85WAfyQjt%3DAhTg%40mail.gmail.com.

[mken...@aol.com]

Hi John, you call that a two minute read? It takes considerably longer to read it. You’ve posted the stuff about Semmes a hundred times before. It could get boring. I think it’s possible that Nemo is based on Semmes, and I’ve never ruled it out. But to me it’s just a small detail, interesting but ultimately unimportant – because there’s no message to it. Nemo did not support slavery. As to your points 22 to 27 above: reminds me of Alex Kirstukas’ essay in which he proved that you are Detective Fix. It was very very easy, extremely easy for Verne to write his passage without knowing Hawthorne’s text. It’s very unlikely that he knew Hawthorne’s text. It’s obvious that most of the context you’ve given is totally unrelated to Hawthorne.
Cheers,
Matthias

[John Lamb]

Dear Raphal,

I am slightly confused by your answer.

You initially stated 

"John, throughout my nearly 60 years of reading about Verne I have read some stupid, far-fetched, and forced things, but this one is giving me the biggest laugh. Come on, are you saying that Verne, without knowing the paragraph you're talking about beforehand, had it translated just to write a satire? Did it come to him in a dream? As others have already told you, first find a French edition published before Verne's work, because otherwise your thesis completely falls apart, and you should admit it, drop the subject, and move on."

 I replied to you, also on June 6th.

 "Dear Rafael, as with Ana and Matthias, I will ask one question. Have you read the 51 page article (attached previously to this thread) contextualizing the Verne Hawthorne quote? Yes or no?  Maybe, one two or even three of you  between yourself Ana and Matthias will have the good grace to tell me whether this is the case or not. If an author wants to write a whole novel in homage to a town (Birkenhead) then it is not in the realms of impossibility for him to obtain a quote (translated or not) from Nathaniel Hawthorne  - the most famous literary resident of that town - American Consul no less).  Now Rafael, have you read the article before your tirade...methinks not. Best wishes John"

Nathaniel Hawthorne as stated above was American Consul in Liverpool between 1853 and 1855, he lived in Birkenhead between these dates. If Verne is writing a novel (The Floating Island) based on Birkenhead (and let us for one second accept that he is) then it is quite probable that he would want to reference the town's most famous literary resident Nathniel Hawthorne, (who was fresh from writing the 1850 novel The Scarlet letter and at the peak of his fame) and wrote extensively about Birkenhead and Birkenhead Park in his English notebooks (1853-55). Herman Melville also dedicated his novel Moby Dick (according to William Butcher a major influence on Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas) to the 'genius' of Nathaniel Hawthorne, so Verne will have been well acquainted with Hawthorne. 

Because I know about the importance of Birkenhead in the writings of Verne, (see below)....

Backwards to Britain (1859) – Birkenhead. 

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864) - Birkenhead. 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) - Lairds (of Birkenhead)

A Floating City (1870 - Semmes / Birkenhead / Birkenhead built CSS Alabama 

The Adventures of Three Englishmen …. (1872) - Lairds  (of Birkenhead)

Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) – Birkenhead built CSS Alabama (mentioned twice). 

Survivors of the Chancellor (1874) - Lairds  (of Birkenhead).  

North Against South (1887) - Semmes (Captain of the Birkenhead built CSS Alabama)

An Antarctic Mystery (1897) - Birkenhead.

Traveling Scholarships (1903) - Birkenhead

...and because there is extremely strong evidence  that the Floating Island is based on Birkenhead (see points 1-21 above and and points 28-35 above) ... I knew from having already read Hawthorne's account of women and class in Birkenhead Park that Verne was most probably satirising Hawthorne in his account of women and class in The Floating Island (points 22 to 27). 

That is why I was not 'stupid' and 'far fetched'

Best John

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[John Lamb]

Hi Matthias,

At least you agree that it is possible that Nemo is based on Semmes.  This is not a small detail and it is ultimately important, because it links into repeated references to slavery and the American Civil War which as Jean Jules Verne said were the two main driving forces of Verne's work...so it is important.   

It also  links into the sequel novel The Mysterious Island as Nemo repents for his sins and helps the colonists build a new harmonious multiracial America in miniature. That is a very important message. My contention that the Mysterious Island is also based in Birkenhead and the Wirral peninsula as 'Lincoln Island' seems equally far fetched but is Verne's satire on a town (Birkenhead) that gave Abraham Lincoln so much angst in the American Civil War. Incidentally this always worried me when the colonists decide to sail around the island, when it is based on a peninsula, where they about to sail across land? In the end Verne 'skin grafts' on a wonderful metaphorical depiction of Liverpool Docks, lifted from his literal description from 'Backwards to Britain' - it is a masterpiece of improvisation from a genius of an author ...or is it the imagination of a geography teacher from Birkenhead - take your pick.

Incidentally there are over 60 locations mentioned in The Mysterious Island, and because each has its real life counterpart in Birkenhead and the the Wirral Peninsula, by all means name ten at random and I will tell you how they all fit into Verne's history and geography of Birkenhead, slavery, abolitionism and the American Civil War, the latter as highlighted by Jean Jules Verne. This would be a far more scientific audit than Alex Kirstusis attaining the peak of literary scholarship in comparing me to Inspector Fix.

Regarding Hawthorne, you say 'It’s very unlikely that he knew Hawthorne’s text'...again if he is writing (yet another) novel inspired by Birkenhead, then it is perfectly feasible that  he would know Hawthorne's English notebooks and want to lift from them, particularly as Hawthorne's diatribe about class is ripe for satirisation. 

You say. 

It’s obvious that most of the context you’ve given is totally unrelated to Hawthorne'.

I disagree, the context of The Floating Island is all about Birkenhead, and as Hawthorne is an integral part of the history of Birkenhead then it is related (that is if you agree with the original link of course). 

You are right though, the Hawthorne link could be coincidence, but in a sea of coincidences feeding into an ocean of coincidences I have to include it for others to decide upon intertextuality. 

The study of Jules Verne has always contained theories about what and where influenced his writings, the sheer density and preciseness of the Birkenhead, CSS Alabama links here should make some Verne  scholars stand upright. If it does not then other scholars of 19th century literature (as is already happening) with a more open mind, will fill the void. That is why I am quite relaxed about the verbal abuse and criticism I regularly receive on the forum. 

Best John

 

[mken...@aol.com]

Hi John, you call that a two minute read? It takes considerably longer to read it. You’ve posted the stuff about Semmes a hundred times before. It could get boring. I think it’s possible that Nemo is based on Semmes, and I’ve never ruled it out. But to me it’s just a small detail, interesting but ultimately unimportant – because there’s no message to it. Nemo did not support slavery. As to your points 22 to 27 above: reminds me of Alex Kirstukas’ essay in which he proved that you are Detective Fix. It was very very easy, extremely easy for Verne to write his passage without knowing Hawthorne’s text. It’s very unlikely that he knew Hawthorne’s text. It’s obvious that most of the context you’ve given is totally unrelated to Hawthorne.
Cheers,
Matthias

[John Lamb]

Comparing the Ontivero and Lamb 'real world graphs'

Dear Raphael

You state that using Arvensa PDF’s,   Birkenhead word appears 16 times and this is of 'high relevance', BUT you say that 'this must be taken as a grain of salt'  as the real word graph in relation to Verne books is this ....

I suggest you keep the 'high relevance' part and substitute it with the 'real word graph' (including Hawthorne) attached. Then we may actually both get somewhere.

Do you have details of all the 16 Birkenhead word appearances?

Best John

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/d7234d5b-0888-47a4-9b48-a900e4c7cac6n%40googlegroups.com.

[John Lamb]

The Ontivero v Lamb graphs compared

Dear Rafael, for your information.

Best John

[William Butcher]

Thanks for the lucid message,

bill

---

From: 'mken...@aol.com' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2026 7:05 PM
To: Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Context for Ana, Matthias and Rafael – a two minute read. As requested …best John.

 

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[mken...@aol.com]

Hi John, you say «This is not a small detail and it is ultimately important, because it links into repeated references to slavery and the American Civil War which as Jean Jules Verne said were the two main driving forces of Verne's work...so it is important.   

It also  links into the sequel novel The Mysterious Island as Nemo repents for his sins and helps the colonists build a new harmonious multiracial America in miniature.»

I bet it’s been said before in this forum, but it bears repeating: Nemo was at first supposed to be Polish, someone who fights against oppression – by the Russians. Hetzel disagreed, so in 20k Nemo’s origins are not mentioned and then later in M. Island it is revealed that he is an Indian prince, someone who fights against oppression – by the English. Now you say he was based on a Confederate captain, which is possible, but you also say "Nemo repents for his hins", as if he had supported oppression, i. e. slavery. That’s absurd. And you believe other scholars will vindicate you. If you ask me, it won’t happen.

"If you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras. You are looking for unicorns."

Cheers,

Matthias

[John Lamb]

Dear Matthias, 

I have prepared a paper on this re 20,000 Leagues and the CSS Alabama, and I was going to submit it to Verniana (which seems to be now offline) so I have just cut and pasted parts of the paper to answer your question. It took me 90 seconds so I apologize if the cut and paste appears disjointed but it should answer all the points you raise. 

By the way, I think people on this forum are now sussing out that your vague questions / answers with a little insult ingredient ('absurd') thrown in are a big  contrast to  my highly detailed and researched responses. 

.... also Matthias who? I can not trace who you are in the lexicon of Verne studies. 

Best John 

The French author Jules Verne’s classic 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas charts the adventures of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus. Jules Verne only once linked Captain Nemo’s origins to a real-life vessel and surprisingly it was to a wooden warship, the American Civil War Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama. The Alabama was commissioned at Nautilus House, Liverpool, England and built in 1862 under a veil of secrecy at Lairds shipyard of neighbouring Birkenhead. After leaving the River Mersey the Alabama was fitted with armaments on the remote Azores island of Terceira and joined by her captain, Raphael Semmes, a resident of Mobile, Alabama. In a two-year cruise the Alabama sank 64 United States merchant ships and created a major diplomatic rift between Great Britain and the United States, with her final battle taking place shortly after sighting Land’s End Cornwall. In Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, the steel plates of the hull (basically the whole visible structure) of the Nautilus are built at Lairds shipyard of Birkenhead (Verne: Laird’s of Liverpool) and shipped in a veil of secrecy to a remote island where the submarine is fitted with an armament and finally completed. Nemo, whose motto is Mobilis in Mobile, like Semmes then proceeds to sink shipping worldwide until his final battle takes place shortly after sighting Land’s End, Cornwall. These striking similarities prompted me to compare Raphael Semmes’s memoirs to Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. The conclusion reached is that the sheer number and preciseness of replicated passages suggests that Verne created the abolitionist Captain Nemo as the satirical alter ego of Raphael Semmes and that Jules Verne deliberately hid this, his greatest literary secret, ‘in plain sight’.  

Such is the complexity of the text in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas that in his 60 pages of explanatory notes, William Butcher catalogues over two hundred references to a variety of explorers, scientists, artists, classical writers, contemporary authors and historical events. It is within this significant background ‘noise’ that Butcher first noted several references to the American Civil War including those to Abraham Lincoln, the abolitionist John Brown, ironclad monitors, the Unionist Admiral David Farragut and the Confederate commerce raiders CSS Alabama and CSS Florida. Regarding the latter, Butcher writes.

The Alabama, which claimed to have sunk 75 merchantmen, was destroyed by the Unionist Kearsarge off Cherbourg on 11^th June 1864…. This battle has clear connections with Nemo’s final attack, also in the English Channel. (Butcher 1998 p422).

Given the name Florida, apparently taken from the notorious Confederate vessel, and the attack on the Abraham Lincoln, one could just as plausibly argue that Nemo was anti-American (Butcher 1998 p437).

The Florida, Sunderland: the name is highly unusual for a British ship: it must be borrowed from the Confederate Florida which sank 37 northern ships in just over a year, and was at the centre of the Alabama Affair, mentioned several times in Verne’s correspondence and works (Butcher 1998 p408).

Butcher’s most detailed Civil War analysis however concerns James Dunwoody Bulloch’s fellow Confederate secret agent Matthew Fontaine Maury, the ‘Father of Modern Oceanography’ greatly admired by Nemo and mentioned in several scenarios in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. Maury commissioned the commerce raider CSS Georgia for the Confederacy, a warship that burned eight Union vessels before being decommissioned in Birkenhead, England on May 10^th, 1864. (Wilson 2012 p107 and p163). Maury, the one-time business partner of Cyrus Field was friend and mentor to the Alabama’s captain Raphael Semmes, and, after the war, Maury’s wife and children lived with the Bolt Family in Birkenhead (Corbin 1888 p258) (Jahns 1961 p273) undoubtedly under the auspices of his other friend the shipbuilder John Laird - the builder of both the hull of the real-life CSS Alabama and the hull of Jules Verne’s fictional Nautilus.

William Butcher gives in his words, a ‘brief selection’ of Maury’s contribution to the maritime knowledge contained within Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.                                                                                                                

Maury: American Oceanographer, featured in Nemo’s library; wrote The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), a major source for Verne. A brief selection of information clearly taken from Maury would include: the reference to Wilkes, Ehrenberg, Humboldt, Faraday, Captains King and Fitzroy, Franklin, Parker, Denham, Dumont d’Urville, and Ross; ‘ooze’, the expansion undergone by freezing water, the role of undercurrents, the proof of the Northwest Passage by finding whales with stamped harpoons in them on the other side, the idea that right whales cannot pass the warm waters of the equator, the use of British miles, information about burials at sea, messages-in-bottles, sounding techniques, and the transatlantic cable over the ‘telegraphic plateau’, the associated bringing up of specimens, the idea of life on the seabed and the pressure there, the calm in the deeps, jellyfish as nettles, the sea of milk, luminescence, the salinity of the sea, animaliculae, and the nautilus shell, the idea of driftwood coming down the Mississippi (not tree-trunks down the Missouri, as Verne implausibly claims), the difference in the level between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the Sargasso Sea, the Gulf Stream, the ‘Kiru-Siwo’ (sic) or Black Stream, the idea of the large Antarctic landmass needed to produce the icebergs, and many of the localities. It is clear that Verne owes a large debt to Maury. (Butcher 1998 p405).

Semmes eventually made his way back to Virginia and on his return was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral by Jefferson Davis, and later to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate army of General Robert E Lee as it fought in vain against the advancing Unionist army of General Ulysses S Grant. Such was the celebrity of Raphael Semmes that he was still fighting in the American Civil War, a few months after a book of his adventures had already been released in the USA, Britain and France.  In a March 1869 letter to his publisher Hetzel, Jules Verne seems to be fully aware of both Raphael Semmes’s celebrity and his historic change of command from land to sea. Verne, however, seems to deny to Hetzel the potential for Captain Nemo to become the alter ego of Raphael Semmes.

His nationality needs to be kept vague, together with the causes which cast him onto his strange existence. In addition, the incident of the Alabama or a false Alabama is unacceptable and inexplicable, if Nemo wanted to take revenge on the slavers, he only had to serve in Grant’s army, and everything was settled. (Butcher 1998 p422). 

 

                                                                                                                                                                 This is Jules Verne’s only known written correspondence linking Captain Nemo with the Alabama and by Verne’s own inference, Captain Nemo being the possible abolitionist alter ego of the pro slavery Alabama’s captain Raphael Semmes. Semmes’s movement of command from land to sea, Verne’s reverse association with slavers and crucially the substitution of Grant’s name for Lee makes this a sequence of links given by Verne.

 As the Verne scholar William Butcher wrote of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.

This work, which forms such an important part of the modern imagination, cannot be fully understood without assessing the original idea from which it grew. (William Butcher, 1998, p. xviii).

 

In March 1869, the month that 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas first began to be serialised, Verne and his publisher Jules Hetzel were still arguing about the true inspiration for Captain Nemo. Jules Verne stated categorically in a letter to Hetzel that any comparison between Nemo and the CSS Alabama was ‘unacceptable’ and yet Verne still manufactured the bulk of his fictional Nautilus in the same shipyard, Lairds of Birkenhead as the CSS Alabama, and, like the Alabama, he chose to complete his fictional vessel clandestinely on a remote island, before it too attacked shipping worldwide in the 1860’s. If Verne genuinely wanted to avoid the link between Nemo and the Alabama, then he could easily have built most of his submarine in any shipyard in the world apart from Lairds.  He chose not to do so.

It is certainly possible that Verne worked alone and hid the Alabama link from Hetzel.

 In some cases, he perpetrated fraud with his publisher’s active connivance; but in some Hetzel probably suspected nothing.” (Butcher, 2006, p. 247-8).

 

 

There is another reason why Verne may have kept any link with the CSS Alabama away from Jules Hetzel even to the point of ‘twisting the truth’ and stating to Hetzel that any link to an “Alabama or a false Alabama” was “unacceptable”.

 

The publisher Hetzel, who did not allow his author to touch on potentially controversial matters. (Butcher 1998 pxvii).

 

If there is a far more complex relationship to Verne creating his “false Alabama”, then 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas should certainly not exist in “splendid isolation” and there should be many more hidden references to Raphel Semmes, the CSS Alabama, Birkenhead and the American Civil War, in Verne’s sequel novel The Mysterious Island (1874), particularly as this is Verne’s longest and most complex work and marks the return of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.

 The Mysterious Island starts in the besieged Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia towards the end of the American Civil War when five Northern prisoners of war flee in a balloon and are swept by a great storm on to an unchartered island in the south Pacific Ocean. Captain Nemo is the sole resident of the island, and he secretly observes the castaways, including an emancipated black slave named Neb work hard to build an industrious, multiracial and harmonious ‘Little America’ on an island which they name ‘Lincoln Island’. Nemo is so impressed with their efforts, that without making himself known, he decides to secretly help the castaways in their struggles against several dangers; these include saving them from dangerous animals, blowing up a pirate ship and even providing quinine when malaria strikes the colony. Nemo, the so-called “supernatural force” of the island will only make himself known at the very end of the novel when an erupting volcano threatens them all. Nemo, of course has essentially been playing the ‘God’ to the castaways of the island, and the theme of the novel will be ‘God helps those who help themselves’ which also happens to be the motto written in French as Aide-toi et Dieu t'aidera on the Alabama’s ships wheel.  This motto supports the religious Deist leaning principles of both Jules Verne (Verne, Jean Jules 1973 p9) and Abraham Lincoln (Donald. 1995 p74) and as such The Mysterious Island marks the repentance of Captain Nemo by his carrying out good deeds to atone for his previous sins and thus being forgiven by the new Americans in the Christian tradition.

                                           

Raphael Semmes as the Alter Ego of Captain Nemo.

Had he been one of the heroes of that terrible American Civil War, that frightful but forever glorious battle….? Verne. 1870 p248-249.

 

Although Verne gives precise and named similarities between Raphael Semmes and the fictional Captain Nemo, there are important caveats where Captain Nemo seems to be the precise opposite of Raphael Semmes, his all-important alter ego. This element, moving as it does into political satire is common in the roman à clef genre. Jules Verne writes.

At that moment my attention was caught by a few etchings on the walls that I had not noticed on my first visit. They were portraits of those great men of history whose lives were entirely devoted to a great human idea; Kosciusko, the hero who fell with the cry Finis Poloniae, Bozzaris, the Leoidas of modern Greece, O’Connell, the defender of Ireland, Washington the founder of the American Union, Manin, the Italian patriot, Lincoln, who fell shot by a supporter of slavery, and finally John Brown, that martyr to the freeing of the black race, hanging from the gallows and so terribly drawn by Victor Hugo.

What link existed between these heroic souls and the soul of Captain Nemo? Could I finally solve the mystery of his existence by this collection of portraits? Was he a champion of downtrodden peoples, a liberator of enslaved races? Had he taken part in the political and social upheaveals that had recently marked the century? Had he been one of the heroes of that terrible American Civil War, that frightful but forever glorious battle….? (Verne. 1870 p248-249).

                                            

While Raphael Semmes has portraits of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E Lee in his cabin, Nemo has portraits of their Civil War counterparts Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist insurrectionist John Brown in his cabin, drawn by Verne’s contemporary Victor Hugo. Hugo had written to the London News arguing the case for Brown to be spared the hangman’s noose for violently inciting a slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry stating “Assuredly, if insurrection is ever a sacred duty, it must be when it is directed against Slavery” (Victor Hugo The London News 2^nd Dec 1859).                                                

Nemo (Latin for nobody) may be inspired by the seafaring life of Raphael Semmes, but he has the abolitionist morals of Abraham Lincoln, John Brown and Daniel O’Connell sailing on a ‘false Alabama’. The names Kosciusko, Bozzaris and O’Connell were included in William Seward’s eulogy to the slavery abolitionist Daniel O’Connell in 1847 (Seward 1847) after O’Connell’s body lay on public display in Birkenhead (Illustrated London News Aug 4^th 1847) prior to his burial in Dublin, Ireland four days later. Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward was Raphael Semmes’ greatest Unionist adversary and is mentioned numerous times in Semmes’s memoirs. Kosciusko and Bozzaris may thus serve an alternative purpose to Verne in alluding to William Seward and further references to the American Civil War rather than to any revolutionary link with Poland and Greece. 

Nemo does not have the superb navigational skills of Semmes outlined earlier by Wade G Dudley (2017). In 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Nemo first accidentally rams the Etna of the (Birkenhead owned) Inman shipping line (Verne 1870 p6), the Etna being the name of the first Mersey steam ferry from Liverpool to Birkenhead (Baines 1852 p576). Nemo later accidentally rams the Liverpool bound and registered ship Scotia, he runs aground in the Torres Strait, he gets stuck in the Antarctic ice, he enters a hallucinogenic trance on deck during a storm and he finally endangers the Nautilus by sailing towards a freak whirlpool. Nemo needlessly endangers the life of himself, his crew and his prisoners – something Raphael Semmes would only do when, perhaps fatigued by two years at sea, he decided to fight the Kearsarge at Cherbourg. The Alabama, like the Nautilus, was also consumed by a freak whirlpool, but only after she had been sunk in battle by the USS Kearsarge and created her own maelstrom (Sinclair 1895 p375).    

Nemo has perfected the use of a steel ram to terrorise shipping, whereas Semmes hated the concept of both ironclad monitors and the underhand steel ram.

Alas! alas! there will be no more Nelsons, and Collingwoods, and no more such venerable “bulwarks upon the deep,” as the Victory, and the Royal Sovereign. In future wars upon the ocean, all combatants will be on the dead level of impenetrable iron walls, with regard to dash, and courage, and with regard to seamanship, and evolutions, all the knowledge that will be required of them, will be to know how to steer a nondescript box toward their enemy. (Semmes 1869 p150).

 

In using both humour and the irony of Semmes’ brief stewardship of the Virginia II, Jules Verne will make Captain Nemo the captain of a nondescript box steered toward their enemy.

In his memoirs Raphael Semmes praises the brutal putdown of an insurrection on the island of Jamaica, whereas Captain Nemo, as his alter ego, fuels an insurrection on the island of Crete (Semmes p555. Verne p253).

In a final satirical vein, Verne seems to eventually choose Nemo’s nationality in the sequel 1874 novel The Mysterious Island as based on Semmes’s attitude towards India and its people. Raphael Semmes wrote in his memoirs that India should never be free of British rule after the 1857 Sepoy rebellion, and so Jules Verne makes Captain Nemo, the  Indian Prince Dakkar, who fought to be free of British rule and who led the 1857 Sepoy rebellion. 

The moral conquest of India, by the British people, is even more remarkable and more admirable than its physical conquest. Since their last                                                                              Indian war, the whole country, from one end of it to the other, has settled down in the most profound peace… She will remain indefinitely a prosperous ward in chancery—the guardian and the ward living amicably together, and each sharing the prosperity of the other. (Semmes 1869 p731).

In 1857, the great Sepoy revolt broke out. Prince Dakkar was its soul. He organized the immense uprising, and he devoted both his talents and his wealth to this cause. He sacrificed himself. He fought in the front lines; he risked his life like the humblest of those heroes who had risen up to free their country; he was wounded ten times in twenty encounters but could not find death when the last soldiers of the fight for independence fell under British bullets. (Jules Verne The Mysterious Island. 1873 p590-591).      

 Conclusion

 

Nineteenth-century authors such as Elizabeth Gaskell and Thomas Hardy took inspiration from real-life places and people to create fictional locations and characters. Jules Verne goes much further, to give his fictions what Henry James once called ‘the supreme virtue of a novel’, its ‘air of reality’ or ‘solidity of specification’ (James 1987 p195) he chooses one person, the notorious American Civil War pirate Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama, upon whom to base his alter ego of Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.

Jules Verne’s use of the CSS Alabama and reimagining her as the Nautilus is a true roman à clef where Verne often turns to metaphor to expand the imagination of his writings. Verne escapes future censure by making Captain Nemo a supporter of the abolitionist Abraham Lincoln, the slave insurrectionist John Brown “that martyr to the freeing of the black race”, and the Irish abolitionist Daniel O’Connell, as evidenced by the portraits in Nemo’s cabin, all of them being the direct opposite to Semmes’s pro slavery reality. If Captain Nemo (whose name is Latin for nobody) is thus half the soul of the pro slavery Raphael Semmes and half the soul of the abolitionist Abraham Lincoln, then Nemo’s own tormented soul is indeed a metaphor for the American people at war with itself for the abolition of slavery between 1861-1865. 

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[mken...@aol.com]

tl;dr

Sorry.

[John Lamb]

Thankyou Matthias

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[John Lamb]

Thankyou Bill. 

[mken...@aol.com]

Hi John, you say «This is not a small detail and it is ultimately important, because it links into repeated references to slavery and the American Civil War which as Jean Jules Verne said were the two main driving forces of Verne's work...so it is important.   
It also  links into the sequel novel The Mysterious Island as Nemo repents for his sins and helps the colonists build a new harmonious multiracial America in miniature.»

I bet it’s been said before in this forum, but it bears repeating: Nemo was at first supposed to be Polish, someone who fights against oppression – by the Russians. Hetzel disagreed, so in 20k Nemo’s origins are not mentioned and then later in M. Island it is revealed that he is an Indian prince, someone who fights against oppression – by the English. Now you say he was based on a Confederate captain, which is possible, but you also say "Nemo repents for his hins", as if he had supported oppression, i. e. slavery. That’s absurd. And you believe other scholars will vindicate you. If you ask me, it won’t happen.

"If you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras. You are looking for unicorns."

Cheers,

Matthias

[quentin skrabec]

This is not my area of verne research - but im reading all 

1. i respect the depth of John's research so layoff

2. the idea by you Frenchies that i now have to read Hawthorne in French to understand Verne is more French studies elitism- verne knew well many scholars that read Hawthorne. it is a huge generalization to put confederate officers into any mind set many where anti-slavery- for many if not most slavery was an economic issue not a belief that blacks were any less human. Many confederate officers became anti slavery supporters and other did not. 

and please take me off all emails written in French only. i think knowledge of french is being weaponized to support a traditional Frech elitism traditional view of Verne.   

God Bless the Republic 

quent

[Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd]

Sorry, Quentin, there is no automatic language detection and email selection system available in Google Groups...

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[Rafael Ontivero]

Quentin, most email clients, including the Gmail web version, have built-in translation features. That is what I use when a conversation here is in French and I want to follow along.

In the latest macOS version, the integrated Mail application allows you to select a block of text, right-click, and translate it. Another option is to copy the conversation into an AI assistant to get a summary or explanation.

Outlook for Windows also offers summarization with paid Office accounts, and if you use Microsoft Edge, you can open the sidebar and ask Copilot for help. It works well enough for getting the gist of the conversation.

Normally is what I do depending if I’m in Windows or macOS.

[Ariel Pérez Rodríguez]

Hi Quentin,

This forum is not exclusively in English. I'm sorry for those who cannot understand French, including yourself, but in the original Zvi Har'El forum—the one that inspired this one—both French and English posts were common.

Likewise, at the Hispanic Society, even if our primary mission is to publish works for Spanish-speaking audiences, we also publish books in French and feature French-language episodes in our YouTube video program. We do so out of respect for the writer to whom this forum—and indeed all of our activities—is dedicated.

Besides, in 2026 there are countless tools available for automatic translation. Most modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, offer built-in translation features that can be activated with just a right-click.

I therefore don't see the occasional use of French as a significant obstacle to participation in the forum.

Best regards,
Ariel

[mken...@aol.com]

First of all, sorry for the double posts, but it’s not my fault. Some posts do not show up, then I try again, it works… and days later, the first try gets through and shows up, too. Please ignore the double posts.

Quentin, nobody here has asked you (or anyone else for that matter) to read Hawthorne in French. The question was only whether a contemporary French translation of the Hawthorne book can be found or not.  So relax :)

Cheers,

Matthias

[quentin skrabec]

Just layoff john-- right or wrong he done a ton of research -  respect that - believe me after 100+ articles and 25 books - I know this type of elitism - sorry you touched a nerve with needing French translations of Hawthorne to understand how Verne saw Hawthorne. Sorry - I am well aware of google translation - sorry I been so beat up on French translations by some members it drives me crazy.  On the back burner but im working on how the French see Verne versus the Americans. My large collection focuses on translations - translators often vary widely -  I don't see and absolutes. My statistical research on the words charcoal and coal  translation issues, changing lexicon for the word coal as technoby evolved.  etc and even Verne himself varied on his choice of words for carbon, charcoal, and coal in different novels.  The words charcoal and coal is a major difference to an engineer. 

I best leave it there - I don't to start any more "discussions"  — JUST KEEP AN OPEN MIND the best research always breaks from the traditional view. 

Quent   Please have mercy on me in your responses

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From: 'mken...@aol.com' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2026 1:24 PM

To: Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [JVF] Re: Context for Ana, Matthias and Rafael – a two minute read. As requested …best John.

 

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[mken...@aol.com]

«needing French translations of Hawthorne to understand how Verne saw Hawthorne»

I repeat: Nobody has ever said anything like that in this thread. Please read the posts again if you don’t believe it.

Cheers,

Matthias

[mken...@aol.com]

Sorry, I had forgotten that John has a tendency to start lots of new threads… I think the most relevant thread concerning the Hawthorne question is this one:

https://groups.google.com/g/jules-verne-forum/c/yHqN3i1rLJA

So look at that one if you want to check. (I think John could have simply continued to post in that thread instead of starting a new one.)

[John Lamb]

Dear Matthias,

 Quent is spot on (thanks for your supportive comments Quent) when he criticises the preposterous idea that finding possible links between Verne and Hawthorne is by necessity...

«needing French translations of Hawthorne to understand how Verne saw Hawthorne»

and you reply

'I repeat: Nobody has ever said anything like that in this thread. Please read the posts again if you don’t believe it.

Cheers,

Matthias'

Well I have read the posts again, and quote from Rafael Ontivero 

'John, throughout my nearly 60 years of reading about Verne I have read some stupid, far-fetched, and forced things, but this one is giving me the biggest laugh. Come on, are you saying that Verne, without knowing the paragraph you're talking about beforehand, had it translated just to write a satire? Did it come to him in a dream? As others have already told you, first find a French edition published before Verne's work, because otherwise your thesis completely falls apart, and you should admit it, drop the subject, and move on'. 

I will find a quote from Jules Verne (a journal interview I think) where Verne says that due to his not being able to understand English, he has to use interpreters, so the whole idea of my needing to find a French translation is obsolete and a waste of all our time. To be honest I think Verne probably used teams of interpreters to facilitate rapid turnaround. 

This may seem like looking into very small minutiae but there are important principles here, that is one of critics using Verne's supposed inability to speak English to dismiss new findings to zero percent possibility and therefore snuff out further debate with a few insults thrown in to ram it home.

Also Matthias, I found your resorting to French and using the quote  of 'ignorance', both incongruous (how many other  postings have you made in French previously? )  and possibly incendiary to me given previous discussions. 

Just in case you really were 'taking the piss' I was happy to throw back at you  two Verne quotes which nicely linked in his passion for proving others wrong and the links betwwen his Moon novel with Liverpool, John F Kennedy and  Birkenhead's George Mallory, the man who really inspired the moon landings for good intriguing measure. 

Coincidence  ...most probably, but who knows? ... and why is it that only Jules Verne channels us down these alley ways? Anyway, at the very least it is another example of this small town of Birkenhead influenced world events.....so  while I am at it, 11 out of the 12 astronauts ever to walk on the moon were once Boy Scouts, try looking up where the Boy Scouts movement was formed...so do not underestimate the power of Birkenheaf to influence Verne.

 This may seem off message, but I do believe that you and others are using Verne's supposed inability to speak English to ' underestimate the power of one small town opposite Liverpool to influence Verne'.

Best John

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[mken...@aol.com]

Hi John,

I think you are taking all this too seriously. You posted some hot takes, then there has been criticism, there has been banter, but nothing personal (from my side).

Live with it, it's not so difficult. And Rafael has said sorry. If you feel insulted by my posts, then you are misinterpreting what I wrote. Of course I'll still say sorry if it makes you feel better.

Cheers,

Matthias

[John Lamb]

Dear Matthias,

You  erroneously 'corrected' Quent by saying 'Nobody has ever said anything like that in this thread' forcing me to re quote Rafael's statement in giving unequivocal evidence to the contrary.  It was you who forced my hand to bring things up  again in order to defend Quent and correct your error, because you had (yet again) not taken the time to read all the content and context on the thread. 

So stop stirring things up, and also insinuating that I have not accepted Rafael's apology in some way. I thanked Rafael, I thank him again now, and I fully respect his wish to let that matter drop. 

Fine, carry on the 'banter' if you wish, and your cryptic messages in French, which can easily be interpreted as sly innuendo because of the context of other things you have said on this forum.

When someone says,  'Of course I'll still say sorry if it makes you feel better' then I take that as a warning sign of a highly manipulative person who I would not trust with a barge pole. God forbid if I ever said that to my wife, she would remind me of it for years. And there's the rub. your words (whether they be in English or French) serve to condemn yourself. Quite an achievement. 

I post links between Verne and Birkenhead and back it up with precise historical context regarding two things close to Verne's heart - slavery and the American Civil War, that is all.  

You post 'banter' and it seems to me, not much else. You certainly do not deal in arguing with specifics, do you?

I look forward to seeing the 'hot takes' you have come up with. 

Best John

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[mken...@aol.com]

Sorry, I didn't know that you are so sensitive.

[mken...@aol.com]

P. S.: I have the feeling that these discussions lead nowhere. So it’s best if I keep out of them from now on.

[William Butcher]

Dear all

Calling all literary sleuths: does anybody have any information on « le Prince Ien, le souverain juge de l'enfer chinois » (Tribulations ch 9) ?

Best

Bill

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From: 'mken...@aol.com' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Friday, June 19, 2026 8:33 PM

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[Christian Sánchez]

I found the spelling Yan (Yanluo Wang) in the webpage https://culture-chinoise.com/demon-chinois/

See, therefore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanluo_Wang

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/BN7PR14MB211484FCA2AA9439385213C4FAEC2%40BN7PR14MB2114.namprd14.prod.outlook.com.

[William Butcher]

Congratulations! Y <-> i, and a  <-> e, so Yan makes perfect sense!

bill

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Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2026 9:56 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] le Prince Ien

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