The Catalog

of

Nautilus Designs

W hen I first established this page, I had only a small collection of designs to feature. Since then, the list has grown and grown, as has the popularity of the page. Examination of the many designs reveals relationships between them. Cross-pollination has occurred when designers who viewed the page produced new boats incorporating features they saw here. What began as a passive collection has become an active inspiration. (Ken Anslow records some interesting thoughts about creative cross-pollination and differing visions evoked by a writer's words. Read them on his blog.)

Originally, the catalog was limited to versions of the Nautilus that I considered compatible or consistent at least in part with Jules Verne's description. As the collection has grown I've expanded the criteria for inclusion. Sometimes a Nautilus is here because it has a prominent feature similar to a design already included, sometimes because it is true to Verne's spirit if not his words, sometimes because it purports to be Verne's Nautilus, and sometimes simply because I find it cool. The result is a much more diverse collection. Although interesting in their own way, the versions from the original League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel and the movie's very different "Sword of the Sea" design, are still excluded because these are not the Nautilus of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, or even Mysterious Island, but a new generation. I have included a representation of the first generation Nautilus from Alan Moore's Extraordinary Gentlemen sequel, The Black Dossier. I’ve organized the designs in roughly but not strict chronological order to provide something of an historical perspective. Most illustrations are more or less the same scale for comparison.

Some of the designers identify their creations as the Nautilus, some as other submarines inspired by the Nautilus or from the same era, and at least one as not related to the Nautilus at all. I invite you to look for the relationships among them all.

In 1999 I conducted an extensive survey of illustrated editions of 20,000 Leagues and added the interesting designs I found, dated from 1932 to 1992. These are usually identified with the word "illustrated" and are mostly 2D CorelDraw recreations. At least one of these was originally published many years earlier than the edition I saw and the same may be true of others. Because of the unavailability of these illustrations, I've taken the liberty of including small copies of some copyrighted images. I will remove any of these if the copyright holder has a problem with this.

T here's a unique story behind each of the designs featured here. When the designer provided some explanation I've included it in my description. One designer, Paul Kreutzer, wrote a feature-by-feature narrative describing his design process that you can read here. Another, Roman Ceano, with help from his daughter Rose, has imagined an interesting and plausible illustrated back story that builds on Jules Verne's own semi-sequel Mysterious Island.

Note that many of the elevation graphics were done from images from several angles so positioning and proportion of details may be inaccurate.

I've presented some of these designs in 3D form using MetaStream technology. These are simplified gray scale models constructed in RayDream Studio without frills, but by examining them from all sides in the MetaStream window you can get a good impression of the models' appearance. To view them in 3D, you will need JavaScript enabled and a MetaStream 2 plug-in, unfortunately now only available here, for PCs and Macs. Please e-mail me if you have any problems downloading the plug-in or viewing the models, or to comment on the models. Click the small knot logo (example left) associated with an individual design below to view the model in a new window. Some models have a 360° animation created in Carrara accessed by clicking the Carrara logo (example right). Click the wire frame image at right for general information about the 3D models. Note: If these special pop-up windows are opening empty (just a white box) please click here for a possible fix.

T he earliest depictions of the Nautilus are Hildibrand’s many engravings (of Alphonse de Neuville's and Edouard Riou's drawings) that graced the pages of the original publications. The full submarine as shown submerged matches Verne's words although details are lacking in the long-range views. The deck views show more detail, although they are not strictly consistent. Generally, the pilothouse and lantern are very small, not "medium height", and the mounted longboat rather high.

The submarine in the 1916 silent movie in the surface views seems partly based on original illustrations with a small pilothouse forward. The deck is narrower and there seems to be a prow, not unlike submarines of the time. The underwater views of the Nautilus are less accurate. Although cigar shaped, the hull is much shorter than it should be in proportion to the width. There are two sets of diving planes, one somewhat forward and one somewhat aft. The ram has been replaced with torpedo tubes. (See my 20,000 Leagues page for information on a video of this film).

~ c. 1920 ~

M ilo Winter illustrated the 1954 Rand McNally Windermere Readers edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. His design features large hull plates, overlapping fore to aft. The paintings of Illinois watercolorist Winter (1888-1956) first appeared in a 1922 juvenile edition published by Rand McNally & Company. You can see the color plates in Zvi Har'El virtual library - F. P. Walter's translation. The pilothouse and lantern appear very similar, suggesting fore and aft windowed structures with lanterns set on top. All of Winter's paintings show the Nautilus on the surface and I've made no attempt to extrapolate such hidden features as salon windows, prop, or diving planes. As with all the illustrator collections, proportions and feature locations and shapes vary from illustration to illustration, so the recreation is approximate at best.

T he 1929 film The Mysterious Island starring Lionel Barrymore featured this design, not identified as the Nautilus, in an alternative version of Nemo's history. The sub is much smaller than the deck railings imply - they're more likely to trip people than keep them on board. It features a fairly large, raised, triangular ram and a wheelhouse strikingly similar in shape to Goff's much later Nautilus. As his design is the inspiration to many it's fascinating to consider that he may have drawn on parts of this design. The wheelhouse has ports on five sides, a circular hatch on top, and a periscope. The short deck has a rectangular hatch at its aft end. The hull is teardrop shaped with prominent torpedo tubes with outer doors on each side of the bow. There is a rectangular diver hatch on the lower bow and a relatively small rectangular window with sliding protective panels on the upper hull side. Not a salon window, this one opens on the control room. What may be a string of oval-shape ports is located on the hull side further aft. Two larger, similar features appear on the miniature's upper hull. The sub has dual screw propellers on the graceful stern and a large double rudder. There are no dive planes. See many screen grabs from the movie at NautilusSubmarine (free membership) here and here and photos of the movie miniature(s) here. See photos of Josef Keller's scratch-built replica here. You can view the movie on YouTube.

(Thanks to Lyle Simoneaux for pointing out this design and providing the basis for the side view graphic.)

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~ c. 1930 ~

A nton Otto Fischer (1882-1962) illustrated the John C. Winston Company 20,000 Leagues edition published about 1932. This design features a low, eight-windowed cabin at each end of a flat deck. There is what is likely a dinghy running a good length of the deck between the cabins. A drawing of the Nautilus breaching gives a view of the spar and a dive plane far forward. Another drawing shows a rather small, rectangular window in the side of the hull. I've placed the window arbitrarily, but not speculated on any other un-pictured features. See Fischer's 20,000 Leagues illustrations on Mr. Door Tree's "Golden Age" blog here.



C zech painter and illustrator Zdeněk Burian (1905-1981) is well known around the world for his paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, but he also illustrated novels, including a Czech translation of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Dvacet tisíc mil pod mořem, published in 1937 by Jos. R. Vilimek. There are near a dozen illustrations that show the Nautilus, including several beautifully executed gouache plates. Details vary from illustration to illustration, but my graphic is true to most of them. The hull is spindle-shaped with a rather small pointed ram. Both the wheelhouse and lantern housing appear retractable. I've depicted them fairly large, but one or two of the illustrations show them smaller and at least one closely matches an original Hetzel illustration's appearance. There is a fairly long deck with a slightly raised, wide center portion. It's not clear where the boat is stored, but there is a large rectangular hatch with a sliding cover in the center of the deck. The hull has a spindle-shaped swelling on each side of the deck. There is no dive plane amidships, but on the upper aft hull, arrays of three fins with a tab control surface at the aft end of each. The submarine has a small four-bladed propeller mounted below the centerline in a notched-out section in the stern. The rudder is shown with somewhat different appearance among the illustrations. One is smaller than I've shown it here, but several show this large, rather fragile looking mechanism. The windows are the most interesting features of Burian's design. There are three on each side, all with external sliding protective covers. One of the large ones is in the location of the salon, but there is a second identically sized one in the same position on the aft hull. Some years ago I saw an drawing with a similar arrangement; that egalitarian artist placed a large window in the crew quarters so that they could have the same view of the oceans as Nemo. Burian's design adds a third, smaller window even further aft, in the location of the engine room.

This Czech page shows a a portion of Burian's plate of the Nautilus in the Maelstrom, used as cover art for a recent Czech edition of Dvacet tisíc mil pod mořem published by Albatros. The new edition, in Czech, is not a translation Verne's text - the story is retold by Ondřej Neff - but it reproduces Burian's illustrations. I got my copy from Knihkupectví Papyrus in the Czech Republic. This page, again in Czech, shows many more of Burian's 20,000 Leagues artwork.

~ c. 1940 ~

K urt Wiese (1887-1974) illustrated the 1946 Rainbow Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. His design features similar large, flat, streamlined cabins at each end of the deck. One illustration shows what may be the dinghy midway between these structures and looking very much like them. An underwater view shows a square salon window that I've placed approximately but no features other than the ram are pictured. I've made no attempt to recreate un-pictured details. Wiese's Nautilus resembles Fischer's, most obvious in his drawing of the submarine breaching. There is some difference in detail, but this drawing is nearly identical to that by the earlier artist, so there can be little doubt Fischer was a source for Wiese's concept.

H enry C. Kiefer (1890-1957) drew this Nautilus for the Classics Illustrated 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (No. 47), first published in 1948. The illustrations are not 100% consistent, but the forward part of the hull is tapered to a point. There are two large port holes on the each side of the hull. There also appears to be a port on the top forward hull for the wheelhouse. the boat is mounted forward of the small, oval railing surrounded deck situated around the hatch. One graphic shows a diving hatch on the bottom, but another shows one on the side. There are unfortunately no images that show the stern. A new printing of this classic publication with the original graphics at amazon. Some pages from a 1952 reprint are viewable here.

~ c. 1950 ~

H arper Goff began working out the design of the Nautilus in a series of drawings. The one captured here (courtesy of the folks at Disney Sub and NautilusSubmarine) is very different from the the eventual cinematic version. It has a more or less spindle shaped hull with bulges at the sides for salon windows and on the lower aft portion where the keel expands to accommodate the diving room with side hatch. There is a large, tapered ram that flares into the hull. The wheelhouse is a complex structure with three large windows and a set of lantern ports on the upper part. The superstructure changes to a large deck aft with a circular hatch at the aft end. A boat is mounted in the aft end of the deck. There are two pairs of dive planes, but no side fairings or protective rakers. Knowing what the design would become, it's possible to see similarities, but otherwise they might not be noticed.

Josef Keller has realized this design as a beautiful three-foot long illuminated model. See photos at NautilusSubmarine (free membership required). Josef has posted photos of all his models on this page of his Airbrush Artwork web site.

B efore the Disney Nautilus took its final cinematic form it went through several variations. The story is that the Disneys wanted a simple cigar-tube hull rather as described in the novel (perhaps like that at the top of the page or possibly like that shown just above) and not unlike contemporary submarines. Harper Goff preferred an intricate Victorian appearance but could not convince the studio heads. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a physical model worth? Goff scratch-built this concept model over a long holiday weekend. Walt Disney was taken by the model and Goff's concept prevailed. The original model that Goff built is unfortunately lost but documented in a number of photos (many of which can be found at NautilusSubmarine, membership needed). My recreation is based partly on these photos, but mostly on Tom Scherman's later reconstruction.

As with Goff's early concept just above, Josef Keller has scratch-built this design as well. See photos at NautilusSubmarine, with an updated version here. He's posted photos of all his models on this page of his Airbrush Artwork web site.

T he unavailability of a Cinemascope camera for some miniature filming led the Disney crew to build the so-called anamorphic Nautilus model. Longitudinally compressed, the model was intended for filming with a standard lens. This film, spiced into the the rest of the movie, would be stretched horizontally when projected through a Cinemascope lens. (Read about this at NautilusSubmarine - free membership.) Wayne Orlicki noticed that details of the anamorphic model as seen in photos and drawings differed from the final version shown in most scenes in the movie, and so represents another intermediate step in the evolution of the iconic design. My graphic is based on Wayne's enhanced drawings of the model stretched as it would appear projected in Cinemascope. Differences from the earlier and final Nautilus are evident. Apart from the position of many features, the arch is different, and the wheelhouse has a prominent structure on top, likely the camera obscura that was not used in the film. Lastly, there's a flag pole where we expect the dorsal fin. Read about Wayne's analysis and animator Fred's realization of the anamorphic Nautilus as a 3-D model in this NautilusSubmarine topic. Fred's model in both squeezed and stretched versions is available at Shapeways.

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arper Goff's design for the Disney film is his own successful elaboration on Verne's design. Rather than the stark utilitarian exterior that Verne described and Neuville and Riou drew, Goff (1911-1993) extended the ornate Victorian interior decoration to the hull and deck. He enhanced the monster impression by adding reptilian fins and protuberances and gave the pilothouse a crocodilian look. I think he wanted movie viewers to come away with an impression equivalent to that of Verne's readers in the previous century. People used to the sailing and steam ships of the mid-1800s and unfamiliar with submarines would see and remember a low sleek hull as monster-like. Moviegoers in the 1950s knew what a submarine looked like, but they had never seen anything like this Nautilus. The basic hull, exclusive of the additions, seems to have Verne's width but a somewhat shorter length. Two sets of diving planes are incorporated in the structures along the side of the hull. The round salon window is placed much farther aft than Verne's interior description allows, but then the salon, dining room and library seem to have been combined into one room. Incidentally, some details of the submarine and some scenes in the film pay clear homage to the 1916 film. (My 20,000 Leagues page has information on videos of both classic films.)

Look at the Nautilus designs that precede this, excepting Goff's prototype, and then those that followed. Thanks to the Disney film Goff's design became the iconic representation of the Nautilus. Where a closely derivative design differs subtly from Goff's, and the illustration or other source provides sufficient information, I've included it in the catalog. There are unfortunately, many book, album, and other package covers that meet the subtle difference criterion but lack the detail needed for me to illustrate them here.

P hil Cormier pointed out this version of the Nautilus, from a 1954 three-reel set View-Master 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. View-Master took pains not to resemble the Disney movie version that was released at about the same time. Not strictly following the text, the sub is roughly cigar-shaped with the hull top considerably flattened to form a deck. A row of vicious rakers is set on each side of the deck, which has what appears to be a raised hatch amidships. Wayne Orlicki informed me that the hatch conceals a retractable conning tower, not shown in my image. The pilot house in this concept has two parts, one mounted on either side of the hull. The salon window is approximately amidships and a single set of dive planes is set on the stern. The lower stern with rudder and prop (as well as the whole lower hull) is not visible in the images I've seen so the rudder on my recreation is speculative.

There's a fascinating discussion about this Nautilus at NautilusSubmarine.com (free membership required) featuring several different interpretations with plans and illustrations. See some of these design variations below.

I n 1955 Robert Maynard created this working, rubber-band-powered, "hurry-up, make-it-fast" model of Goff's Nautilus using little more than sketches scribbled in a dark theatre while watching the movie. As he described it in the 10 Nov 1955 issue of Model Engineer, the 30-inch-long model could dive using only dive planes and forward motion, staying under water for 35 feet of a 100-foot-long run. Maynard, who built the model for his 6-year-old son, actually received photos and plans from Disney Enterprises in response to an air-mail request, but he'd already started the build and used these only for detailing. Some differences, the large rudder for example, were practical considerations for a working boat. Some were simplifications for the quick build cycle. Considering, the lengths aficionados go to to achieve accuracy today, I think Maynard did a remarkable job. There were even Nemo, Aronnax, and Ned Land figures visible behind the salon window. (Thanks to Jim Alves for telling me about this model.)

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his Nautilus, designed by Jack McCoy, appeared in a July 1987 Scale Ship Modeler article by Tom Hershey. It has a large fish tail, reminiscent of Goff's, but distinctive. Although the article describes a centerline propeller, the drawings place it below the hull. There is no launch and no deck railing. Like Jeff Phillip's boat below, the lantern is taller than the wheelhouse to light the sea in front of the Nautilus. The salon window seems to be correctly placed within the salon area, but rather high for the tall-ceilinged room described by Verne. The most distinctive feature of the design is the large, wing-like diving plane. The article had only elevation and section views, so I may not have got the shape right, but there was no mistaking the size. When I first posted this design I added this: "According to the article Tom based his design on Verne's novel, but I suspect he read an abridged version and, in part because he specified colors for the components of the boat, may have been influenced by accompanying illustrations". Since then David Merriman and Rory McLeod have independently pointed out that this design actually first appeared in the 1955 Book of Submarines by Jack McCoy (reprinted in 1966), and is in fact McCoy's design. I found a copy in my local library. Unfortunately it had been rebound and only half of the Nautilus frontispiece illustration remained, but it was enough to confirm my comment on the colors.

H enry Pitz (1895-1976) illustrated the 1956 Doubleday Junior Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues. Pitz shows a flat deck with a single structure forward that includes a cabin-like pilot house and what appears to be the lantern. The only other feature visible is a long triangular ram. As with other illustrator recreations, I've left out un-pictured features.

E dward A. Wilson (1886-1970) illustrated the 1956 Easton Press 20,000 Leagues edition. Wilson's concept combines some contemporary submarine features with those described by Verne. His Nautilus includes a long spar with an oddly turned up ram, as if it had been bent in an attack. The wheelhouse is substantial with a row of globular ports on the forward side and a forward-facing lantern mound on the aft side. The deck has a small structure that might be a vent at its forward end. There is a second forward-facing lantern, with a similar hunched shape, on the hull aft of the deck. The hull is cigar-shaped with dive planes or fins near the forward and aft ends. The oblong salon window, protected by a closed panel, is located amidships. There are a number of smaller ports and what may be lights on the upper hull, and what may be a larger port, or light, on the lower bow and several more ports or lights on the lower hull. A diving hatch with ladder is located on the lower hull aft. The design has a rather small propeller mounted under the stern. See Wilson's illustrations on Captain Jack's Mobilis in Mobile site here and here (in French).

I don't known the date for this Nautilus, found on the Look and Learn History Picture Library, but because of its simplicity, I think it's early. The web site does not identify the artist. The design uses the cylinder with tapered ends approach, but otherwise mostly ignores Verne's description. A domed wheelhouse is located where the cylindrical hull begins. No other details of the upper hull are visible. Four large searchlight lanterns are mounted on the forward hull, two facing forward, two down. Uniformly sized ports are positioned along the side of the hull, fore and aft of the large rectangular, slab-like dive plane. The rudder is just discernable aft of the screw. See the original illustration here.

V ynález zkázy (Deadly Invention in Czech but titled The Fabulous World of Jules Verne in English), the masterpiece of filmmaker and animator Karel Zeman (1910-1989), features several slightly different versions of this submarine along with other vehicles from Verne's novels. As Ishmael points out, this is not the Nautilus but the pirate's submarine tug from Facing the Flag (Face au drapeau). The film is particularly notable for its visual style, with live actors in sets that match original illustrations from Verne's novels. I include it in the catalog because the submarine has characteristics of the Nautilus and I think that Zeman borrowed freely from 20,000 Leagues illustrations for its depiction. It has a sharply pointed ram, and several variations of a more modern conning tower, with a large light facing forward. There is a small deck below the conning tower (one variation has two large lights or possibly ports on the forward end of the deck). Some scenes show no ports on the hull, some show large ports near the bow and some show a large oval salon window and slightly smaller ports farther astern. One scene shows a large anchor on the hull just aft of the ram. At least one scenes shows a narrower hull, but most imply the bulbous shape I've depicted in my graphic. The submarine has a rectangular airlock port in the lower hull for excursions on the sea bed. You can see a clip from the film online here or find the DVD at amazon. See some of the original Face au drapeau illustrations by Léon Benett here.

~ c. 1960 ~ This design appeared on the cover of the Regent Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, published by the Thames Publishing Company in London about 1960. Hugh Marchant has provided the possible artist's name Glanville from the cover art. The hull has a tapered shape with mid-hull dive planes, as described in the novel. There is no ram. The cover art view, from above, hides the keel location. There is a vertical fin on the tail and no horizontal fins. I've chosen to extend the tail below the hull in my graphic to accommodate the rudder, but this area is also out of view in the artwork. There are two short and wide rectangular windows forward of the plane and another aft. The long deck has a large conning-tower-like wheelhouse forward and a similar but smaller lantern housing aft. Both of these may be retractable as in the novel. There appears to be a hatch or possibly an inset boat on the deck. I've included a small copy of the dust jacket image for reference. The same Nautilus appears in slightly different jacket art for a Purnell edition, published about the same time. This illustration clearly has a boat set in the deck amidships. (Thanks to John Smeathers for providing a publication date and confirming the artist name.)

T he 1961 film Mysterious Island featured Ray Harryhausen's Nautilus. My reconstruction graphic is based on a few images I've been able to see. It's seen only above the waterline and the stern section is not visible in these images. However Arthur Strubelt provided me a production sketch of the Nautilus sinking that shows the stern as I've illustrated it. It may be that Harryhausen began with Goff's concept and made so many changes that there's almost no resemblance in the finished design. Not obvious in my side view, there are two barbed raker flying arches. Two lower arches connect to the trapezoidal profile wheelhouse. The wheelhouse has a single large window facing forward and incorporates an upper-level deck with ornate railings on a rectangular extension. Four lighted view ports are visible in the upper hull, one far forward and three aft. The design has rather stubby side fins on the stern, ending in short dive planes. A similar vertical fin, probably incorporating a rudder, is visible on the bottom. I've assumed a corresponding fin atop the tail. There are two small propellers, one mounted on either side of the tail below the horizontal fins.

T his simple Nautilus graces the cover of the LP recording of an RCA Edizioni Letterarie Italian radio play adaptation, Ventimila leghe sotto i mari. The design has a spindle-shaped hull decorated with some some essentially gratuitous graceful fins that complement the narrow ram. The large salon window is well forward, consistent with the novel, but a row of smaller ports is added. The cruciform tail incorporates the dive planes and a double rudder. The The somewhat elevated deck has the wheelhouse forward and a similar lantern housing aft. See the cover illustrations and some associated, similar, or derivative graphics at Mobilis in Mobile.

A Japanese artist who signed this series of drawings "Kyo - 62", apparently produced this original Nautilus art for a 20,000 Leagues story book. This simpler design, which appears in one drawing, has a narrow spar and a cruciform arrangement of saw-tooth fins on the forward hull. A structure that could be a retracted wheelhouse or possibly just a large hatch is located amidships on the upper hull. The round salon window is on the centerline. Another structure located on the lower hull might also be a large hatch. The stern has cruciform tail with integrated rudders and dive planes. The original artwork, acquired by Creature Features from a collector in Osaka, Japan, is for sale on ebay. Kyo's second design is feature just below.



K yo's series for a 20,000 Leagues storybook features this more complex Nautilus in in three drawings. The design has similar small spar but the serrated vertical fairing on the bow is is more intricate. The larger upper fairing protects a possibly retractable wheelhouse with four forward-facing circular ports. A deck extends aft. A second structure with rectangular windows and retractable vertical booms is located on the deck amidships. Aft of the deck there is a hatch on the top of the hull. The salon window housing recalls Goff's design as does the notch in the keel. The cruciform tail is more elegantly shaped than Kyo's simpler design just above. The original artwork, acquired by Creature Features from a collector in Osaka, Japan, is for sale on ebay.





T his Nautilus appeared on the cover of the 1963 Airmont Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The artist is not identified. The stepped arch is a clear reference to Goff. The keel and some of the lines show a more subtle influence. The ram is a collared spike on the prow of a gracefully tapered hull. There are three smaller ports forward of the large salon window and no visible dive planes. The notched keel hints at a dive port. The large, somewhat blocky wheelhouse has three rectangular ports on the side but none forward. The tall lantern tower functionality is clear; the use of rest of the superstructure is less clear but may be a deck and possibly a reference to Goff's skiff. The stern is not shown.

A lthough similar to that on the cover the Nautilus illustrated on the introduction page of the 1963 Airmont Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea differs considerably. The ram has a triple collar and the keel fairing has a forward-facing barb. The keel notch clearly accommodates a dive hatch. The wheelhouse is more like Goff's with large forward-facing oval windows with lights mounted above. There appears to be a large oblong side window as well. The superstructure atop the hull is more graceful; the vertical striations may indicate a deck rail. Like the cover Nautilus, this one has a large salon window and three other ports, but they are spaced differently and one appears to be forward-facing. There are still no dive planes on the hull, but the large tail fin may be canted to the side. If so, it might serve as both a dive plane and rudder.

S cottish illustrator and Francophile William McLaren (1923-1987) did drawings and paintings for the 1966 J.M.Dent & Sons Illustrated Classics edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. McLaren's drawings are not consistent, but I've tried to capture the essence of his concept in my recreation. The hull is spindle-shaped but shown with rounded ends in some drawings. A four-bladed prop is mounted on the stern. One drawing shows a noticeable keel, but the rudder isn't obvious. That same view shows a blunt ram. A pair of large dive planes is located amidships and a small rectangular salon window forward. The deck, which is clearly reversed in some illustrations, has what appears to be a glass-paneled pilothouse forward and a tall, tower-mounted lantern just aft. An oval-ended deck with a round hatch extends from the aft side of the pilothouse. Since the tower allows the lantern to shine over the pilothouse, I've chosen that orientation rather than the tower-forward depiction.

P ierre Garcin sent me photos of this model, which may be from a 1960s ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française) production of Mysterious Island. The model has an interesting history. Fabrice Mestrot (president of TOYMANIA and a collector of toy boats and subs) found it in 2002 at the Paris Arsenal antique show. The antiquarian at the show had gotten it in a small navy craft shop in the old harbor of St-Malo, Brittany. The owner of that shop bought it from a retired sailor and fan of Jules Verne, who told him he found the sub through a special effects specialist associated with ORTF before its restructuring at the end of 70s. (The photo from which my image was made is © 2007-P.Fautrat/Envie d'Image.) V aughn Bodé illustrated a number of classics rewritten for “reading challenged” children in the 1960s. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was published for schools by Frank E. Richards in 1967. Bodé took a simple approach to his Nautilus. The ram consists of the saw-tooth ends of extended horizontal and vertical fairing. There is a long deck with the wheelhouse far aft. This structure has an arch and large circular windows but little in common with Harper Goff's. The hull is cylindrical with what may be an octagonal cross-section. There are large almost Goff-like salon windows on the lower hull amidships, but no obvious dive planes. The propeller is protected by the aft extensions of the fairings. You can see many of Bodé's illustrations on the Atomic Surgery blog. D on Irwing illustrated the 1968 Classic Press, Inc. (Santa Rosa, California) edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The simple design is a slightly modified spindle with a plain, needle-shaped ram. The only features visible are large: wheel house, dive planes, and salon window. The tail isn't visible in the images I have, so I've left it off my illustration here. Thanks to Jürgen Guerrero Kommritz for telling me about this Nautilus. I n 1969 comic illustrator Gino D'Antonio did the art for a Look and Learn Ltd publication of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. There is no spar but the rakers on the upper forward hull, minus an arch, are a nod to Goff. There are circular hatches just forward of the wheelhouse on either side of a cutwater. The wheelhouse with angled sides and hemispherical windows resembles the 1956 version but is much simpler. The large structure just aft looks like it could house a boat, but the illustrations don't show that it actually does. The deck extends aft to a large rectangular hatch much like in the Hetzel illustrations. D'Antonio's hull is fish shaped with pectoral fins forward and a large fishtail at the stern. There are two forward looking lanterns set in the upper hull and large circular salon windows. The propeller is hidden in a large cylindrical shroud. See the entire set of comic panels on the Bear Alley blog. ~ c. 1970 ~ C artoonist Rowland B. Wilson, who did many cartoons for well-known national magazines, drew one about Captain Nemo's treatment of his crew that featured this Nautilus. The cartoon shows the Nautilus in an elaborate underwater seascape with the crew on the sea bottom in diving suits wearing helmets reminiscent of Goff's salon windows. The caption: "The men are in an ugly mood, Captain Nemo. They don't consider this shore leave." The submarine, high in the background and partially hidden by a school of fish, clearly evokes Goff's classic, but is very different. There are jagged rakers, but no arch, and the wheelhouse has a large two-part widow, not globular eyes. Similarly the salon window has a large lower half and a smaller upper part that might be a set of lights. There is a row of lights or possibly small ports on the upper hull. The lower hull features a downward facing port or light as well as three down-facing searchlights. The overall hull is more delicate that Goff's especially the tail, which features what might be dual propellers. My rendering here is not exact but captures the look of Wilson's Nautilus. I don't know when the cartoon was published and have arbitrarily placed it here in the chronology.

Y ears before their 20,000 Leagues animated film, Hanna-Barbera featured a Nautilus in the first TV episode of Josie and the Pussy Cats, "The Nemo's a No No Affair", broadcast in September 1970. The design is fishlike with the large glowing red salon/control room windows serving as the eyes and large pectoral pr pelvic fins that may serve as dive planes. (These appear to be rigged for flapping but never move in the animation.). Similarly large tail fins complete the fishlike appearance. There is an incongruously small propeller and Goff-like rudder. The design has a rotating screw ram at the bow and Goff-inspired serrated rakers including a supported flying arch.

I ndustrial designer and Imagineer George McGinnis was tasked with adapting Goff's iconic Nautilus for a Disney World 20,000 Leagues under the Sea ride. Although differing in detail, above the waterline the ride Nautilus looked very much like the film version. Ride patrons would certainly feel like they were boarding the real thing. The deck was much shorter and the missing skiff hinted at by a depression in the rear deck. There were large hatches at the bow and stern for embarking and debarking. Below the waterline the ride Nautilus differed greatly from the film submarine. There was no ram and the lower hull was designed for ride functionality and to accommodate a row of patrons on each side, each seated at an individual circular porthole. As the ride was run on tracks and the separate vehicles were linked, the small propeller at the stern was likely to create a wake rather than propel the boat.

D isneyland Vista Records released a long-play record and read-along book of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea for children with this Nautilus on the cover. Clearly inspired by Harper Goff's design for the film, this is a severely compressed version consisting of little more than the wheelhouse. The movie-version ram is there and a rather clunky-looking raker arch. The breather vents on the aft part of the structure are sharply serrated, looking more like reversed rakers, and the dorsal fin rakers appear a little irregular, although partially obscured by a giant squid tentacle in the illustration. The far aft section of the superstructure has a row of lights or small ports. There are two hatches that correspond to hatches of the Goff design and a fish tail with a serrated trailing edge. There are no dive planes, propeller, or salon window. The entire lower hull is an Aladdin's lamp-shaped bulbous half spindle with no outstanding features.

T he Nautilus from the Rankin Bass Festival of Family Classics animated 20,000 Leagues under the Sea owes a lot to Harper Goff's iconic design but has a unique cartoony look. The hull has a shape similar to Goff's but shortened. The barbs are fewer, more scroll-like and heavier (in most views - the submarine differs slightly in some scenes). The large wheelhouse has an open bridge on top and backward leaning barb/fin. The deck extends to the stern and a tail very different from the classic. The large salon window is well aft and there are three smaller ports forward. The salon window is hooded by a side fairing that runs the length of the hull, flaring to horizontal fins aft. You can view the animated film on YouTube (link is to part 1).

(Thanks to Vincente Nieto Martin for pointing out this design.) T he 1973 Pendulum Press edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, (a black and white Weekly Reader edition, later published as a Now Age Illustrated Series Paperback, and finally in color but with somewhat muddier graphics and some illustrations deleted, as Marvel Classic Comics number 4) was illustrated by Romy Gamboa (pen) and Ernie Patricio (ink). Details of the design vary among the many illustrations, but it has a very large barbed ram and a somewhat fish-like shape. The wheelhouse is distinguished by forward-looking window "eyes", and just under them, twin nozzles for the water jets described in the novel. There is a small deck and hatch atop the wheelhouse. The hull has dorsal and side fins and a vertical tail. There is a double set of salon windows under the side fins and a dive hatch on the side. A large rudder is mounted aft of the propeller. You can find copies of the Pendulum edition at amazon, among other places. A large image of the original cover is viewable in the Comic Book Database. D avid Grove's beautiful gouache illustrations for the 1973 Fearon/Janus/Quercus edition show a broad, rather modern, organic-shaped hull. There is a large rectangular salon window and a number of small ports aft. The pilothouse, with short rectangular ports, is integral with a solid, open-topped deck enclosure. The boat is recessed in the hull aft of enclosure. The hull flares out to narrow side fins. At the tail these become horizontal fins with dive planes. There is a tall vertical fin above the ring-enclosed four-bladed propeller. The lower hull has large cylindrical structure, perhaps a ballast tank, below the side flare on either side. H anna-Barbera produced an animated film of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea featuring this Nautilus. The design has a slightly fish-shaped lower hull with a long flat deck. The retractable narrow ram affixed to the bow appears only the attack scenes. (Interestingly, the submarine looks like a motorboat when making its attack passes.) The large superstructure has a rectangular forward-facing window beneath a searchlight, and an open bridge on top. There's a row of smaller round ports along the sides although some views show two large ports instead. The lower hull has large rectangular observation windows forward with three good-sized round ports amidships. The lower deck has a dive hatch on the side. There's a small propeller on the lower hull but no dive planes are evident. You can view the German version of the animated film on YouTube.

(Thanks to Vincente Nieto Martin for pointing out this design.) D an Thompson scratch-built a Nautilus model in the 1970s. He based it on photos of Harper Goff's Disney creation, but adhered to the dimensions stated in Jules Verne's text. Dan captured most of the Goff details, remarkable considering the minimal references he had, but stretched the hull to Verne's full proportional length. You can see photos of his model here and here. T his Nautilus appeared in the 1974 Troubador Press Science Fiction Anthology coloring book, illustrated by Mark Savee. Although it is much smaller it reprises some features of the Goff classic, including a saw-tooth arch. The forward end of the arch continues into an integral ram on the bow. The aft end extends over a conning tower-like wheelhouse all the way to a fishlike tail rudder. The conning tower has a row of small ports on the side, but no forward-looking navigation windows. The seven-sided salon window on the lower bow is inspired by Goff. The diving hatch on the lower hull is either very large or betrays the small size of this submarine. There are no dive planes or propeller visible. See the coloring book here

(Thanks to Wayne Orlicki who found this Nautilus and posted it at NautilusSubmarine.) The Editorial Bruguera Joyas Literarias Juveniles 20.000 Leguas de Viaje Submarino comic featured this Nautilus by illustrator Edmond Fernández Ripoll, who signs his work simply Edmond. The most striking impression of the design is the Mohawk row of rakers that graces the semi-ellipsoidal superstructure. Another unique feature is the Monitor-like extended deck that has a more graceful shape than is implied by my elevation graphic. There are hatches on either side of the superstructure just forward of the large wheelhouse windows. The similar cylindrical feature just aft of the superstructure houses a crane used to hoist marine catch into a hold. The lower hull has a row of large rectangular windows and smaller ports. The stern has an unusual helical propeller and a large rudder. I haven't been able to determine the provenance for this Nautilus which appeared in a Spanish comic book of Veinte Mil Leguas De Viaje Submarino. The design, like Ripoll's, has a substantial volume above the hull, but also expands its capacity with a bulbous hull. The superstructure has large globular eye-like ports on either side and there are large observation windows on the lower hull. There are several Goffian touches: the saw-tooth rakers running up the superstructure, two "alligator eye" searchlights atop it, a dorsal fin, and the notch in the keel. There may be a Goff-like salon window on the side of the aft hull. The design has a thick fairing, possibly with rakers, on the sides of the hull and tall vertical tail fins above and below a small propeller. You can see a page of the comic on this blog.

(Thanks to Lyle Simoneaux for pointing out this design.) T his Nautilus appeared in the Air Programs International animated classic Mysterious Island broadcast in 1975. First seen in the cavern under Lincoln Island, only the upper half is visible, although the reflection in the water gives the impression of a full view. Close-up views when the castaways come alongside conflict in detail; my graphic is a combination of the two views. The design has a spindle-shaped hull with a serrated fin on the bow. There are ports or lights on the hull and large slanted fins on the aft hull. The wheelhouse is located at the forward end of the long superstructure. The deck atop the superstructure includes what could be a skylight and a conning tower with periscope. The castaways gain access via a long ladder on the side of the hull leading to a hatch in the side of the superstructure. The Nautilus appears in part 3, viewable on YouTube.

(Thanks to Vincente Nieto Martin for pointing out this design.) S panish artist José de Huescar created this Nautilus for Pif Gadget (number 366) published by Éditions Vaillant . The hull is organically spindle-shaped, with Verne's "overlapping" hull plates. It has a ram with serrated edges, probably with a triangular cross-section. A hemispherical wheelhouse with four circular ports, one on each side and one each fore and aft, is positioned atop the forward hull. There is a large oval salon window just forward of a large horizontal fin that extends to the stern. The elaborate, flared vertical tail matches the fins. With the scaled hull and the flared fins the design could be an exotic fish, but seeing the ram as its beak, the scales slick feathers, and the fins swept-back wing and tail feathers, to me the submarine in the original artwork resembles a diving sea bird. See the original illustration on Captain Jack's Mobilis in Mobile web page.

(Thanks to Lyle Simoneaux for pointing out this design.) T he cover of an audio book recording of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea read by James Mason and published by Caedmon in 1977 featured this very un-Disney Nautilus. Still, this fishlike design features a Goff-inspired raker arch. There is a double-cone spar at the tip of the spindle hull. The short deck is dominated by a conical conning tower topped with a tall lantern tower. There is a large circular salon window forward on the hull, forming the fish's eye and at least nine fins to complement the appearance. The design includes a small hatch on the deck and what is probably a large diving hatch on the hull bottom. The propeller is large and many bladed. A high-resolution image of both sides of the album cover posted at Nautilus Submarine .com reveals his signature and gives Star Trek artist Rick Sternbach credit.

A rtist Jean Bruneau designed this Nautilus as a paper cut-out model to commemorate the opening of the Jules Verne Museum in Nantes on the 150th anniversary of Verne's birth. The slim design has a rectangular cross-section (consistent with the simple paper model design) that tapers to a pointed raised ram at the bow. The hull continues straight back and then rises to the diamond shaped wheelhouse at the forward end of the deck. The deck extends past a rather tall hatch and ends at a sloped lantern housing that faces aft. There's no boat. The hull tapers to a narrow stern with an oval vertical fin and a small propeller. The circular salon window is positioned high on the hull forward of a row of smaller ports, running aft. The wide dive planes are set below the hull centerline. Bruneau featured a very similar Nautilus (with a round cross-section) as the ace of spades in his 1978 commemorative deck of Jules Verne playing cards. Fred has provided cleaned-up hi-resolution images of the cut-out sheet and enhanced renders of the completed model at NautilusSubmarine (free membership necessary).

(Thanks to Nemo Jr, Lewis Crow, for discovering this design.) T he Return of Captain Nemo, a 1978 television series, featured this Nautilus. The design has a set of large windows in the bow, with a row of smaller windows set high on the hull along the sides. A pair of large diving plane fins are located forward of amidships with smaller fins much further aft. The design has two small propellers mounted on the aircraft-boom-like stern, which features something like a horizontal stabilizer. No rudder in apparent in the production model photos I've seen, but one may have been fitted to the aft end of the keel. The lower hull includes large bay doors below in the single-window section amidships. This Nautilus has a large wheelhouse/conning tower dominating the deck with large bridge windows forward and a cannon on top. The sloped after section of this structure is the only part that comes close to resembling Harper Goff's Nautilus. You can see photos of the filming miniature here. (The updated, more accurate graphic above is courtesy of Lyle Simoneaux.)

The three parts of the TV series were released as a movie, The Amazing Captain Nemo, available at amazon. S cale Model Ships Unlimited produced this Goff-derivative Nautilus as a fiberglass kit with a detailed plan. The most noticeable deviation from the original is the heavy, oddly barbed ram, as if Goff's spar were dipped in molten metal and stretched and hammered as it cooled. Goff's elegant rakers are more crudely realized, in some places merely as steps in the hull. The basic shape of the wheelhouse is retained but the two large globular ports are replaced by four smaller, flat ports. The dorsal fin has no rakers and sweeps up instead of down giving this Nautilus, along with the ram, a very different profile. There is no propeller guard and, less noticeable in the standard view, the aft side rakers flare out to wide horizontal fins. The last major difference is in the salon widows. The signature Goff assembly is replaced by a geometric pyramid with smaller ports on each flat face. Lights or four more ports are set in the hull side around the pyramid. (The design image is from a photo of Ed Sutton's nicely finished version of the model.) ~ c. 1980 ~ O ctopus Books Limited published their Treasury of Children's Classics edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea in 1980. The Nautilus, pictured on the cover, at first glance looks like a World War I or II fleet submarine. Closer examination reveals features popularly associated with Nemo's Nautilus. The net cutter rig atop the bow sports three Goffian raker teeth with a mirrored hook on the lower bow. A serrated fin on the keel and reverse rakers on an arch aft of the conning tower continue the theme. The narrow tower wheelhouse has large Goff-like globular ports on either side and a large forward, facing port on the low slanted forward part of the structure. Smaller hooded, globular glass features on the narrow top of the tower may correspond to Goff's alligator-eye lights or may be ports. The stern is obscured by a giant octopus, but there may be a fin atop it. There are no salon windows visible but a feature on the side of hull amidships might be a very small dive plane. S cience fiction illustrator Vincent Di Fate created this 1980 Nautilus design for Di Fate's Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware. See this and other artwork on his web site. Monsters in Motion sells a replica 20,000 Leagues under the Sea Nautilus Aurora plastic model kit box featuring Di Fate's art on the cover. Although there was never such a kit, the box represents the kit model builders would like to have seen. The sub's hull is more or less spindle shaped with a faceted cross section not unlike Goff's. The massive wheelhouse, with oddly back-facing ports making it resemble a nautilus-like sea creature, dominates the deck. Rather than a single window, a row of smaller ports provide outside views.

In 2007 Pierre-Yves Garcin commissioned Bernard Brimeur to build the Nautilus shown on the box for his Mobilis in Mobile on-line museum. The illustration at right pictures Brimeur's realization next to the commemorative box. See large photos of the box (box-art section) and the model (science fiction anthologies section) on the museum web site. The museum is viewable both in French and in English.

T his Nautilus, drawn by Victor de la Fuente, appeared on the cover of the Nathan "Les œuvres célèbres en bandes dessinées" edition of 20 000 lieues sous les mers. The design, which appears somewhat smaller than the dimensions of Verne's text, has a long slim spar that merges into vertical saw-tooth fins on the upper and lower bow. As there are no other ports, the large ones on either side of the upper fin may serve for both navigation and observation. There are large dive planes amidships and hints of a hatch and possibly a boat on the deck forward of a large sloping dorsal fin. The aft hull tapers to a triangular tail that encloses the propeller. The cover design differs some from that featured in the comic (see just below), drawn by Victor's brother, Ramon de la Fuente.

(Thanks to Pierre Barraud who pointed this out to me.) T he Nautilus seen in the pages of the Nathan "Les œuvres célèbres en bandes dessinées" edition of 20 000 lieues sous les mers, illustrated by Ramon de la Fuente, differs from that on the cover (see just above) in many ways. The design has a long but sturdy ram and a vicious set of forward-pointing saw-tooth rakers that project from the rounded wheelhouse. The hull is cigar-shaped, narrowing toward the stern, and has a long tapered cylinder above a heavy fairing the runs the length of the hull. This structure has what appears to be a light at its forward end. There are large diving planes amidships below the side fairing. The hull spreads to a graceful vertical fishtail that incorporates the propeller. The saw-tooth keel includes a gap for a diving hatch. There are some differences in details among the many illustrations, but most show an unusual structure atop the wheelhouse, grill-like panels atop the hull amidships, and a rounded fairing on the aft hull fore and aft of the deck hatch. One illustration shows a port on the lower forward hull.

(Thanks to Pierre Barraud who pointed this out to me.) I n 1980 young Silvio Premuda built a 1/100 scale model of the Nautilus, following Verne's text and studying the illustrations in the original edition of 20,000 Leagues. The influence of the illustrations is especially evident in the dingey sitting upright on the deck, as shown in Alphonse de Neuville's drawing with the caption "Voyez-vous lá quelque chose?", and in the vertical bars in the salon window, matching several illustrations including de Neuville's, captioned Une fenêtre ouverte sur ces abîmes inexplorés. The hull is cigar-shaped with an integral ram at the bow, narrow dive planes amidships and vertical fins, either or both of which could serve as a rudder, and a three-bladed prop at the stern. Consistent with some of the illustrations (they show at least two configurations), a small four-sided wheelhouse is located at the forward end of the deck and a similarly sized single-light lantern at the aft end. See photos of Silvio's Nautilus at NautilusSubmarine. C learly following Harper Goff illustrator Steve Butz made some obvious and some subtle changes to the classic design for the Raintree Publishers and later Steck-Vaughn Company library-binding adaptation of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (IBSN 0-8172-1652-9). Most notable is the large salon window with eight circular sections and apparently two levels. Less obvious in my simple graphic, the wheelhouse has additional ports on its side and there are two rows of small ports on the upper and lower hull sides. The ram has a spiral design, the side and bottom fairings have no rakers, and Goff's skiff appears to be a narrow fin. The tail is more Goff-like than my graphic, based on the cover illustration, shows. The cover illustration is the only one that shows the arch. One of the illustrations within the book implies a sleeker wheelhouse without an arch and no dorsal fin.

B ob Farrell found a small picture of this Nautilus version on the City of Nantes web site. My various attempts to learn more about this image were unsuccessful, but I found the source serendipitously in a French journal article I received from Jean-Michel Margot. Jean Gagneux constructed the detailed model, which has a complete interior based on the Hetzel edition engravings, and used it to illustrate the article. In the article Gagneux discusses the features of the Nautilus and offers a critical engineering evaluation. He criticizes some of the same features mentioned here, including the diving planes amidships and the location of ram. He concludes Verne did produce a workable submarine design, but alas, it could not have achieved the performance described in the novel. The model itself is simple and true to Verne’s description. The relatively unadorned, cigar-shaped hull has a small keel projection amidships and some reinforcement of the bow for a ram. There is a flat, elevated deck platform. The pilothouse faces forward and, like the lantern, has four somewhat convex windows. Jean Gagneux heard about this web site and contacted me. Thanks to his generosity you can see much more of his Nautilus model here. My illustration and MetaStream model adhere to Gagneux's plan, which differs slightly from his model. I’ve placed Gagneux’s Nautilus plan on "The Author’s Desk" at the top of my 20,000 Leagues page.

T his Nautilus was featured on the cover of the Radio Shack 'reading-is-fun' 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The sides of the narrow, spindle-shaped hull are nearly featureless. There is a hint of an upswept horizontal fin or dive plane at the stern and possibly a narrow fairing running the length of the hull. The tail has triangular vertical fins and an interesting double propeller. There is an oddly shaped structure atop the bow that may be associated with a ramming attack, perhaps paying homage to Goff's iconic raker arch, or possibly a wheelhouse. A conning tower-like structure is set far back on the deck. The mast just aft of this feature could be a lantern.



I n 2011 Stuart Wier posted his 1982 treatise on the design of the Nautilus including a detailed plan, interpreted in my graphic at left. The design, consistent with Wier's paper is very true to Jules Verne's text. A relatively small cast iron ram is affixed to the bow of the spindle hull. There is an oval salon window positioned to match Nemo's presentation of the dimensions to Aronnax, relatively small dive planes amidships, and a large four-bladed prop. Wier shows two possible rudder configurations in his plan and a more elaborate one in the model, but I've shown the basic one from plan. The deck includes a retractable wheelhouse at the forward end, a boat under a protective cover, a large hatch resembling the original illustrations from the novel, and a tall, narrow retractable lantern. See the plan, images of a similar scale model, and read the interesting 45-page paper here.



T his abstractly fishlike Nautilus was featured on a stamp issued in the Central African Republic in 1985 to commemorate International Youth Year. A set of large rakers comprise most of the bow, which is also fitted with two large eye-like ports. From there the hull slopes gently back, to a large triangular dorsal fin. The hull ends with a similarly angular tail. There's no indication of a deck, launch, dive planes, or horizontal fins of any kind. No salon window is visible although it could be located on the lower hull. Actually this Nautilus resembles nothing so much as a stealth aircraft. See an image of the stamp on Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection web site.



T he 1985 Burbank Films Australia made-for-TV animated production of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea featured a unique Nautilus designed by Michael Lodge. Angular barbs on the top and sides of the bow and what could be torpedo tubes give it the appearance of a mohawked fish. (One of the barbs atop the forward hull is replaced by a canon near the end of the film.) A large articulated dive plane assembly, aft fins, and a similarly articulated rudder tail contribute to the mechanical fish design motif. Propulsion is provided by dual propellers near the aft end of the hull. The large superstructure has a periscope and viewports at the forward end. A hatch at the aft end opens onto a narrow deck, which has another hatch. The center section of the superstructure is drawn open by chains to reveal a dock for the boat. The diving hatch is located on the lower hull just forward of the aft fins. You can view the animated film on YouTube here and here.

(Thanks to Vincente Nieto Martin for pointing out this design.)



F ilm producer Dino DiLaurentiis wanted to remake 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and went to far as to get a script, faithful to the novel, from George MacDonald Fraser. The movie was never made, but Ron Miller shared some of his production drawings for the Nautilus. The submarine, conceived rather like an underwater airship, was rather less faithful, but interesting. The deck had an integral wheelhouse at the forward end with a hatch just aft. The boat was set just below the center of the deck but athwartships so that it could be easily launched to the side. Rather than a single lantern on the deck, lights were set on the upper and lower hull. All the control surfaces were large. Dive planes were attached to the after ends of horizontal fins extending from the spur with a second set mounted on the tail. The ram looked something like a mace attached to the prow. There were four-bladed props below the centerline protected by rings on either side keel. Most interesting, the salon was attached to forward lower hull like an airship air car, with large windows on either side of the organ. Perhaps the oddest concept was an enclosed fireplace at the aft end of salon with a brass N on its glass door.

A bout the same time Gagneux was building his model, Jean-Pierre Bouvet was drawing a very detailed set of plans for this Nautilus. Although it isn't as streamlined as the other designs featured here, it is far and away the most complete design of any I've seen. It is completely true to Verne’s description but expands on elements the text only touches, or like a device for measuring speed, mentioned only indirectly in describing something else. The simple, cylindrical hull includes exterior sliding panels to cover the salon windows and a pilot house and lantern that are hydraulically elevated or withdrawn. Jean-Pierre has generously permitted me to feature much of detail of his Nautilus plans here. The illustration and MetaStream model here omit some detail but depict the major features. You can now also view J-P's many Jules Verne drawings on this French-language web site.



T his interesting variation on the iconic Harper Goff design was built as paper-over-balsawood 1:48 scale model by Niels Wilhelm. In addition to the look of the hull that results from the construction technique, and subtle differences in shape, Wilhelm has made some interesting changes. The side fairing ends just aft of the salon windows, which features six frame struts instead of Goff's three. In place of the aft fairing there are side fins on the stern and an additional lateral prop guard strut. There are two four-petal-bladed propellers inline instead of the single five-shovel-blade prop on the classic. See photos of this Nautilus at Nautilus Submarine.com (free membership required to view).

T his Victorian submarine, "in the manner of Harper Goff's Nautilus" was featured at the Six Flags Power Plant Entry Hall in Baltimore. Terri Cardinali built the model based on a drawing by Ed Sotto. (The image here is based on a sketch by Mike Marquez.) More steampunk than Captain Nemo, the submarine is smaller than Verne's Nautilus and has a large glass-enclosed gallery in the bow and a mostly glass wheelhouse. There is a small ram but all the glass would preclude its use as such. The submarine has a fish-like form with a large scalloped rudder and a set of three articulated fins on each side. There's a small conical helical propeller below the stern. A flat deck extends from the wheelhouse with a large hatch amidships and a crane aft. The crane gives access to a large hold with opening doors atop the stern. Read Ed Sotto's reminiscence and see photos and his original drawing here. (Thanks to Gen, who discovered this design and posted it at Nautilus Submarine, beginning an extensive discussion about it.)





J im Humphries' design for his rubber-band powered Nautilus model was published in the December 1987 Scale Ship Modeler, but he actually designed it in the early 1980s. Jim used the novel's engravings as his main source and his lantern and platform are especially faithful to de Neuville's renditions of these structures. The wheelhouse has Verne's four windows and an original organic look. The large front windows facing off at an angle are reminiscent of Goff's, a very reasonable reference to that memorable boat. Jim's is a working model with the two sets of planes needed for proper operation. He started without a vertical fin, but found lateral stability required it and incorporated the fish-like tail with another nod to Goff. The model lacks a launch and the salon window is too far aft. The propeller is three bladed, an oversight that Jim intends to fix.

For those with a well-equipped woodshop, Jim sells a very detailed set of instructions and plans for constructing this versatile model. It dives and surfaces and can even be made to breach like a whale, just as the Nautilus does in "The Sargasso Sea" chapter, all on rubber-band power. Contact Jim directly via e-mail (jfhjr @ flash.net) for information. See Björn Lundberg's construction from Jim's plans here.

T

o me,

Jean-Marc Rochette, resembles nothing so much as an old-fashioned can opener. The hull is a long, slim cylinder with rounded ends and blade-like protuberances at the bow and stern.

There is a propeller at the stern and the fin aft incorporates a rudder, but there are no obvious dive planes

. The saw-toothed fin forward is part of an intricate configurable ram. The fin rotates down to become an upturned blade on the lower bow There is also a narrow spar that can be extended from the bow when the fin is in the low position

, as illustrated in the animation.

. What shine forward as lights in some of the comic panels, the "eyes" on either side of the serrated "beak" fin are the salon windows, which can be protected by "eye-lid" shutters. There is no wheelhouse, but the author, Jean-Pierre Hugot, includes a "system of mirrors and magnifying lenses", a sophisticated camera obscura, that projects a large image into the control room. The hard-cover comic, which cleverly features an intriguing cast of anthropomorphic animals in the roles of Nemo and and the other

characters

, in French, is available at

Amazon

. See some pages from the comic at Mobilis in Mobile.



(Thanks to Pierre Barraud who pointed this out.)

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ne of the most carefully executed depictions of the Nautilus I've seen is Ron Miller's design in all his Unicorn editions. The hull has a fully tapered cigar shape and the salon windows are rectangular, which may well have been Verne's intent. The platform is slightly elevated with the longboat in the center and structures placed as Verne described them. There are a few embellishments, some I think reminiscent of Goff's Nautilus, but none in conflict with the novel. In general this Nautilus, with its retractable pilothouse, is truer to Verne than mine.

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ince the publication of Ron Miller's several Unicorn volumes he's incorporated some improvements to his design. This version is a little sleeker, the planes are longer, the salon window repositioned, and notice the placement of the rudder out of the propeller wake. ECardmodels.com offers a very nice 1:100 scale paper model kit of the design.

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(Thanks to Ron Miller for passing this design along to me.)

T he Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum (German Maritime Museum) has offered this Nautilus paper model kit for many years. Drawn by Rainer Braunschweig, the design is clearly influenced by Goff. Although narrower than the Disney version, this Nautilus has a similar cross-section, however the similarities end with the serrated raker arch and fin. Much of the rest of the design follows the novel. The pilothouse, which may be retractable, has three oval ports. A flat deck with at least on hatch, in the Goff position aft of the fin, has a recess for the boat, which is accessed via a hatch in the recess at the top of an interior ladder. The bottom of the ladder is at the dive hatch in the keel. There's no obvious ram, but the forward end of the keel might serve this purpose. The large oval salon windows are positioned according to the text although fins that might be the dive planes are well aft. The four-bladed propeller is smaller than in the novel. You can purchase the cutaway paper model kit, which has a full interior, from the museum about halfway down this page or from www.papermodelsheet.com.

~ c. 1990 ~

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his spindle-hulled Nautilus with its distinctive barbed spur was created by illustrator Joseph Ciardiello for a Reader's Digest Association edition published around 1990. Except for the relatively small, two-bladed prop, it appears to follow Verne's text well. The position of the long boat was not obvious in the drawings so I omitted it from the model.

P at Regan's Nautilus Minisub is a two-place, pressure hull type submarine boat, handcrafted in steel by one man working alone in a modest backyard shop circa 1985. Launched in 1991 and acknowledged by Disney in 1992, Regan's minisub proved the Goff Nautilus design's feasibility as a free-roving manned submersible. Specifications: 18' LOA, 1.25 tons, double hull construction, electric motor propulsion, manual guidance controls, and the world's first "hydrobatic" ballast system. My image, based on early photos, reflects the original mini-Nautilus. See photos of Pat's construction here on his Vulcania web site.

As of 2016, the Nautilus Minisub is in Hawaii being refurbished for a video documentary featuring Regan's functional replicas of the esoteric vintage 20,000 Leagues diving apparatus. For more info: http://www.vulcaniasubmarine.com

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hen Greg Sharpe saw Jim Humphries rubber-band model he had to have one and Jim's design became the basis for Deep Sea Designs' first Nautilus, published several times in the early 1990s. This model can be built from detailed plans available from Deep Sea Designs. It has a non-elevated deck with a hidden launch. The wheelhouse, taken almost directly from the Humphries boat and like many of the other designs shown here, has a diamond shape with two large, canted, forward-facing windows, somewhat reminiscent of Goff’s design. The ram is a cylindrical cone rather than Verne’s triangular shape and the fish-like stern is clearly based on Goff's. There is a diving hatch in the keel near the stern very like Goff's. The round salon window is positioned too far astern for the novel’s interior description. In appearance the model resembles Goff’s but, especially with its prominent fin-like diving planes, looks more fishlike and less reptilian. Greg has a working version of this design. A nother Nautilus design available from Greg Sharpe's Deep Sea Designs is closer to Verne’s description than the first. The deck is raised slightly to provide some additional space for retracting the pilothouse and lantern. Two hatches are recessed into the deck. The launch is also recessed and stowed upside-down. This permits entry from the Nautilus through a hatch in the launch’s deck rather than its hull. Of course it must roll over on its trip to the surface, causing the occupants some discomfit. There is a davit to handle it on the surface. The salon window is too far astern, although it is consistent with the interior arrangement on the plan. This is a working design with two sets of diving planes, one near the stern and the other in the fin structure at the bow. T his Nautilus, from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea "Climb aboard the Nautilus" CD-ROM published by Media School House, was realized by "Heleenie" as a Sketchup 3D model. The simple design retains Harper Goff's ram but carries the arch the full length of the hull. The ports of Goff's wheelhouse are kept but the rest is abbreviated or left out. The large dive planes include small lights on the forward edge and there is a similarly large fin on the lower hull. The narrow hull tapers to a small tail with a small rudder and small propeller on each side. Get the Sketchup model here. G raphic designer Lyle Simoneaux sent me this image of a Nautilus design he first conceived in the 90s or earlier. He's made it a bit more streamlined than the original sketches, but the general appearance remains the same. He changed the classic Harper Goff look for a more cuttlefish-like shape. Also influencing the shape were his thoughts of kit-bashing a GI Joe helicopter toy to realize the design as a model. The pilot house, which can be withdrawn below the protective stylistic nautilus tentacles just forward, provides a panoramic view through large windows. The ram is purposely drill-like, a theme continued in the hull side rakers conceived to deflect debris away from the sub. Two midship arches, a tribute to Harryhausen's Mysterious Island Nautilus, were not in Lyle's original sketches but serve two practical purposes. Like the side rakers they protect the hull from ramming debris and add strength to the structure. There are two lanterns at the aft end of the arches, shown retracted, can be extended above the deck. The deeply recessed salon windows are also protected by sliding panels. Lastly, the tail fins retract when ramming. Overall this Nautilus is designed to have a sleek nautical creature look with practical considerations to handle the violence of a ram attack.

See Lyle's 2018 update of this design here. T he #1 3-D Color Classics comic that came with a Wendy's Kids Meal was 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The Art Director and team of illustrators were Neal Adams, Rodolfo Dmaggio, Andres Klasic and John Nyberg. One of them conceived this Nautilus. The fishlike hull features a massive pyramidal ram and a row of thick, saw-tooth rakers extending past the fisheye control room ports to the wide dorsal-fin-like structure amidships. The main hatch rises from the deck aft of this structure. There's no large salon window but a short row of ports on the side of the hull. The short fins near the bow, the long fairing on the side and the scalloped keel promote the fish-like appearance, as does the tail that encloses the propulsion mechanism, probably a propeller, but possibly a water jet. The lower vertical fin is obviously the rudder and some of the horizontal fins fore and aft may serve as dive planes. I n 1995 New Zealand Television broadcast an Atlantis Films Ltd and Tasman Film and Television Ltd Production of Mysterious Island as a 22-epsode miniseries. This is the Nautilus from that production, which also aired in Canada. The design has a circular cross-section and is vaguely shark-like in shape with a symmetrical set of vertical and horizontal tail fins. The single propeller is protected by a circular shroud. There is a deck with a boat aft of a long tapered conning tower that has a recessed open bridge at the forward end. As in a normal submarine, this could be used only on the surface. There appear to be a line of small ports on the sides of the hull at the vertical centerline and a set of rakers forward of these on the same line. These might support ramming, but the three similar rakers atop the hull aft of the deck don't appear to have a function. More puzzling is the lattice frame construction on the forward hull that tapers to the bow. Resembling fortification breastworks, these seem too fragile to survive a ramming attack. Nemo's library/control room in the lower hull includes four large forward-looking windows. Much of the series is viewable on YouTube. I'm sure there must be other places in the many hours of film, but the Nautilus is visible about 38 minutes into the last episode. (Thanks to Wayne Orlicki for the screenshots used to reconstruct the design and to Lyle Simoneaux whose interior screenshot led to my corrected understanding of the hull shape.) T his Nautilus, from a drawing by Joe Pearson (and possibly Kevin Altieri), has a tapered spindle hull and a stepped arch, surely inspired by Goff. The small ram is indistinct in the drawing, partly obscured by searchlights mounted on its sides. The salon in this Nautilus has a large window for its ceiling (protected by the arch and and a surrounding framework) and occupies much of the bow. It appears to have a small, more classical round window on the lower part of the hull. There is a gill-like structure on the upper hull just aft of the large window below the wheelhouse. There are several rows of small portholes on the hull and some indistinct features, one of which may be a diving hatch. Propulsion is provided by a pair of structures lined up on the lower hull. These may have small propellers or they may be water jets, perhaps accounting for the gill structure as an intake. The wheelhouse, near the forward end of a raised deck and anchoring the arch, has two large ports. A second structure occupies the aft end of the deck. Markus Gilman, who rediscovered this artwork, posted the original image on his Metapunk blog. (Thanks to Lyle Simoneaux for pointing this out.) B

jorn Lundberg sent me an interesting article from a 1996 issue of Model Ship Builder. Using numerous citations from the novel, the author, Jeff Phillips, discusses details of the Nautilus design, and raises some technical issues also mentioned elsewhere on these pages. He carefully evaluates some conflicts in the text and describes a particularly true design. Like Ian Williams and for the same reason, he places the ram above the centerline. He attempts to solve some of the problems with the lantern by making it taller than the wheelhouse. That structure still casts a large shadow forward, and Jeff suggests Nemo's design would be improved by several better positioned lights rather than one. His design has a very large salon window, filling, as he says, "most of the area of the salon". Although he scrutinized the description of the structure, he neglected the contents. Nemo's art collection requires a good deal of wall space, limiting the window size.

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tan Sanders has built a Nautilus model with some noticeable differences. The most significant feature is the stern with its low mounted screw. I originally thought Stan had placed the lantern between the deck and the pilothouse, but closer examination of the pictures revealed a second lantern astern. The illustration of the Nautilus in the cavern in the Hetzel Mysterious Island has lanterns rather like these. The lanterns and the pilothouse appear retractable and the launch is at least partially recessed into the deck. There are a couple of features clearly derived from Goff's design. I've reconstructed the design from a set of small black and white pictures so some proportions and details are speculative. The aft diving planes, typical of the working models, are prominent in the pictures, but the location of a forward set is my best guess.

T he 1997 Hallmark TV movie Nautilus by Production Designer Brian Ackland-Snow is true to Jules Verne in some ways and different in others. It has a triangular, cookie cutter like ram with an extendable center. The ram is faired with three saw-tooth fins, reminiscent of Harper Goff. The main salon windows are set into the hull and look forward, although there are also side looking ports. The lantern is set forward on the upper hull and the retractable wheelhouse sits nearly amidships, just forward of the main hatch. A pair of large downward tilted dive planes or fins amidships is augmented by apparent planes on the horizontal tail. The vertical tail ends in a tall fin-shaped rudder aft of the three-bladed prop. Both tail fins have a serrated edge, again a likely nod to Goff. The hull is rather bulbous with a squat cross-section, the beam dimension greater than the height. This Nautilus is more organic in shape than most and appears to be smaller. See pictures of the Nautilus in the movie on this Mobilis in Mobile page.

T he shape of the above Hallmark TV Nautilus is strongly influenced by the Revell model kit. I've had comments, especially from Ishmael, that it is not an accurate representation of the Nautilus as seen in the movie. Accordingly, I've stretched the hull to better match some of the screenshots, giving it a sleeker appearance. Although the Revell model appears to match some of the miniatures seen in production photos it may be inaccurate. (I don't know how much of the underwater sequences was computer-generated and how much was filmed miniatures, but perhaps a technique similar to that used for some scenes in the 1954 Disney film was employed. For those Disney scenes a very distorted, shortened miniature was used because a wide-screen Cinemascope camera was not available. When projected with a Cinemascope lens these scenes matched the rest of the movie.) I've made a few other less noticeable changes, particularly adding two rows of lights.

T he Village Roadshow Pictures production of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea aired in 1997 on the ABC television network. I liked the Nautilus, designed by Stewart Burnside and Jim Millett of the Model Smiths, immediately, but for a long time thought it looked more like a space ship, or maybe a deep sea exploration platform, than Nemo's weapon of revenge. However it does in fact resemble a sea creature, the horseshoe crab. The designers actually had a Balmain bug (butterfly fan lobster) in mind. Coincidentally or not, it also reminds me of the Nautilus from Captain Nemo and the Underwater City. There is a reference to the Disney/Goff design with a row of rakers running up the forward hull. The wheelhouse is integral with the hull and has three rectangular windows facing more or less forward. There is a deck set into the aft portion of the upper hull. The lower part of the hull is more open and spindly than the top. It has what appears to be a hidden, perhaps extendable ram below the front of the armored carapace. Just aft, two large circular salon windows face forward. The aft part of the hull narrows and then flares into a wide tail with dual propeller mechanisms. All in all this Nautilus resembles a giant prehistoric crustacean, but also has a Victorian look. See this ReoCities page for photos of the movie model and this Mobilis in Mobile page for pictures of the Nautilus from the movie.

S creenwriter and actor Rick Overton designed this unique Nautilus for the unrealized second season of the Canadian TV series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. Rick applied early advice from Harper Goff to explore beyond the author's words, to move past the expected and go for the visually startling. He succeeds here. The hull of this Nautilus is articulated so that it moves like a giant four-flippered sea monster as well as looking like one. The "head" of the monster contains the pilothouse with four "eye" windows and a central lantern. The "beak" could serve as a ram, but this Nautilus has other weapons. Barbed hooks can extend from the back and sides of the monster's head; spikes and claws are embedded in the flipper fins. Although the main reference to the novel is its monster-like appearance, the design doesn't ignore Verne. There is a launch midway along the plated back. More mobile than Nemo's partly submersible canot, this is a true mini-sub with six deployable wheels to make it amphibious as well. The launch has triangular barbs, reminiscent of Goff's Nautilus, four ports like those of the pilothouse and a row of ports around the lower bow, useful for undersea exploration. Just below the launch the hull side has large, not quite Goff-like salon windows, and just below these on the lower hull, similar large downward looking ports. Of all the Nautilus designs I've seen, this is the most monster-like, truly a terror of the seas. I find it easier to think of it as a living creature than a submarine.

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aul Wright's version in the new Eyewitness Classics children's book is based on Miller's but he has taken some liberties inconsistent with the novel. There is a horizontal tail rather like a modern submarine with, apparently, a second set of planes. The triangular ram has been replaced with a cruciform one. The rectangular salon window is now round. The most glaring revision is the raising of the platform into a sort of conning tower, perhaps to better resemble a modern sub. The deck hatch no longer opens on the platform, but on the hull. There are several other cosmetic, non-conflicting embellishments.

T his Nautilus, drawn by John Benson in 1998, resembles a giant prehistoric alligator. The basic profile resembles Goff's classic design but takes it in another extreme direction. The rakers along the top, bottom and sides of Goff's bow are re-imagined as massive armor plates over the entire hull. The arch remains but folded down into the hull. Instead of large spherical ports the wheelhouse has horizontal slits. The salon window remains, Nemo's one compromise for exploration, but appears almost inset and protected by the armor. This Nautilus is truly a sea monster and a war machine. My graphic doesn't do justice to Benson's artwork and I wanted to include a link to his original pen and ink drawing but the .cs web site is unsafe, so I've included a very small copy at right.



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ohn Dutton has modified his working Nautilus model sub, originally built from a Deep Sea Designs plan published in R/C Ship Modeling (Vol. 1, No.1). He's incorporated numerous new ideas, including a feature or two from my design. The wheelhouse now has a forward-facing window with a headlight mounted on top. He has retained two sets of diving planes along the side of the hull, a practical consideration for any working model. Diving planes at the "center of floatation" where Verne positions them, provide less control than the fore and aft planes found on modern subs. John has told me the circular salon window is stronger and less likely to leak than other shapes. John's web site has disappeared from the Internet, but with John's permission, Didier Jaffrédo is now hosting many of the pictures of the new sub in action

G reg Rico drew this Nautilus in the mid 1990s. It has more classic lines than his later armored, steam punk designs, featured below. The deck is in a smoothly faired superstructure marked only by the deck scuppers along the sides and the recessed wheelhouse windows. This gives the boat an overall clean appearance. The lantern is mounted just aft of the deck atop the superstructure. There are two sets of horizontal fins, the forward fins incorporating small diving planes. The salon windows are recessed in the hull just below the forward fins.

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he hole punched in the Scotia's hull is described as two and a half meters below her waterline, but Nemo says he was traveling two meters below the surface when the collision occurred. This would place the Nautilus's centerline more than six meters deep. Ian Williams' design, illustrated here, addresses this problem by raising the ram to match the hole. The ram in this position also addresses a similar issue. During the trip to the South Pole, Aronnax describes the Nautilus using its ram as an icebreaker as it crosses the Antarctic ice shelf on the surface. Perhaps this could be done with a centerline ram but it seems to me the force would tend to drive the submarine beneath the ice. Ian has given the salon a much larger window than the other designs and two rudders. The rudders, meant to evoke Goff's embedded diving planes, may seem strange, but a plan of Nordenfelt's first submarine, built in 1885, shows two rudders in a similar arrangement. I found a sketch of Ian's Nautilus on his web page. He has since updated both. Visit his site for the sketch and a detailed plan and then look around a bit to enjoy the examples of his art (opens in a new window) .

I have talked about my design elsewhere but here is a little more background and an illustration for comparison. I used a true cylinder with tapered ends for hull, based in part on fitting the very large salon within it. Some illustrations of the cigar ships from the mid-1800s show a more tapered cigar shape. I placed the platform directly on the hull because the text places it 80 centimeters out of the water. This corresponds exactly with Nemo's statement that one tenth of the hull is exposed on the surface.

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3 D artist Jon A. Bell designed this streamlined Nautilus for a Sega CD adventure game. Unfortunately Sega discontinued the CD platform before production could be completed. Eric Quakenbush was the primary designer for the game, but Jon, with Eric's input, designed and built the 3D model. They were considerably influenced by the Naval Institute Press annotated edition of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (see more about this excellent version on my Twenty Thousand Leagues page). Although the actual game design never got past the demo stage, Jon completed various proof-of-concept animations showing the exterior of the submarine and the interior rooms. His design, notable for its odd, fan-shaped propeller, includes two forward lanterns near the pilothouse in addition to the one at the end of the platform. You can see renderings and some plans of this Nautilus here.

I found an image of Jérôme Comblat's Nautilus during a periodic web search for Nautilus designs. Clearly based on the novel, it has similarly shaped pilot house and lantern structures at either end of a subtle deck. There is a dinghy approximately amidships and a hatch just aft. The hull has no obvious ram but there is an elaborate structure with a salon window forward of a large trapezoidal dive plane. A gracefully shaped vertical fin encloses the prop and probably incorporates the rudder. There may also be a small horizontal fin component, perhaps serving as a partial prop guard. The image shows a hint of a keel structure on the forward part of the cylindrical section of the hull. A large bulge on the lower hull aft might be associated with a diving hatch. You can see Comblat's original image on his web page here.

G raphic designer Gary M Burley has taken on the imposing task of illustrating every page of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, changing nothing except the Nautilus to add his "own stamp to its look". Based on the remarkable drawings he's completed, he is true to his word and remarkably consistent in his depictions of the Nautilus. His submarine has a unique Gothic appearance with perhaps a touch of Giger. From the somewhat organic ram, following the vicious raker teeth along the upper hull to the reptilian eyes of the mid-deck pilot house, this is truly a frightening sea monster. The illustrations show at least two hatches, one on the sloping back of the pilothouse. Burley also depicts a small "elevated hydraulic" pilot's cage just forward of the vertical fin (not shown in the graphic here). There are many view ports including one on the lower hull with a frame resembling an eye. The design has two three-bladed propellers. The long structure below the stern may also have a propulsion function. See many of Burley's drawings and possibly purchase a print at Saatchi Art. D esigner Ryan Rex realized this Nautilus as a scratch-built model as the submarine appeared after years in the cavern under the Mysterious Island. The design has a fish-shaped hull with a massive arch for a ram. A cylindrical wheelhouse is incorporated within and protected by the arch. A deck extends aft along the top of the hull almost to the fish tail. The salon window replaces a hexagonal hull panel amidships, just aft of and above the whale fin dive plane. A set of small propellers under the tail provides propulsion.

The model as built differs slightly from the concept drawing I've used here. See the drawing and photos of the model on this ArtStation page.

(Thanks to Lyle Simoneaux for pointing this out.)

~ c. 2000 ~

A nthony Testa's Nautilus uses an exaggerated version of Goff's rakers to distinguish itself with a vicious and organic look. The hull is spindle-shaped and the wheelhouse and lantern appear retractable. Anthony has placed the launch at the end of the platform and protected the five-bladed propeller within a cylindrical guard. I produced the image and 3D model from two 3/4 forward views, so my interpretation is missing some details and probably has some errors.

N obumitsu Kobayashi's dramatic design has a raised vertical ram, like an axe blade. The wheelhouse and lantern are at least partially retractable into the cylindrical hull. The rectangular salon windows, which are placed a little far aft, are fitted with a protective grid. Nobumitsu has added what may be a set of forward-facing windows in the hull, although these may be lights to augment the lantern. The prop appears to have three blades. Unfortunately, the renderings of this Nautilus appears to be no longer available on the Internet. Thanks to Mark Dee who told me about this design.

M ichael Bianco based his design on de Neuville and Riou illustrations, with additional inspiration from these pages. The flattened upper surface of the hull is notable. Most designs add a raised platform, or leave the deck surface rounded. Michael uses a five-sided lantern, like Jim Humphries, but turns it around to keep the light from shining directly into the wheelhouse. Note the window atop the wheelhouse that provides a sternward view when the structure is rotated into the hull for streamlining.





A rtist and illustrator Brüno Thielleux created this Nautilus for a series of comic books based on chapters from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and drawn in his distinctive style. The space ship-like cylindrical design, which only loosely follows Verne's description, is twice the size of Verne's, but it would work at the standard size. Instead of a ram, this Nautilus has a pair of blades on the bow, the upper with a saw-tooth edge, that form a vicious pincer, mimicking the beak of a giant mechanical squid. (There are also retractable mechanical tentacles that featured unsuccessfully in one sequence in the fourth comic.) There is a more Verne-like retractable compartment at the forward end of the deck, just aft of the saw tooth, and a captain's yacht that can be launched from a mid-deck recess. Instead of a salon, the submarine has a large library amidships with very large circular view ports. These appear to be protected by large panels with the single letter N, visible in some of the illustrations. Propulsion is by three large conical “reactors” at the stern. You can see drawings from the comics at Br ü no's French-language web site. Navigate to "Albums", then to "Nemo" to see images from four issues.

Illustrator Didier Graffet's Nautilus is showcased in the richly illustrated Gründ full French text Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers, published in 2003. Although not strictly following the text, his design is reasonably true to Verne while incorporating elements from Goff and many other sources. Notable features are a partially retractable control room forward of the small wheelhouse, a folding exterior ladder in the aft keel below the dive hatch, a downward looking window at the bottom of the main, spiral stairway, and additional lights fore and aft on the lower hull. The very large fins are distinctly fishlike. One of the more interesting details of the design is his overlapping the hull plates top-to-bottom, rather than bow-to-stern as others have done. The images here are of my model based on the plan and drawings in the book. Now you can see Didier's plans, other images, and photos of the electrified wood and cardboard model of his Nautilus on his official Mondes & Voyages website.

T his is Jesper Kurt-Nielsen's original spindle-hulled Nautilus concept. The deck details reflect the Hetzel edition illustrations, like many of the designs. The stern features an asymmetric rudder. His original art included Aronnax standing on the deck in the classic Riou drawing that, according to Walter James Miller in The Annotated 20,000 Leagues, Verne posed for himself.

J esper Kurt-Nielsen added ornamentation to his second Nautilus and changed to a symmetrical stern. You can see his color renditions of both designs including the Aronnax figure on his Danish Virtual Verne web site. (See Riou’s Aronnax on Zvi Har’El’s Illustrated Jules Verne pages.)



H .R. SantaColoma created this Nautilus for Virtual Sailor. He says he " based my version of the Nautilus on the Disney Studios interpretation, Campbell Grant's adaptation for the 1963 Golden Press book, and my own ideas about what Verne intended. For instance, I did not create a spike strip on the underside of the craft, feeling it would not make sense in practice. " Except for the missing lower rakers and main deck, the forward part of the design follows the classic Goff look. The rest of the hull narrows to be more fishlike, so that the deck slopes downward. The salon window is farther forward and the tail is enlarged to better resemble a fish tail. You can download this Nautilus from the submarine page at Virtual Sailor. (The download is a zip archive in exe from that can be opened by any archive program like 7z or WinZip. The submarine components are in Direct X format, which can be imported by many 3D modeling programs.)

T his Nautilus appears in the introductory title sequence of a series of animated films called "Jules Verne's Amazing Journeys" from Tele Images International. The design has a modified spindle hull and a somewhat fishlike appearance. There is a simple spar ram on the prow, and very large observation windows on the upper bow with smaller oblong ports just aft. A large arch, a nod to Harper Goff's iconic Nautilus, rises on the upper hull, protecting the superstructure amidships that has many round ports. The animation image is not clear, but there may be a propeller or rudder just aft of the lower fin on the stern. A cruciform tail is located at the very stern. You can see this Nautilus at the very beginning of this Mysterious Island animated film, La Isla Misteriosa de Julio Verne (the Nautilus in the film itself is very different).

(Thanks to Vincente Nieto Martin for pointing out this design.)

T he Nautilus in the animated film La Isla Misteriosa de Julio Verne from Tele Images International has a rather 