Nautilus (Verne) Nautilus (Verne) Nautilus is the fictional submarine captained by Nemo featured in Jules Verne's novels "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1870) and "The Mysterious Island" (1874). Verne named the "Nautilus" after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine "Nautilus" (1800). For the design of the "Nautilus" Verne was inspired by the French Navy submarine "Plongeur", a model of which he had seen at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, three years before writing his novel. "Nautilus" is described by Verne as "a masterpiece containing masterpieces". It is designed and commanded by Captain Nemo. Electricity provided by sodium/mercury batteries (with the sodium provided by extraction
French submarine Plongeur would have improved stability as later demonstrated by the "Gymnote" and "Gustave Zédé" submarines. A model of "Plongeur" was displayed at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, where it was studied by Jules Verne, who used it as an inspiration and 3 years later published his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". After various experiments, the French Navy struck the ship on 2 February 1872. The submarine was reactivated as an automotive water tanker, equipped with a compound 2-cylinder steam engine of 90 kW (120 hp), on 1 January 1873. She was assigned to the harbour of Rochefort. She was equipped