INFERNAL MACHINES SUBMARINES AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

‘Strike, mad vessel! Shower your useless shot! And then, you will not escape the spur of the Nautilus!’ So utters a vengeful Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Jules Verne’s classic science fiction novel of 1870. The submarine under his command, the Nautilus, is a wondrous creation. Electrically powered, it boasts a library of 12,000 books, a dining room and a pipe organ played by the mysterious seafarer. As Nemo demonstrates, the ‘spur of the Nautilus’ can also send any craft to the depths of the sea.

“WHAT THE PERPLEXED DESK OFFICER HAD FIRST THOUGHT TO BE A PORPOISE WAS IN FACT A SEVEN-TON UNDERWATER VESSEL BUILT OF BULLETPROOF IRON”

Fantastic as Verne’s creation is, the submarine was already a matter of fact by the time he wrote his fictional work. Although less sophisticated than the Nautilus, engineers had only a few years earlier pioneered the use of underwater vessels for both defensive and offensive purposes during the American Civil War. And, before the Nautilus voyaged through the imaginations of readers, one of these submarines had for the first time in military history successfully sunk an enemy ship.