 |
he Hunley, a real 19th
century submarine, sailed and fought several years before Jules
Verne wrote of the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues under the
Sea. Can we find any connection?
|
Considering his
interests in the American Civil War and in advancing technology, I
think it likely that Verne followed the news about submarine
development by both the North and the South. A Frenchman, de
Villeroi, conducted submarine experiments for the Union and his
exploits were reported internationally. The naval actions by
"infernal machines" like the Hunley would also have
appeared in French newspapers.
However, the
design differences between the Nautilus and the Hunley
are more notable than the similarities. Although both are made
of iron, the Hunley's hull is especially streamlined, with butted hull plates, while those of the Nautilus
overlap. Nemo tells Aronnax that he must surface every day to
replenish his air. There is no mention of air pumps although they
may have been present. The Hunley appears to have a
sophisticated, if limited, snorkel system to provide air while
running very close to the surface. Although the designers of
the Hunley tried unsuccessfully to fit an
"electro-magnetic engine" to an earlier submarine, the Hunley
was human powered, while the Nautilus was wholly
electric-powered. Except for this important point, size, and the
obvious luxury of Captain Nemo's accommodations, I think the Hunley
design is more advanced than the Nautilus.
Other connections?
If only in the popular perception there is a connection between
the Winans cigar boat1 design
and the innovative Confederate naval vessels. Mark Ragan's
book2, Union and Confederate
Submarine Warfare during the Civil War, offers several
quotes. A report in the New York Herald on 12 Oct 1861
describes an attack by a rebel infernal machine "built of iron,
of a similar shape to the Ross Winan's cigar boat"
(p.17). Charles Leavitt planned a submarine gunboat
"similar to Winan's cigar steamer" (p.18). (Note
that the misspellings of Winans are in the quoted text.) We
know that Ross Winans was briefly jailed because of his Confederate
sympathies and that the cigar steamer and the rest of the Winans
shipyard was under guard to prevent material from being spirited to
the South. I think it unlikely there was any direct
collaboration between Winans and the Southern innovators, but
indirect inspiration is highly likely. The Confederate David
semi-submersible exhibit3 in Old
Santee Canal Park Museum at Stoney Landing Plantation in South
Carolina includes a photo of the steamer under construction and the
Davids' cigar-shaped hulls, patented by the Winans, must be more
than a coincidence.
The Hunley,
not strictly cigar shaped, is more removed from the Winans
design, but used similar construction, with a highly streamlined
iron hull of iron plates attached to an interior frame. The cigar
boats were built without a keel, a structural element the Hunley
also appears to lack. Perhaps more poetic than relevant, the major
source of the Hunley's hull was a locomotive boiler, while
the Winans began as railroad engineers before moving into marine
construction. |
Footnotes:
1See my Cigar Boat pages (linked from
my Site Map).
2Ragan's deeply researched book is linked on my main Hunley
page.
3See more about this exhibit on the Morris+Bailey CSS H.L.Hunley
page, linked from my main Hunley page.
|
|
