Begum's Million my journey
quentin skrabec
does anybody have more on this
Verne’s own words: “What shall we say about the Krupp factory now, as it is really Krupp who is in play here, and his factory that is so forbidden to indiscreet eyes”[i]
[i] Begum’s Millions (Luce Translation) NOTE Chapter 5 note 5, original Correspondance inédite de Jules Verne et de Pierre-Jules Hetzel Sept 1 1878
John Lamb
Character inspirations actually discussed by Verne.
Dear Quentin,
Good luck with this. I think we are the only two people who are researching into character
inspirations which were actually discussed by Verne with Hetzel. Indeed, I would like to
ask forum members, are there any other character inspirations apart from Krupp and the CSS
Alabama /Raphael Semmes that Verne ever discussed with Hetzel?
If Krupp and Semmes / CSS Alabama are the only two, then we are both indeed individually blessed in how
Verne’s research has found us and not the other way round.
It is all reminiscent of Verne’s previous letter to Jules Hetzel on 17th May 1869 regarding the
inspiration for Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and Verne comparing Captain
Nemo to Captain Raphael Semmes of the American Civil War Confederate warship CSS
Alabama. According to William Butcher (p399), Verne wrote.
His nationality needs to be kept vague, together with the causes which cast him into his strange
existence. In addition, the incident of an Alabama or a false Alabama is unacceptable and
inexplicable; if Nemo wanted to take revenge on the slavers, he only had to serve in (Ulysses)
Grant’s army and everything was settled.
In 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Aronnax speculates that Nemo was a hero of the American
Civil War, so Verne is doing the exact opposite of what he said in his letter to Hetzel.
To quote Verne’s favourite playwright William Shakespeare, I think Verne ‘doth protest too much’
and this is a literary decoy, otherwise, Verne should not have allowed me to write this regarding
the CSS Alabama in my recent article in the International Review of Science Fiction (Lamb
2025).
Both the Alabama and the Nautilus were mainly built in Birkenhead. Both Semmes and Nemo
were gifted natural historians. Nemo’s motto was ‘Mobilis in Mobile’ while Semmes was from
Mobile Alabama.
Semmes was branded a pirate by Abraham Lincoln, who put a bounty on Semmes’s head, and
Semmes was chased around the seas by Admiral Farragut of the US Navy. Nemo, conversely,
was branded a pirate by Captain Farragut of the US Navy, who put a bounty on Nemo’s head,
and Nemo was chased around the seas by the ship Abraham Lincoln.
Both Semmes and Nemo encounter an imaginary island, sail through a patch of white water,
encounter fake Havana cigars, mention coral mausoleums, shelter in an extinct volcanic island,
and have their final battle off Cherbourg. Semmes had a portrait of the Confederate President,
Jefferson Davis, in his cabin while Nemo had a portrait of the Union President, Abraham Lincoln,
in his.
John lamb International Review of Science Fiction 2025
This of course a tiny snippet of all the direct like for like passages re Semmes and Nemo when
comparing 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and Semmes 1869 memoirs.
After the CSS Alabama was sunk off Cherbourg (a link with the Nautilus acknowledged by
William Butcher), Semmes returned to the southern states to take revenge on the antislavers by
joining General (Robert E) Lee’s army. You have to admire both Verne’s research and sense of
humour in making Nemo the alter ego of Raphael Semmes and throwing in this tasty titbit
with Hetzel.
If Nemo wanted to take revenge on the slavers, he only had to serve in (Ulysses)
Grant’s army and everything was settled.
Re the continuum of the alter ego, Semmes was of course a master mariner, the most successful warship captain
in naval history, his alter ego Captain Nemo is of course a terrible mariner, striking the Scotia by
mistake, running aground in Indonesia, getting stuck in Antarctic ice and finally going into some
hallucinogenic trance and disappearing down a whirlpool. At least the freak whirlpool
documented as for the CSS Alabama (Sinclair 1896) was not Semmes’s fault but makes William Butchers
comparison with Nautilus's final battle and that of the CSS Alabama's final battle with the USS Kearsarge more valid.
Yes, the alter ego which because Semmes said in his memoirs that India should
never be free of British rule, means that Verne eventually reveals Nemo as Prince Dakar, an
Indian who fought to be free of British rule… and as Semmes praised the put down of a revolt on
the island of Jamaica, so Nemo incites a revolt on the island of Crete…. So don’t get me started
on those who think that Nemo is based on the Cretan rebel Gustave Flourens!
What a great way for Verne to stave off writer’s block!....
I hope some of these literary comparisons re the Nautilus and the CSS Alabama may point to a
Commonality with Verne’s inspirational writings re Krupp.
All the best with it, and good luck from Birkenhead.
John
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