Whirlpool such violent tidal surges: Three of the most notable literary references to the Lofoten Maelstrom date from the nineteenth century. The first is the Edgar Allan Poe short story "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841). The second is "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870), the famous novel by Jules Verne. At the end of this novel, Captain Nemo seems to commit suicide, sending his "Nautilus" submarine into the Maelstrom (although in Verne's sequel Nemo and the Nautilus were seen to have survived). The "Norway maelstrom" is also mentioned in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". In the 'Life of St Columba', the author,
Cultural influence of Jules Verne Cultural influence of Jules Verne Jules Verne (1828–1905), the French writer best known for his "Voyages extraordinaires" series, has had a wide influence in both scientific and literary fields. The pioneering submarine designer Simon Lake credited his inspiration to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", and his autobiography begins "Jules Verne was in a sense the director-general of my life." William Beebe, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Robert Ballard found similar early inspiration in the novel, and Jacques Cousteau called it his "shipboard bible". The aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont named Verne as his favorite author and the inspiration for his own