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 6" in 1978, he broadcast back a message to celebrate Verne's 150th birthday, saying: "There's hardly a person who hasn't read his books, at any rate not among the cosmonauts, because Jules Verne was a dreamer, a visionary who saw flights in space. I'd say this flight too was predicted by Jules Verne." Polar explorer Richard E. Byrd, after a flight to the South Pole, paid tribute to Verne's polar novels "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras" and "An Antarctic Mystery" by saying "It was Jules Verne who launched me on this trip." Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer, was in his