Nautilus USS (Jules Verne)
Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:30 pm
It is now just over 50 years since Jules Verne, the well-known French writer, died, and to commemorate his work the French Post Office and that of Monaco have issued stamps depicting the author and some of his "flights of fancy".
All his stories were based upon an intimate scientific knowledge, and when written they usually dwelt at lengths looked upon as beyond the limits of achievement. Perhaps it is all the more astonishing that so many of his ideas have to a certain extent come true. In his book "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea", for instance, he anticipated the modern submarine in his Nautilus which the book depicted as the terror of shipping in the Pacific during 1867. An American frigate, the Abraham Lincoln, sent to destroy her, was herself badly mauled, and three members of her ships company became prisoners on board the submarine. Capt. Nemo of the Nautilus had declared himself the sworn enemy of mankind, and as his pirate ship traversed the world he unfolded the wonders of the deep for his prisoners', allowing them to view the undersea world through special windows in the submarine. The ship itself and some of the deep-sea life are shown in the stamp.
Eventually the Nautilus met her end in the dreaded Maelstrom, a whirlpool off the Norwegian coast. The three prisoners were fortunate to be thrown ashore on the Lofoten Islands and one was said to have written the fantastic story of their voyage. This imaginative submarine creation of Verne's virile scientific mind has given her name to a number of modern submarines, of various nationalities. Quite recently the name was given to the first atomic submarine, built for the United States Navy and potentially the most deadly warship ever built. She is designed to be able to spend long periods at sea, and was built at Groton, Conn., by the Electric Boat Company. Launched on January 22, 1954 by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, wife of the American President, she is reported to have cost £19,640,000. The United States Navy took delivery of her earlier this year. The U.S.S. Nautilus is shown on the unusual shaped 30 franc stamp.
Sea Breezes 7/55
Monaco SG538 France SG1251
All his stories were based upon an intimate scientific knowledge, and when written they usually dwelt at lengths looked upon as beyond the limits of achievement. Perhaps it is all the more astonishing that so many of his ideas have to a certain extent come true. In his book "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea", for instance, he anticipated the modern submarine in his Nautilus which the book depicted as the terror of shipping in the Pacific during 1867. An American frigate, the Abraham Lincoln, sent to destroy her, was herself badly mauled, and three members of her ships company became prisoners on board the submarine. Capt. Nemo of the Nautilus had declared himself the sworn enemy of mankind, and as his pirate ship traversed the world he unfolded the wonders of the deep for his prisoners', allowing them to view the undersea world through special windows in the submarine. The ship itself and some of the deep-sea life are shown in the stamp.
Eventually the Nautilus met her end in the dreaded Maelstrom, a whirlpool off the Norwegian coast. The three prisoners were fortunate to be thrown ashore on the Lofoten Islands and one was said to have written the fantastic story of their voyage. This imaginative submarine creation of Verne's virile scientific mind has given her name to a number of modern submarines, of various nationalities. Quite recently the name was given to the first atomic submarine, built for the United States Navy and potentially the most deadly warship ever built. She is designed to be able to spend long periods at sea, and was built at Groton, Conn., by the Electric Boat Company. Launched on January 22, 1954 by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, wife of the American President, she is reported to have cost £19,640,000. The United States Navy took delivery of her earlier this year. The U.S.S. Nautilus is shown on the unusual shaped 30 franc stamp.
Sea Breezes 7/55
Monaco SG538 France SG1251