Similarities between Captain Nemo's Nautilus and the Birkenhead built CSS Alabama

[John Lamb]

Hello everyone,

My name is John Lamb and I am new to this forum, I have my own website dedicated to Jules Verne's links with Birkenhead, a ship building town lying on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool.   

My interest in Jules Verne started when I remember hearing about a link between Lairds shipyard of Birkenhead and Captain Nemo’s fictional submarine Nautilus in his classic 1869 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

There was absolutely nothing on the internet and so I looked up the novel on Google Books and came across the following passage.

“But how could you construct this wonderful Nautilus in secret?”

‘Each separate portion M. Aronnax was brought from different parts of the globe. The keel was forged at Creusot, the shaft of the screw at Penn and Co’s, London, the iron plates of her hull at Laird’s of Liverpool, the screw itself at Scott’s at Glasgow.

The reservoirs were made at Cail & Co at Paris, the engine by Krupp in Prussia, its beak in Motola’s workshop in Sweden, its mathematical instruments by Hart Brothers of New York; etc and each of these people had my orders under different names.’

I set up my workshops on a small desert island in the middle of the ocean. There with my workmen, that is my good companions whom I instructed and trained, I completed our Nautilus’

Captain Nemo - ‘Some figures’ - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) by Jules Verne.

I subsequently found out that Verne quotes Lairds / Birkenhead in different guises as the manufacture of seven other of his 'lead' ships in 54 novels!

 

Now, using Verne's own tonnage figures, the hull of a submarine (and the Nautilus has a double hull with a thicker inner pressure hull) is 80% of the whole vessel so there was no doubt that the Nautilus can be claimed as a Birkenhead built ship.

As a comparison, the metal sheets of the hull of the steamer Ma Robert were made by Lairds shipyard of Birkenhead and shipped to Africa for the explorer David Livingstone in 1858, where the vessel was assembled on the shores of the Zambesi River in Mozambique, together with components undoubtedly manufactured elsewhere. However, no engineer would claim that the The Ma Robert was  ‘made in Mozambique’ and she will forever be a known as Birkenhead built ship (she was the world's first steel vessel), and so the same can be now said of Captain Nemo's Nautilus. 

I think Jules Verne would agree. 

"Mr. Emery," interrupted the Colonel, "this vessel is a masterpiece from Leard and Co's manufactory in Liverpool. It takes to pieces, and is put together again with the greatest ease, a key and a few bolts being all that is required by men used to the work. You brought a waggon to the falls, did you not?"

In the twinkling of an eye the partitions vanished, all the chests and bedsteads were lifted out, and now the vessel was reduced to a mere shell, thirty-five feet long, and composed of three parts, like the "Mâ-Robert," the steam-vessel used by Dr. Livingstone in his first voyage up the Zambesi. It was made of galvanized steel, so that it was light, and at the same time resisting.

 Jules Verne - The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa. (1872) – condensed.

I then wondered whether there was any link with the Confederate warship CSS Alabama (Laird's most (in)famous ship) which was constructed in secret in Birkenhead as a merchant ship and then fitted with armaments on the Azores desert island of Terceira, the CSS Alabama then proceeded to sink over 60 Unionist ships in the American Civil War.

Then it hit me…both these vessels the real CSS Alabama and fictional Nautilus were mostly built in Birkenhead and finished on a desert island. Could they, to Jules Verne, essentially be one and the same?

To cut a long story short I found over 150 direct 'quote on quote' links between the memoirs of Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama and Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. They are all in a detailed table contained in the attachment together with the relevant page and line numbers of direct quotes from both Semmes's Memoirs of Service Afloat (c March 1869) and Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - (c March 1869) 

 

Just a small snippet to give you an idea,

First my (very brief) summary from Semmes’s Memoirs of a Service Afloat (1869)…

The hull of the CSS Alabama was constructed in secret at Lairds shipyard and completed on a desert island for Captain Raphael Semmes from Mobile, Alabama. The CSS Alabama cruised 70,000 miles in three oceans and sunk over 60 Unionist ships. President Abraham Lincoln put a bounty on her head and instructed Admiral Farragut of the United States navy to find her.

Now my (very brief) summary from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (also 1869)…

The hull of the Nautilus was constructed in secret at Lairds shipyard and completed on a desert island for Captain Nemo, whose motto is Mobilis in Mobile. The Nautilus cruised 20,000 Leagues (70,000 miles) in three oceans and sunk numerous ships. The warship Abraham Lincoln of the United States navy under Captain Farragut is sent to find the Nautilus after a bounty is put on her head.  

Now if this does not attract the attention of any Verne scholar then it should do!

Nemo is an abolitionist...the alter ego of Raphael Semmes and I give context below as to why Birkenhead would have interested Jules Verne on his two documented visits (I suspect there were more) to Birkenhead in 1859 and 1867.

The table of links with the CSS Alabama is attached and I welcome comments. 

Birkenhead as a focal point of interest to Jules Verne. 

1807 – Liverpool’s considerable involvement in the Slave trade comes to an end

1823 – Cropper family of Dingle Vale, Liverpool persuade William Wilberforce to campaign for the total abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

1833 Abolition of slavery – unheralded role by the Cropper family is alluded to by Jules Verne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Elizabeth Gaskell.

1847 – Birkenhead Park – worlds first public park. Verne makes the map of his Mysterious Island in the shape of Paxton’s Lower lake in the park.

1847 – Abolitionist and Irish hero Daniel O’Connell lies in state in Birkenhead – O’Connell’s portrait is on Nemo’s cabin wall in Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

1853 – Thomas Brassey, the world’s greatest railway engineer opens his Canada works in Birkenhead Docks. Verne models the character of the engineer Cyrus Smith on business partners Thomas Brassey and Cyrus West Field. Verne Praises Brassey's company in 'A Floating City' (1871)

1857 – World’s first Transatlantic Cable is financed, developed and manufactured in Birkenhead. The cable fails after just 400 messages sent. Verne writes about the failure in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

1858 – Birkenhead’s Thomas Brassey gives Isambard Kingdom Brunel finance to finish The Great Eastern (Verne's 'favourite' ship).

1859 George Francis Train comes to Birkenhead in the same year as Jules Verne to build Europe’s first tram system. Train was the first person to  actually go around the world in 80 days and in his memoirs claims he inspired Verne. 

1861 – Birkenhead becomes the home port of the Great Eastern

1862. Laird’s shipyard builds the CSS Alabama for Captain Raphael Semmes. Verne mentions Semmes in two novels The Floating City (1871) which starts in Birkenhead and his companion novel The Blockade Runners. Verne later names the Icelandic explorer of Journey to the Centre of the Earth as Arne Saknussemm despite 95% of Icelandic surnames ending in 'son' and not a single word in literature ending in 'semm'. 

1863 – Lairds shipyard build the ‘Laird Rams’ ironclads for the Confederacy,

 Abraham Lincoln threatens war if they leave Birkenhead. Captain Nemo’s Nautilus uses a ram to sink ships so the Nautilus is essentially  part CSS Alabama and part Laird Ram and then submerged by Verne as a futuristic submarine.

1864 – CSS Alabama sunk by USS Kearsarge outside Cherbourg Harbour, France with 20,000 spectators watching from adjacent cliffs. The CSS Alabama sunk one U.S. warship.... the USS Hatteras, Verne scholars will recognise this name as included in a 1864 novel by Verne that starts in Birkenhead!

1865 – November 6^th the American Civil War ends in Birkenhead with the surrender of the CSS Shenandoah. 

1866. Birkenhead’s Thomas Brassey buys the Great Eastern and converts it into a cable layer in partnership with Cyrus Field. According to William Butcher, Field is the model for Cyrus Smith in Jules Verne's sequel novel The Mysterious Island (1874)

1867. Lairds shipyard converts the Great Eastern back into an Atlantic passenger Liner. Jules Verne and Cyrus Field are passengers on its maiden voyage to New York. He writes about leaving Birkenhead in his novel ‘A Floating City’ (1871)

1873. Britain pays America $15million reparations in settlement of the ‘Alabama Claims’ . The Alabama Rooms in Geneva celebrate the first example of international arbitration. This resulted in the Hague Convention, the League of Nations and the United Nations.  Jules Verne’s novel 1873 novel Around the World in 80 days mentions the Alabama Claims in two sections. 

1889 The Great Eastern scrapped at Birkenhead.  

1904 President Theodore Roosevelt, the adventurer conservationist President writes to Jules Verne saying he has now read every one of his 54 novels.

1904 President Theodore Roosevelt (whose uncle James Dunwoody Bulloch commissioned the CSS Alabama in Birkenhead and whose Uncle Irvine Bulloch served on the CSS Alabama and navigated the CSS Shenandoah from Alaska to Birkenhead non-stop) praises his two Confederate uncles as a major influence.

1907 (after Verne’s death in 1905) Lord Baden Powell specifically chooses Birkenhead as the location to found his Adventure Boy Scout movement. Theodore Roosevelt becomes Chief Scout of North America. 

Please see the table attached for the links between the CSS Alabama and Captain Nemo's Nautilus.

Thankyou John Lamb

 

[Jean-Louis Trudel]

Greetings,

Truly fascinating. However, I believe it's fairly established that
Verne did not read English fluently. The French National Library has
the 1869 Semmes book in English, but it does not seem to have a French
translation. However, there is a French translation of Semmes' 1864
book: The Cruise of the "Alabama" and the "Sumter", from the private
journals and other papers of commander R. Semmes,... and other
officers. The same year, it appeared in French as: Croisières de
l'"Alabama" et du "Sumter", livre de bord et journal particulier du
commandant R. Semmes,... et des autres officiers de son état-major
(Paris : E. Dentu, 1864), in three editions or more. There is likely
extensive overlap between the 1864 and 1869 books.

Jean-Louis Trudel

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[Jan Rychlik]

Hi,
besides the Semmes book in French there was certainty a huge newspaper coverage of the Alabama Claims, the case between US and UK which Verne mentions in several of his books.
It is definitely great to see how Verne was able to inspire his novels from contemporary incidents. Yet it is not necessary to draw exact parallels, since for instance Terceira was no desert island, but indeed the 1st or 2nd most important of the Azores with Angra maybe then the capital of the archipelago.
Best regards
Jan

> 5. 12. 2024 v 13:15, Jean-Louis Trudel <trud...@gmail.com>:
>
> Greetings,

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[John Lamb]

Thankyou Jean Louis and Jan for your replies,

I will make a parallel comparison with  Semmes's 1864 The Cruise of the "Alabama" and the "Sumter" first set of memoirs and post my findings on this thread. I suspect there are far more links in the 1869 edition which came out at roughly the same time as  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We shall see.

After the sinking of the CSS Alabama by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg on June 19th 1864 , Raphael Semmes was very suspiciously rescued from the cold waters of the English Channel by the yacht Deerhound of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club of Birkenhead, he then disappeared to Paris in August 1864 with his memoirs on a forged passport organised by Royal Mersey Yacht Club, Birkenhead club member Francis Tremlett. Theoretically Semmes may have provided Verne with his memoirs as a template, that is why I need to look in detail at the 1864 published version to see whether Verne gained inspiration from something commonly available in print (and in French) or perhaps from personal documents supplied directly by Raphael Semmes. 

Semmes also dined with John Laird (builder of the CSS Alabama), another member of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club of Birkenhead. 

Other members of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club of Birkenhead include Cornelius Vanderbilt, who donated his ship the USS Vanderbilt to Abraham Lincoln to catch the CSS Alabama. It could be said that the USS Vanderbilt is the inspiration for the USS Abraham Lincoln and its mission to catch the 'monster in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

One other member of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club also is intriguing ...Napoleon III was a fully fledged member, whose last act I believe in 1870 was to present the Legion d'honneur to Jules Verne!

I know Verne mentioned his lack of command of English in an 1895 magazine article later in life, I suppose he could have used a translator but I have a feeling that he knew more English than he lets on. 

According to William Butcher, in 1869 Verne wrote to Hetzel warning against comparing Captain Nemo to an 'Alabama or a false Alabama' (whatever that means) and that if he wanted Nemo to be an anti slaver then he would have made him join General Grant's army. 

It is interesting to note that Raphael Semmes supported slavery and after the sinking of the CSS Alabama, Raphael Semmes (after Paris) did indeed flee back to the USA to join General Lee's army (and dined with him in the process). It is almost as if Verne is throwing a 'literary decoy' in to the fray (i.e. Raphael Semmes can not inspire the character of Captain Nemo because Jules Verne says so in a letter to Hetzel!). 

Raphael Semmes had portraits of General Lee and the Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his cabin, while Captain Nemo has portraits of, amongst others of  Abraham Lincoln, the militant abolitionist John Brown and the anti slaver Daniel O'Connell in his cabin. 

Verne asks 'what clues did these portraits give to the soul of Captain Nemo?'

In my opinion although the adventures of Captain Nemo are inspired by the racist Confederate Raphael Semmes, Nemo's morals are anti racist and abolitionist. It is hard not to conclude therefore that the soul of Captain Nemo is really a metaphor for the soul of the United States ....half Confederate, half Unionist at war with itself during the American Civil War. That is why Nemo (whose name of course means nobody) is so tormented. 

I know this goes against the 'Polish Count' accepted narrative, but as Verne wrote, perhaps the clues are in both the portraits on the his bedroom wall and Nemo's actions in the Nautilus.  

There will be many more comparisons to be made linking the Nautilus, Birkenhead and protagonists in the American Civil War other than Raphael Semmes. 

Best wishes John

[Ron Miller]

Unfortunately, none of the art was saved in this archived version of my article...

https://gizmodo.com/which-real-life-victorian-sub-inspired-jules-vernes-na-458345856

R

[John Lamb]

Dear Ron,

I remember reading your article and was struck by the design of Winan's "Roller ships" and it did remind me of the shape of the Nautilus when revealed in Dakar's Grotto in the latter scenes of The Mysterious Island. I was also very struck by the complex spiral arrangement of the metal plates of the Nautilus in the same illustration. The metal plates being a major interest of mine. 

There seems to be an interesting divergence in illustrations of the Nautilus as the undersea illustration of the vessel in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (after it has rammed and sunk the warship off the coast of France ) gives it a rather blunt end and horizontal cylindrical shape.   

I think Verne (and the artists under his instruction) treated the Nautilus like the character of Captain Nemo - an amalgamation of different parts. I believe the Nautilus to be part CSS Alabama, part le Plongeur, part Winan's roller ship and so on.

In a similar vein I believe the soul of Captain Nemo (Latin for Nobody) mentioned by Verne as being related to the portraits on his cabin wall to be half Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama (the unknown Confederate side) and half the portraits on his cabin wall which include Lincoln, Washington, Brown, Hugo, O'Connell (the known freedom fighter Unionist side) and thus Nemo is a metaphor for the United States at war with itself in the American Civil War for the destruction of slavery. 

In many ways you can see both Verne's training as a theatre director at the Theatre Lyrique and his love of Shakespeare coming out ... 'All the World is a stage and one man plays many parts' or in this case one man and his submarine are made up from many parts. 

I am also reminded of Verne's writing in "The World in 2889" which I feel can be applied to both Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.

And what about the documentation? You must dissect! It is not with a pen that one writes nowadays, but with a scalpel! Every action in real life is the result of successive and fleeting thoughts, which must be carefully enumerated to create a living being! 

best wishes John

[Ron Miller]

Here is one of the appendices to a forthcoming book (more about that later) that may be of some interest...

R