Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as an inhabitant of British Colonial India, "is an inhabitant of an oppressed country". Verne took the name "Nautilus" from one of the earliest successful submarines, built in 1800 by Robert Fulton, who later invented the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's submarine was named after the paper nautilus because it had a sail. Three years before writing his novel, Jules Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navy submarine "Plongeur" at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which inspired him for his definition of the "Nautilus". The breathing apparatus used by "Nautilus" divers is depicted as an untethered version
French ship Jules Verne (A620) French ship Jules Verne (A620) Jules Verne is a repair ship of the French Navy, named in honour of science-fiction writer Jules Verne. Originally named "Achéron" and intended as an ammunition transport ship, she was converted to repair ship after her keel had been laid. "Jules Verne" was long based in Djibouti (she was featured on the 10 000-Djiboutian francs banknote). In 1997, she was assigned to the Force d'Action Navale. She was designed to replenish, refuel and repair the ships of an operational force at sea. She was fitted with a complete 240-m2 hospital including an operating theatre, a