Raphael Semmes and the Derivation of the name Prince Dakkar - the genius humour of Jules Verne.
John Lamb
In The Mysterious Island (1873), the real identity of Captain Nemo is revealed as the Indian Prince Dakkar.
Captain Nemo was an Indian, Prince Dakkar, son of a rajah of the then-independent territory of Bundlekund and nephew of the Indian hero, Tippo Saib… …Prince Dakkar hated. He hated the only country where he never wished to set foot, the only nation whose overtures he constantly refused: he hated England, and all the more so because, in some ways, he admired her…
… 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.
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (1874)
As stated previously, if one accepts that the adventures of Captain Nemo and the largely Birkenhead built Nautilus use the literary template of Raphael Semmes and the largely Birkenhead built CSS Alabama then it opens up several new interpretations of Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.
Verne himself asks us what clues the portraits in Nemo’s cabin gave to Nemo’s soul, these include portraits of the abolitionist Abraham Lincoln, the Irish abolitionist Daniel O’Connell and the militant abolitionist John Brown, drawn by Verne’s friend Victor Hugo (who pleaded with the American Government not to hang Brown).
If one acknowledges the Semmes / Alabama influence, then the portraits create an exact 50:50 Confederate / Unionist balance of Nemo’s soul and thus allow us to conclude that Nemo is so tormented because he is a living metaphor for America as a country at war with itself for the abolition of slavery between 1861-65.
Jules Verne acknowledges the effect on Nemo soul in The Mysterious Island as the colonists valiantly attempt to build a new multiracial harmonious ‘mini America’ on Lincoln Island and request the island be accepted into the Union.
He overheard the colonists relating their past and discussing the present and the future. From them he learned of the immense effort to abolish slavery with American fighting American. Yes! These were men worthy of reconciling Captain Nemo with the humanity that they so honestly represented on the island.
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (1874)
But why make Nemo an Indian rebel against the British? A plot twist which I believe is correctly questioned by William Butcher in his analysis of the novel as to how it sits within both 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and its sequel The Mysterious Island?
One answer is that in Verne consulting Semmes's Memoirs, the pro slavery and pro-British Raphael Semmes said that India should never be free of British rule, and so in continuing to make the abolitionist Nemo as Semmes’s alter ego, Verne makes Nemo a rebel who fought to be free of British rule.
Here is the relevant passage in Semmes’s memoirs where he begins, like Verne by referencing the Sepoy Revolt of 1857.
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.
Nor is this the peace of despotism, for in comparison with the extent of territory, and the two hundred millions of people to be governed, the number of troops is ridiculously small. The conquest is one of arts and civilization, and not of arms. The railroad, the canal, the ship, the printing press, and above all, a paternal and beneficent government, have worked out the wonderful problem of the submission of teeming millions to the few.
It is the conquest of race and of intellect. The docile Hindoo, not devoid of letters himself, has realized the fact that a superior people has come to settle in his country, to still domestic broils, strip former despots of their ill-gotten and much-abused power, and to rule him with humanity and justice. The torch of civilization has shone in dark places, dispelled many prejudices, and brought to light and broken up many hideous practices.
Schools and colleges have sprung up everywhere, and the natural taste of the native population for letters has been cultivated. In the very newspapers which we are reviewing are to be found long dissertations and criticisms, by Hindoo scholars, on various matters of morals, science, and literature.
A government whose foundations are thus laid will be durable. In Australia, New Zealand, and other colonies, where the white population, in the course of a few years, will greatly preponderate over the native, mere adolescence will bring about independence. But India will never become adolescent in this sense. 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.
Once we have added another facet of Nemo’s soul as being the alter ego of Raphael Semmes then that brings us to derivation of the name Prince Dakkar and how it relates to Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama.
The coded Derivation of Prince Dakkar and how it relates to Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama.
In a previous posting Kenneth Lamb outlined how the character of Arne Saknussemm is a coded reference to Raphael Semmes.
ARNE SAKNUSSEMM
I put the first ES on the end to make SEMMES and this gave . . .
ARNA KNUS SEMMES
I knew Saknussemm’s code in the novel had been solved by reading it backwards, so I tried that.
SEMMES SUNK ANRA
Finding the word SUNK was exciting but ANRA made no sense.
I then tried just reading the last two words backwards and this gave . . .
SEMMES SUNK ARNA
I looked up the meaning of ARNA and was delighted to find it is Nordic for
“The powerful eagle”.
SEMMES SUNK THE POWERFUL EAGLE
The powerful eagle being the United States of America.
Kenneth Lamb (2025)
Following the code hidden in the name Arne Saknussemm, I was always looking out for a similar coded reference to Raphael Semmes in the name Dakkar… in fact any word which might have a ‘D’ and a ‘K’ in it would perhaps stand out in the history of Semmes and the CSS Alabama.
Eventually I found it, and in using the same technique of decoding Arne Saknussemm by initially moving a few letters around (in this case just one letter), Jules Verne would confirm the true literary template for Captain Nemo’s soul as being that of Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama.
At this point it may be useful to remind ourselves that Verne mentions Raphael Semmes twice in his novels (A Floating City and North and South), the Alabama Claims twice in Around the World in Eighty Days and that the only vessel he ever compared the Nautilus to (in a letter to Hetzel) was the CSS Alabama.
In October 1863 Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama visited Cape Town to wild excitement, with thousands of people thronging the harbour to visit the ship.
A song was penned in Afrikaans to honour the CSS Alabama, and it is still quite famous and sung by gospel choirs today.
The song is called
DAAR KOM DIE ALIBAMA
D A A R K O M D I E A L I B A M A
Look at the song title…..
and by simply moving the letter ‘K’ two spaces to the left and reading it out loud, Jules Verne will give us the true inspiration for Prince Dakkar.
The genius humour of Jules Verne, but even funnier if you accept the links between the Nautilus and the CSS Alabama.
This is the second submission (along with Arne Saknussemm) where the solving of two of Verne’s character name codes by linking them to Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama hopefully gives them more credence and renders coincidence less likely. Hopefully Verne scholars will now see that both coded names are the work of the genius Jules Verne rather than the coincidental ramblings of two brothers from Birkenhead.
The third coded reference in this series of three, is Raphael Semmes being the inspiration for Captain Blomsberry in Around the Moon (1869), this is the captain who picks up the lunar module from the Pacific Ocean at the end of the novel. This is a more complex link and worthy of a proper drafted article and so I will post in a few weeks.
Best Wishes
John Lamb
William Butcher
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John Lamb
Jean-Louis Trudel
So, is the Afrikaans song in the French version of Semmes' memoirs?
If not, how would Verne have heard of it? The Wikipedia page about
the song has trouble dating it; dating it to 1863-1864 appears to be
an assumption (and there's an alternate theory that it might be older
than the visits by the Alabama).
Jean-Louis Trudel
John Lamb
You must admit, Verne’s cipher is very, very funny.
Dear Jean-Louis, thank you for your reply. In answering your question, the Afrikaans song Daar Kom Die Alibama is not mentioned in Semmes’s memoirs, but I would imagine that in the eight years following the sinking of the CSS Alabama and the publication of Mysterious Island in 1873/4 the song had become known to Jules Verne as to anyone who researched into the basic history of the CSS Alabama – the most famous 'pirate ship' of the Nineteenth Century and the most successful warship of all time in terms of 'kills' (over 60)
The Alabama is the only ship (and I still stand to be corrected) that Jules Verne ever compared to the Nautilus.
Jules Verne also speculates about Captain Nemo’s identity in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and this would match Raphael Semmes, in the eyes of some.
Had he been one of the heroes of that terrible American Civil War, that frightful but forever glorious battle….?
Jules Verne of Captain Nemo ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ (1869)
This also nicely fits Verne’s direct references to Raphael Semmes by name in A Floating City (1870) North and South (1887), and the Alabama Claims (twice) in Around the World in Eighty Days (1874).
The Arne Saknussemm cipher (explained in a previous post) and Verne’s skillfully making Daar Kom Die Alibama in to a cipher, both work by initially moving letters to give the true origin of Captain Nemo as Prince Dakkar
D A K A R O M D I E A L I B A M A.
Sorry I still have to laugh again.
This is also befitting of the mischievous sense of humour of Jules Verne, a man who would photobomb his own family portrait as early as 1861!
The Verne Family – Jules Verne International Centre
Best wishes
John Lamb
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William Butcher
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 7:40 PM
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Subject: Re: [JVF] Raphael Semmes and the Derivation of the name Prince Dakkar - the genius humour of Jules Verne.