American Civil War submarine found

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By Joanna Bale
A unique boat from 1864 may have inspired Jules Verne to create Captain Nemo's vessel Nautilus


A BRITISH explorer has found an early submarine that he believes was the inspiration for Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s vessel in Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
Colonel John Blashford-Snell discovered the half-submerged, cast-iron wreck off the coast of Panama while searching for ancient ruins.

She was built in 1864 by a visionary craftsman, Julius Kroehl, for the Union forces during the American Civil War. But the boat, called Explorer, was never used in the conflict and was subsequently taken to Panama where she was used to harvest pearls.

She was ideal for this purpose because of a unique lock-out system, identical to the one in the Nautilus from Verne’s book, published in 1870.

The lock-out system is a reversible air-lock that enables submariners to leave the vessel, harvest pearls from the sea-bed, then return to the submarine. Like Explorer, Nautilus was also used to gather items from the seabed.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1642355,00.html

[Deja Q]

1. With an advert like this, I will not register:

[emad]

2. Maybe a former prototype for Putin's ill-fated Kursk that bellied-up

in August 2000????

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. It's a Fake!

Just ask the Jesus freaks. The world ain't that old.