the voyages and adventures of captain hatteras

However, he neglects to give the weight of the thicker inner hull, also built at Lairds, a hull which resists the vast pressures of the ocean depths and is much heavier. Jules Verne gives the Nautilus an outer hull of nearly 400 tons on a double-hulled submarine weighing 1,300 tons. So, to all purposes, this is a new revelation! Jules Verne was so successful at ‘hiding’ the Merseyside origins of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus that up to today (23/6/21) there is not one single entry on the internet highlighting Liverpool or Birkenhead’s contribution to the construction of the vessel. It is hoped that Birkenhead can use its links with Jules Verne in the same way that the nearby town of Prescot has used its links with William Shakespeare to help regenerate the town. More postings are planned over the summer. Part 2 Jules Verne’s Love Affair with Birkenhead. Part 1 From Birkenhead to Atlantis: The Merseyside Origins of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. Indeed, Jules Verne has many other links with Birkenhead and these are detailed on a new website launched today: Jules Verne gives the Nautilus a double hull, and taking the figures given by Verne, it seems that between 70%–80% of the total weight of the vessel was manufactured at Lairds of Birkenhead.įantastic as this might sound, it’s perhaps not so surprising when you read Jules Verne’s history. The hull of a submarine is practically the whole visible structure, so, in external appearance at least, Captain Nemo’s Nautilus is a Birkenhead-built ship. In a long list of manufacturers, Jules Verne slips in almost unnoticed that the iron plates of the hull of the Nautilus were made at ‘Laird’s of Liverpool’, which in reality is the Lairds shipyard of nearby Birkenhead. In the 1869 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the novelist Jules Verne writes that Captain Nemo’s Nautilus was completed at a ‘secret desert island location’ using different parts shipped in from across the world.

The voyages and adventures of captain hatteras