On this the 183th anniversary of the birth of Jules Verne, it seems worthwhile to look at the submarines named Nautilus.    Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger image.

Robert Fulton designed and had built one of the first technically successful submarines in 1800 and named it Nautilus. When Verne wrote his classic science fiction novel in 1870,  Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, Twenty Thousand Leages under the Sea, he also named his fictional submarine, Nautilus. While named after Fulton’s craft, Verne was probably inspired by the newly developed French Navy submarine Plongeur built in 1867, the first submarine in the world to be propelled by mechanical rather than human power.

Various fans of Jule Verne have attempted to reconstruct the fictional Nautilus based on the Verne’s not always specific description in the novel.  Three versions are shown above.  The fourth is the Nautilus from the Disney movie, which takes considerable liberties with the Nautilus of the novel.

The last photo is of the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, and the first submarine capable of sailing twenty thousand leagues under the sea.

To learn more about Verne’s Nautilus: Jean Gagneux’s Nautilus Model,  Verne’s Nautilus, Jules Verne Nautilus