Sunday, August 24, 2008

NAUTILUS II

NEMO'S NAUTILUS



One night while surfing the web looking mainly for Civil War submarines, I stumbled onto a series of links dealing with "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" One of these was devoted to visualizing what the 'Nautilus' actually looked like. It seems that Verne, while giving a lot of details, left a lot to the imagination. And then there was the interior: when constrained by the actual dimensions given, it quickly becomes clear that the rooms could not be the grand Victorian vistas we saw in the Disney film. [Big surprise that!]
One of the pages was given over to enthusiasts who tendered their own interpretations, some 2D drawn, some 3D. As I could never stomach the over-done Disney version of Nautilus, this is my effort. I did, however, omit one salient feature: there are no observation windows on the sides of the hull. My bad.
You will note, on the topside after deck, a vertical pole. I had intended to remove it [Oversight#2] but as things turned out, it was for the best. That pole represents a 6' person. Suddenly, the Nautilus shrinks down and becomes just another cramped submarine...tho' in Vernes time it was, no doubt, a monster.