Part 2 Raphael Semmes and the Derivation of Arne Saknussemm by Ken Lamb
John Lamb
Apologies for opening a new thread, I only seem able to post a reply by opening a new conversation. I do not know whether anyone running the forum can offer any advice on this.
William Butcher wrote
..and here is my reply.
Dear Bill,
Thank you for this. Yes, the Manet painting is very interesting as it also includes the Birkenhead yacht Deerhound that rescued Semmes after the CSS Alabama was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg on 19th June 1864. A copy currently hangs in the Royal Mersey Yacht Club of Tranmere Birkenhead.
Incidentally Raphael Semmes was plucked out of the waters of the English Channel by Henry Adams of Bidston Lighthouse Birkenhead, Bidston Lighthouse of course (I contend) playing a major role as a literary template across three major Verne novels A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), The Mysterious Island (1874) and The Floating Island.
As you say both the Nautilus and the Alabama have their final battle off Cherbourg. I have expanded on this a great deal at the end of this message using both the text of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and Semmes’s memoirs. Semmes’s words are instrumental in giving an explanation for the mysterious vessel sunk by Nemo and why Nemo sobs beneath a portrait of his wife and family directly afterwards.
I would say that the CSS Alabama was famous to Verne long before Manet’s 1866 painting. From early 1862 there had been rumours about a new Confederate warship being built at Lairds of Birkenhead. Immediately prior to launch, and variously known in the press as ‘Lairds 290’ and ‘Enrica’ , the CSS Alabama had been built in secret for an unknown captain, and been the subject of many letters of concern from American ambassador Charles Francis Adams to the British Government (Library of Congress website). Adams mentions his spies picking up gossip in Liverpool regarding a new vessel being built for the Confederacy.
CSS Alabama was widely featured in the world’s press after its escape from Birkenhead and the sinking of its first Union Vessel in July 1862. Information that would have been freely available to Verne.
In The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864) Verne’s ship The Forward is built in Birkenhead, for an unknown captain on an unknown mission to a specific design, and sets ‘Liverpudlian tongues wagging’ and here Verne is obviously taking inspiration from the construction of the CSS Alabama in early 1862. Indeed, the name Hatteras evokes the name of the only United States warship The USS Hatteras, sunk by Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama on 11th January 1863 to worldwide attention.
Alabama's visit to Cape Town South Africa in October 1863 resulted in thousands rushing to the harbour to greet the (in)famous ship and a (still famous) Afrikaan song 'Daar Kom die Alibama' penned in her honour. All this would have been well known to Verne.
In the same month, Charles Francis Adams stated that if the 'Laird Rams' (the ironclad ram successors to the CSS Alabama and also an inspiration to the Nautilus) ever left Birkenhead to join the Confederacy, then 'This is War'.
Jules Verne certainly knew enough about Birkenhead and Liverpool to have written a detailed account as the start point of The Adventures of Captain Hatteras in 1864 and I would contend that he also knew enough about Birkenhead to have it as the start point of the only other novel he wrote in 1864 – and that is A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (see my passage on Bidston Observatory / Scartaris and Bidston Lighthouse / Snaefells).
Incidentally I felt that the approach of choosing just one of Verne’s literary templates, that of Bidston Hill Birkenhead, and then applying it across three major novels worked rather well as they support each other and render the idea of coincidence as less tenable.
In the same vein I think this ‘three in one go’ approach would be the best way to show the influence of Raphael Semmes on three main characters, the first is the name Arne Saknussemm (already posted on behalf of my brother, Ken Lamb), the second is the Semmes / Alabama derivation of the name Prince Dakar (i.e. revealing the true identity of Captain Nemo) and lastly the Semmes inspired character of Captain Blomsberry in Around the Moon.
This has the advantage in that Verne scholars can then look at all three, see if they support each other as recognisably the type of coded reference that would be typical of the great literary genius of Jules Verne or, simply, they are the coincidental ramblings of a retired geography teacher from Birkenhead.
I will post (in my opinion) the very amusing Semmes derivation of Prince Dakar later today and the far more complex Semmes derivation of Captain Blomsberry in Around the Moon tomorrow.
Many thanks again Bill for your words of encouragement.
Best John
p.s.
Here are my thoughts on the commonality of the both the Nautilus and the CSS Alabama’s last battle off Cherbourg, first identified by William Butcher and how it opens up another window into the literary templates that Verne used to form the character of Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.
Unbeknown to Raphael Semmes, the USS Kearsarge, prior to the battle of Cherbourg had strengthened its wooden hull with anchor chains draped over the side – a metal cover. Raphael Semmes was incensed at what he saw was a duplicitous trick.
He writes in his Memoirs Afloat…
At the end of the engagement, it was discovered by those of our officers who went alongside of the enemy’s ship, with the wounded, that her mid-ship section, on both sides, was thoroughly iron-coated; this having been done with chains, constructed for the purpose, placed perpendicularly, from the rail to the water’s edge, the whole covered over by a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of the armor beneath. This planking had been ripped off, in every direction, by our shot and shell, the chain broken, and indented in many places, and forced partly into the ship’s side. She was effectually guarded, however, in this section, from penetration.
Raphael Semmes Memoirs of Service Afloat. (1869) p758
In the guise of his alter ego Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, Raphael Semmes will have his revenge on the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg by attacking beneath its metal cover.
The Nautilus was not planning to strike the impenetrable armour of the double-decker but the section below its flotation line, where a metal cover no longer protected the planking.
Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) p372
After gaining revenge, Nemo is overcome with grief. Professor Aronnax states.
I turned to Captain Nemo. That terrible lawgiver, that archangel of hate, was watching still. When everything was finished, Captain Nemo headed for the door of his room, opened it, and went in. My eyes followed him.
Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) p373
On the far wall, below the pictures of his heroes, I could see the portrait of a woman, still young, with two small children. Captain Nemo looked at them for a few moments, stretched out his arms to them, and then knelt down sobbing.
Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) p373
Raphael Semmes, in the form of Captain Nemo, has finally had his revenge on the USS Kearsarge, for it had destroyed what was closest to him, his young woman, the ‘Alabama’ who was his bride, and his two small children, who were the officers and crew of the Alabama.
I had surveyed my new ship, as we approached, with no little interest, as she was to be not only my home, but my bride.
When her awnings were snugly spread, her yards squared, and her rigging hauled taut, she looked like a bride, with the orange-wreath about her brows, ready to be led to the altar.
Raphael Semmes Memoirs of Service Afloat. (1869) p404
…and the crew of the CSS Alabama were Semmes’s children…
I propose to give him a sight of my military family, and show him how my children played as well as worked; how I governed them, and with what toys I amused them.
The sailor is as improvident, and incapable of self-government as a child.
Seamen are very much like children, requiring the reins to be tightened upon them from time to time.
Raphael Semmes Memoirs of Service Afloat. (1869) various.
… and the grief at the loss of his bride and children was total.
No one who is not a seaman can realize the blow which falls upon the heart of a commander, upon the sinking of his ship. It is not merely the loss of a battle—it is the overwhelming of his household, as it were, in a great catastrophe. The Alabama had not only been my battle-field, but my home, in which I had lived two long years, and in which I had experienced many vicissitudes of pain and pleasure, sickness and health. My officers and crew formed a great military family, every face of which was familiar to me; and when I looked upon my gory deck, toward the close of the action, and saw so many manly forms stretched upon it, with the glazed eye of death, or agonizing with terrible wounds, I felt as a father feels who has lost his children—his children who had followed him to the uttermost ends of the earth, in sunshine and storm, and been always true to him.
Raphael Semmes Memoirs of Service Afloat. (1869) p763
Best John
William Butcher
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 8:48 PM
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Subject: [JVF] Part 2 Raphael Semmes and the Derivation of Arne Saknussemm by Ken Lamb
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