Bob Ballard talk about exploration of the oceans.

Bob Ballard, James Cameron, Richard Branson, Greg Venter - are all over it already...

Registering a Ship in Malta - The Benefits

Favourable weather conditions
Low berthing and maintenance costs
No requirement for the ship/yacht to be berthed in Malta
Low company formation and registration costs
A legislative framework which is mainly based on UK legislation
No restrictions on the nationality of the shareholders of the ship owning company and of its directors, on the master, officer and crew of the ship/yacht
A complete tax exemption for the owners, charterers and financiers of Maltese ships over 1000 tonnes which can be extended to smaller ships
A complete tax exemption on the profits derived from the ownership or the operation of a ship
A complete tax exemption on dividends
No EC VAT is payable on the acquisition of the ship by the Maltese company. The EC rule is that the shipping vessel will not be liable for EC VAT so long as it does not spend more than six months (whether continuous or not) in any one year in EC territory. EC Member States also have their own specific rules. Further details of such rules are available on request.
No restrictions on the sale or transfer of the shares and no capital gains tax or stamp duty
No succession duty
A wide Double Taxation Treaty network

http://www.firstgozo.com/taxadv.htm

Diving Into the Liveaboard Lifestyle – Marina or At Anchor


One of the things I hear most from people who think we’re crazy is, “What will you do on a boat?” Well, the same thing you do in a house except for our house will have the capability of moving all over the world! Moving aboard a boat is not so we can sit around drifting aimlessly out in the middle of the ocean. That would drive anyone insane after a short while. When we are at sea, we will have a destination in mind. When we arrive at that destination, we will explore the land and sea there until our heart’s content and all within the comfort of “our home”.

There are different lifestyles for those who live aboard a boat. Some prefer the marina life and some prefer to live at anchor, “on the hook”. Both have their pros and cons. We’ve known people who live both ways and it is really a matter of preference and what suits your lifestyle.

Living docked at a marina allows easy access to shore without having to launch a dingy. You can have water and electricity at your fingertips and depending on the marina you choose, you may have amenities from the simple things like washer, dryer, and shower, to the luxury marinas with all the accommodations of a four star resort. Of course, this doesn’t come cheap and especially not for catamarans who often have to pay the price of two slips Marina living also offers more of a social life as you are docked alongside others who yearn for this same environment. The marina may be a permanent lifestyle or just a temporary one if you have short-term needs to be at shore. We plan to be “on the hook” but there may be times when we need the marina, especially starting out.

Living at anchor, you are afforded a little more privacy than in marinas. Some marinas offer mooring balls where you can live on the hook within close proximity to the marina and have easy access to shore as needed. This is offered at a fraction of the cost to actually docking at the marina. Other times, you may simply drop anchor somewhere you’ve found to be a suitable place to stay awhile and then pull up and sail off when you’re ready to move on. The ability to do this depends on how self-sufficiently you’ve equipped your boat. With the right equipment, you can generate power from the sun and wind and make fresh water right from the sea. It takes a lot of planning and research to know the equipment necessary and there are so many models to choose from that it can be quite overwhelming. We don’t know a lot about any of them yet; we only know they are out there. We plan to learn all we can about these things and make our boat capable of withstanding extended periods of time out at sea or “on the hook” in secluded anchorages.

Having the boat equipped properly, we’ll be able to reach those diving and surfing spots we dream of and live off the land for unspecified and unplanned durations. We’ll dive for fresh fish and lobster and we’ll make our own water. We’ll be able to anchor in spots where we can dingy in ashore or over to the reef break for surfing and be nestled right back on our boat at the end of the day. Some of the most recognized charter companies in the world take surfers and divers out to these remote locations for a pretty penny. This is the vacation of a lifetime for some people. We don’t want to do it as a vacation; we want to make it a lifestyle.



http://www.divingintocruising.com/diving-into-the-liveaboard-lifestyle-marina-or-at-anchor/

What is the difference between a cruising yacht and a live-aboard yacht?

When you look at a boating catalog, yachts are often described as either a cruiser or racer or racer/cruiser. And this indicates the intended use of the boat. Racer yachts are obviously intended for racing and cruising for cruising. The thing they all have in common is that all these boats intended use is ‘recreational’. They are intended to be used in the weekends and on holidays and the rest of the time they spend their life sitting empty in a marina.

Now compare this with the house you live in and a holiday house. Your expectations and in fact what you do with a holiday house is quite different from what you do in your home. The same is true for cruiser yachts; they are like holiday homes and are only used for short periods of time, usually don’t go far from their home base and don’t need to carry much gear or supplies.

A life-aboard yacht like your home, has to fulfill on all the needs and requirements of a boat that is being used 365 days per year.

This immediately suggests that there are much greater demands made of a live-aboard yacht over a cruising yacht.

Not only does it need to carry all your possessions and stores for extended periods. But it also gets used in entirely different ways. For example, when on holiday you want to be out in the sun as much as possible, feeling the sea air and enjoying the thrill of helming your boat. As a live-aboard your preference is to avoid the sun and the wind, you get enough without even looking for it and as for helming… I only choose to do it when I have to, much preferring the self steering to helm the boat while I get on with daily tasks.

Another example is the ****pit is an essential item on a cruiser, but an optional extra on a live-aboard; whereas a closed in pilothouse with an inside steering position is a much more likely place you will spend your time. In fact fishing boats have more in common with live-aboard yachts than cruising yachts, because fishermen in fact live and work on their boats.

http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/peoples-comfort/cruiser-liveaboard-differences/

 

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The Phoenix 1000 is a 65-meter (213') personal luxury submarine. The initial design was originally executed for a client and now awaits a buyer. As proposed, the submarine would constitute the single largest private undersea vehicle ever built, and arguably, one of the most significant personal transportation devices of the century.

A Luxurious Undersea Vehicle

This design, which we have named the Phoenix 1000, has more than ample space. The total interior area of the submarine is in excess of 460 square meters (5000 square feet). The significant volume, coupled with very large acrylic viewports, and the potential for relatively large open spaces, results in a vehicle as luxurious as the finest of motor yachts.

Clearly, the Phoenix provides its owner with substantially more capability than a simple yacht - the opportunity to explore the depths of the world's oceans in perfect comfort and safety. The Phoenix is capable of making trans-Atlantic crossings at 16 knots yet can dive along the route and explore the continental margins of some of the most fascinating waters on earth. And unlike surface yachts, when the water gets rough, the submarine can submerge into a perfectly smooth and quiet environment, continuing on toward its destination, providing a ride unsurpassed in quality-unequaled by the finest motor coach or the most luxurious executive aircraft.
The Size Advantage

At 65-meters (213 feet) in overall length, and with a beam in excess of 8 meters (26 feet), the Phoenix is a vehicle of formidable size. Yet despite its 1500-ton displacement, the submarine is quite streamlined. Given the significant waterplane area and ample internal volume, which allows for greater battery storage, the Phoenix will out-perform smaller counterparts in surface speed, submerged speed and submerged endurance. The large pressure hull diameter allows for very large acrylic viewports, making the undersea viewing capability truly extraordinary. The interior space, with the noted absence of structural bulkheads, provides for tremendous versatility in interior layout and space planning. And finally, the Phoenix's large size coupled with its integrated roll stabilization system makes surface transit quite comfortable in all but the worst conditions.
A Walk Through the Phoenix

Join us as we examine the physical spaces of the Phoenix 1000.
Flying Bridge

The uppermost level of the vessel is the flying bridge. This area is similar to its equivalent area on most yachts, with the exception of the fact that the materials selected are subject to immersion in water. Ample space exists for lounging, and cushions may be brought up from the area below. The flying bridge also houses the pressure-compensated radar radome, GPS antennae and satellite communications radome, as well as radio aerials, running lights, etc. A remote steering station is also available.
Deck Saloon

Immediately below the flying bridge and accessible through a large hydraulically operated hatch and a stairway, is the deck saloon. As proposed, this area would be composed of structural acrylic cylindrical sections 2.1 meters (7') in diameter and 20 centimeters (8") in thickness. The overall length of the deck saloon pressure hull would be 12 meters.

The deck saloon would have a comfortably appointed interior and would boast an incredible view for observation, both on the surface and when submerged. By fitting transparent sections into the deck of the flying bridge, a view above can be enjoyed as well.

In the forward portion of the saloon is the surface bridge. This area contains all the necessary control, monitoring and navigation equipment to operate the submarine in the surfaced condition. The captain has a hemispherical sector acrylic viewport immediately in front, with the transparent cylindrical walls to either side.

The aft portion of the saloon has a large acrylic window, providing a view astern that also acts as a large hydraulically operated hatch. A small automobile could be kept in the aft section if desired.
Superstructure

The superstructure itself is composed principally of aluminum (or FRP if the owner prefers), and it houses the deck saloon pressure vessel and also provides the structural base for the flying bridge. There is a large degree of latitude possible with regard to the styling of the structure, with the caveat that its hydrodynamic efficiency will have a significant effect on the submerged speed of the submarine.

Aft of the deck saloon is a covered space that can be either fully or partially enclosed. The greater the degree of closure to the after portion of the structure, the less turbulence and the more hydromdynamic efficiency. Hydraulically actuated after doors could be designed to open, allowing fresh air to circulate. The area would be excellent for covered, informal, deck- level dining.
Docking Minisub

Aft of the superstructure, or optionally, above the control cabin on the bow, is an area for a docking minisub. Utilizing a special docking collar, this vehicle is capable of leaving the Phoenix while submerged and making excursions down to 610 meters (2000 feet). With both top and bottom hatches, the minisub could also bring passengers from the surface to the submarine lying at depth. The minisub could be designed to hold between two and eight passengers, depending upon the owner's preferences. Additionally, in the unlikely event of an emergency at depth, the minisub could be used to take passengers and crew to the surface.
Forward Control Room

The forward control room is entered from the main deck through a watertight, pressure-proof door. The control room has a 2.4 meter (8') diameter hemispherical sector acrylic viewport forward and three 1.8 meter (6') diameter viewports on either side, with the foremost pair angled slightly forward.

The control room contains all of the control and navigation equipment necessary to operate the submarine while submerged. The 8 meter x 4 meter (26' x 13') area contains sufficient space to fit comfortable lounge chairs for passenger observation while underway.
Main Passenger Areas

The main passenger area consists of two decks, each 31 meters (102') long and 6 meters (20') wide. The upper deck is accessed from one of two hatches, either from the deck saloon or from a hatch to the after portion of the superstructure. Two stairways, one in the center of the deck, the other in the after section, lead to the lower deck.

The upper deck is intended to provide space for an engineering workstation, a switch and contactor room, crew cabins and mess, as well as the galley. The forward portion, which ends at a bulkhead, is designed as a room of the owner's choosing.

The main deck is situated such that the forward portion, with eight 1.8 meter (6') diameter acrylic windows, contains the living and dining areas, while the section aft of the beam houses the owner's stateroom and guest cabins. Five viewports, 90 centimeters (35") in diameter, are situated on both port and starboard sides.

Below the passenger area is the battery compartment and bilge. A narrow manway allows access through the compartment for battery maintenance.
Engine Room

The engine room is accessed through doors at the after portion of both passenger decks. The space contains the majority of the equipment necessary for the submarine's operation, including the main diesels, motor generators, drive systems, air compressors, hydraulic aggregates and life support systems. The upper level of the engine space provides access to the minisub, and in the stern section, to a diver lock-out chamber. The bottom level allows maintenance of the main engines and related components.
Diver Lock-out Chamber

A spherical diver lock-out chamber, 2.4 meters (8') in diameter is fitted above the shafts and attached to the aftermost section of the pressure hull. The chamber allows a diver to enter or exit the submarine from the area between the shafts at depths of up to 45 meters (150'). The chamber can be fitted with decompression capability if required.
Commercial Opportunities

The Phoenix would be suitable for use as an exclusive submarine cruise ship or as a charter yacht.

The estimated price of the Phoenix is $78 million.

Download a brochure on all our large luxury submarines (750kb)

Download a brochure on the Phoenix 1000

Phoenix 1000 Technical Specifications

 

For billionaires only - Most popular luxury submarines

Loitering around the race-courses and five-star hotels used to be the most favorite pass-time of the filthy rich in the society a few years back. But now, the luxury playgrounds include deep-under the sea, to the high peak of Himalayas, to the deep spaces of the Universe. Living under the sea in private-owned submarines is the latest fad among the super-rich.

A few months back, we introduced you to the top 12 high-tech luxury yachts. These megayachts are majestic, royal, breathtaking, and simply graceful. The sub-aquatic playgrounds have become the latest maritime attraction for many of the richest people around the globe. Very much like the luxury yachts, the submarines are catching the fetish of the billionaires of the society.

Forget the Lamborghinis, Rolls Royce, Ferraris and private jets and cast your beady eyes at some of the most popular luxury submarines.

In a world of $100-million mega yachts, the U.S. Submarines' Phoenix 1000 rules the long list of luxury subs. The beauty has 5,000 square feet of interior space on four levels and is able to dive up to 1,000 feet. Fully customizable, the only thing that makes it a bit different from the full-on megayacht is the enchanting view for the truly valiant undersea buccaneer. The integrated docking mini-sub can take passengers to an extreme 2000 feet below the surface.

The luxury amenities include Jacuzzis, gyms, wine cellars and up to ten bedrooms. The clients even have the option of going for a basketball court, which would win the trophy of being the world's most expensive basketball court. Costing a whopping US $80 million, the luxurious 65-meter (213-feet) undersea vehicle takes about three years to build.

With a 36-meter (118') overall length, the climate-controlled luxury submersible enjoys a central twin deck arrangement and more than enough space for independent staterooms, crew's quarters and galley, living and dining areas. The interior space of the Seattle 1000 submarine allows for several layout options and is fully customizable to the owner's requirements.

The Seattle will set you back for around $25 million and a 24-hour trip inside the beauty will cost you around $2500 per person.

Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen seems to be an ardent fan of sea cruisers. His luxury private yacht, Octopus was there at the second place in my list of top 12 high-tech luxury yachts. The latest plaything in the billionaire's playground is a fully operational 40-foot yellow submarine for which he has paid a huge sum of $12 million. Allen's fad for these gorgeous water beasts might be the reason that his net worth is only a third to that of Bill Gates.

The 305-meter, two or three passenger submersible is the latest design from U.S. Submarines. Four Triton 1000s are being developed for Poseidon Undersea Resorts. It offers excellent visibility, which is especially designed for launch and recovery from megayachts. The luxury sub is fully air-conditioned and touts lavish amanities with luxury leather seating.

Touted to be the world's first luxury submarine, the Nomad 1000 has almost all the facilities of a luxury yacht and it can dive to 1000 feet. While you're cruising under the water like Captain Nemo, the massive panoramic viewports soothe your eyes with the denizens of the deep in the air-conditioned luxury. The 65-feet submarine touts a gorgeous and comfy interior, a fully equipped galley and a marine toilet with shower.

In case, you need to take a break on the move, simply close the hatch and dive. You can either continue the journey submerged or take the Nomad to the sea floor. So, you need proper light too. You can light the submarine with up to sixteen 1000 watt, quartz halogen undersea lights. It's a true autonomous submarine.

You surely have been living in caves if you haven't heard of Exomos, the most technologically advanced submersibles. The 65-feet Proteus is exceptional and is capable of offering the ultimate in underwater luxury. It can accommodate up to fourteen divers on the fore and aft deck who can submerge with the vessel while eight people can sit inside the dry cabin for magnificent viewing.

Mystery of 100 luxury subs:

'If you can find my submarine, it's yours,'' says Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich. There are an estimated 100 luxury submarines lurking around the Seven Seas and no one knows who the owners are. Anyway, for about $25 million you can purchase your own luxury submersible.

Private submarines, from two-seaters to the 5,000 square-foot luxury liners, are becoming a fad among the super-rich. At Hawkes Ocean Technology, chief engineer Graham Hawkes is busy building two customized $1 million vessels for clients. On the other hand, U.S. Submarines is said to design the $1-million, two-passenger Explorer 1000 sub.

What could be the better way other than the luxury submarines for billionaires (who wish to rule the seas like Captain Nemo) to submerge in luxury?

http://www.bornrich.com/entry/for-billionaires-only-most-popular-luxury-submarines/

Living aboard a cruise ship

It’s a well-known fact that where you holiday during your working life can have a direct and significant impact on where you plan to retire abroad. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend their free time in retirement in a place that for them held the fondest memories? It’s a fact that some of the most popular holiday haunts are therefore also some of the most popular overseas destinations with retired expatriates; and whilst the thought of a beachfront mansion in Mexico or a condo in the Caribbean therefore makes absolute sense for a retirement home abroad, could you see yourself living out your retirement years on the high seas instead?

If you’re a cruising enthusiast and you like to spend your hard earned wealth and your hard won holidays on a luxurious liner as often as you can, then your experiences may lead you towards contemplating enjoying more of your free time in retirement doing just that which you love best, namely sailing the seven seas on board a cruise ship. There have been many tall tales told of wealthy widows living reclusive lives on board great ships that sail the oceans all year round – and there is actually some truth in many of these stories. Rosemarie Roberts was just one woman who made a home for herself on board a luxury liner for over a decade, and the QE2 was permanent home to Bea Muller for example.

So a precedent has therefore been set and a path has been marked that you can now follow if you too fancy the idea of living in permanent luxury on board a cruise ship. But how practical could this plan be, what are the pros and cons of inhabiting a small cabin and having staff at your beck and call 24 hours a day, and what are the decent alternatives for those who would love to live this life, but who may perhaps baulk at the tens of thousands of dollars such a lifestyle can cost year-on-year? We take a closer look at the bigger picture.

All Abroad! – The Pros of Retiring on Board a Cruise Liner

The benefits and advantages of retiring on a cruise ship are plenty, for example: -

You can have as many meals a day as you can eat, and the food is always fantastic!
At usually no extra charge you can call room service and instead enjoy the likes of breakfast in bed or afternoon tea in your cabin – daily!
Your accommodation will be serviced, cleaned and maintained for you constantly.
Staff will get to know you, and if you treat them well, they will reciprocate and you will find you enjoy an even better service.
There is a high standard of medical assistance on board.
You can swap ships when you want to change your scenery.
There is daily, high quality entertainment – all included in the price you pay.
If you want to swim, dance, learn new skills, join an exercise class, worship God, attend a wine tasting seminar, visit exhibitions or a book store, try your luck at a casino and make new friends every couple of weeks, you can do all of this and so much more on a cruise liner.
You can attend cultural enrichment events, watch the latest movies, go to the theatre, play bridge, take afternoon tea, have a spa experience, listen to live jazz, sip champagne or go down the pub and play darts.
You can wash and dry your clothes for free, and your room will be refreshed with new cosmetics and bathroom goodies on a daily basis…even saving you money!
You will never be alone or lonely, you’ll never get bored or have to face the day with nothing to look forward to.

Abandon Ship? – Reasons Why Cruising Your Way Through Retirement Might Not Suit You

Whilst a cruise for a fortnight or even a month can be an incredibly luxurious and stimulating experience, a lifetime of sailing and living on what is really just a floating hotel can begin to become tiring for some people for some or even all of the following reasons: -

Your ‘home’ is usually a less than spacious cabin that has been furnished and decorated to someone else’s tastes.
As lovely and comfortable as your cabin is, it is not a home where you can potter about and have the space and freedom that you may crave…for example, your allocated wardrobe space will be just about enough for a couple of week’s worth of clothes, but to fit a lifetime’s possessions in a cruise liner cabin is an impossibility…even if you upgrade!
Ships have to dock and dry dock, the crew have to have downtime and the liner needs to be out of service to be serviced or refurbished on a regular basis – at which point you become homeless!
If you want to swap ships you can – but this can be unsettling and upsetting to those enjoying their ‘routine’ and their life on their chosen original liner.
People who take longer than average cruises can find themselves missing their friends and family back onshore, and that the constant goodbyes they say to their new friends every couple of weeks can become trying as old faces disembark and a whole new crowd boards the ship.
After a while you may tire of eating out for every meal and of having no real privacy despite being alone in your cabin sometimes.
You can’t have pets on a cruise and your grandchildren can’t just pop in for a cup of tea.
The costs associated with living 24/7, 365 days a year on board a luxurious ship are quite steep, as we will soon discuss, and you may still need accommodation when your liner is in dry dock being serviced or refurbished.
You may not be able to avoid tiresome people, and you may miss the good friends you’re lucky enough to make when they leave after a couple of weeks.
Constant ‘entertainment’ can be tiring and eating and drinking all day long is bad for your health!

The Practical Aspects of Packing Up and Shipping Out

Determining whether life on board a cruise ship would suit you or not depends greatly on your personality, your likes and dislikes and whether or not you could adjust to residing in a relatively small cabin and paying a relatively high price to maintain your unusual retirement! The most obvious pros and cons have been laid out above, but you will have your very own reasons driving you forward towards your retirement on a cruise ship, and your own concerns that you will need to think long and hard about before you make a final decision.

To help you determine whether you could take the practical steps necessary to make your dream life a reality, perhaps it’s time to grapple with the facts – such as the cost of living on a cruise liner, and how you go about selecting your ship…

If money really is no object for you, then pick your favourite liner – from Royal Caribbean’s brand new Oasis of the Seas, to Cunard’s soon to be launched Queen Elizabeth – and book your place. Alternatively, you need to do your research into which liners offer you the standard of living you’re after, at a cost you can afford. There’s a great resource on the Internet (http://www.cybercruises.com/shiplist.htm) that lists every single cruise liner and company in the world – even those that are now out of business or decommissioned! This resource, or something like it, could act as your start point; you could make your own short list of the companies you like then visit their own homepages to learn more about their ships. With a company you like and a ship in mind, it’s time to look more closely at where that ship sails, and whether you could become part of life on board.

Many companies offer discounts to seniors, and those who book for extended breaks on board their ships, so it will be well worth you directly approaching your preferred shortlist of companies about booking your passage on one of their ships for life! If you explain that you’re of a mind to retire on board and you’d like to discuss securing an ongoing annual rate for your presence aboard their liner, a deal may be brokered that will see you enjoy a significant discount on the book price. If you look online or in brochures to get an idea of what your life may cost you before any discount is applied however, you’ll see it of course depends on the company, the liner, the room you choose and the route you sail.

One of the cheapest ways you can perhaps make your dream come true will be joining a decent ship on a permanent Caribbean loop – you can expect to pay about $1,000 a week with Holland America for just such a life for example.

This can have the added advantage that you regularly re-dock in Florida, so you can catch up with old friends back home and perhaps even maintain some sort of postal address service on land to make aspects of your life easier to manage. However, if your idea of cruising is literally seeing the whole world from the decks of a luxurious liner, there is one alternative that we’ve yet to even mention – you could actually buy yourself anything from a one bedroom apartment right up to a 6 bedroom luxurious penthouse aboard The World – a brand new concept in cruising that’s an exceptionally sumptuous liner specifically designed for those who want to live on board, or travel the world for extended periods of their life.

The World’s own philosophy sums up this exciting opportunity (http://www.aboardtheworld.com/) : -

“Your private apartment becomes your magic carpet and provides you with the ride of your life! Life aboard The World is just the beginning of a lifestyle devoted to the new, the exciting, the adventure and the peace of allowing yourself into cultures and communities only witnessed on television documentaries. Our spacious apartments fitted with all the accouterments found in quality home design, a relaxed atmosphere and a never ending itinerary to the far reaches of the world are all combined to make The World the most unique vacation home experience.”

If you decide to rent your accommodation instead of purchasing an apartment on board, and you’d like to sample just one year of travel before you commit to The World’s lifestyle for example, you could consider boarding on March the 1st 2010, travelling for a year to places as varied and fantastic as Chile, Lima, Thailand, Venice, Dubai, Muscat, Croatia, Spain, Ireland, Greenland, New York, the Caribbean and Antarctica at a cost of $613,800 for a basic studio residence.

However, upgrade and buy in and you can purchase a one bed, two bath apartment styled by Hirsch Bedner Associates Design and literally come and go, join and leave the ship whenever it suits you. There is a spa on board, 6 restaurants, shops, a movie theatre, you can go out for dinner or have friends over for luncheon, socialise in good company or relax in private. You can improve your golf handicap, play tennis, do yoga or workout – and the best thing is, you will be living with and travelling with likeminded people who will become your friends.

One bedroom apartments start from $825,000 (337/31.3 sq ft/meters, studio with bath) and two bedroom apartments from $2,300,000 to £2,950,000 (1,106/102.8 to 1,391/129.2 sq ft/meters). Annual maintenance fees are based on square footage and calculated at $159,00 USD per square foot, and annual food and beverage will cost you $33,180.

Acceptable Alternatives to a Permanent Life on the Ocean Waves

The World perhaps offers a best of all worlds approach to those who can afford to buy in. You can hop on and off and travel for as long or as short a period as you like either by renting or buying an apartment – and you will literally cruise all over the world. Cruising a Caribbean loop or adding in Mexico, Canada and even Alaska can be an option for those who want to get away but not stay too far from home, or alternatively, you could buy a yacht and sail the seas alone!

You may find that you can enjoy your retirement by dividing your time between shore and ship, by perhaps downsizing your home on shore to fund your regular sojourns at sea. Maybe you could also move closer to where cruise liners regularly dock to cut down on travelling time and associated costs of getting to your next cruise. Don’t be put off your dream by fiscal concerns when you can perhaps find a way around them – but just ensure you do enough research to make sure that your dream is really what you want.

http://www.escapefromamerica.com/2010/02/cruising-towards-retirement/

-- Edited by admin on Wednesday 31st of October 2012 10:21:18 PM

Private Submarine Yachts

By CHRISTINA NG abc News

March 19, 2012

Some call it the final frontier. While humans have breached the limitations of land, air and space, the underwater world remains largely untouched.

In addition to researchers and scientists, another group has taken an interest in the underwater unknown--the mega-rich.

The race to the bottom of the sea is being led by director James Cameron and British entrepreneur Richard Branson.

This week, Cameron is launching his unprecedented mission to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific. The "Titanic" and "Avatar" director is hoping to make the seven-mile dive as a solo venture, which no one has ever done before.

The only pair to ever make it all the way down made the trip in 1960 and spent only 20 minutes at the site. Cameron hopes to spend six hours shooting footage of the dive for a National Geographic documentary, complete with 3D footage.

Branson unveiled a single-person submarine in April 2011 that he said would break records by exploring the five deepest sea locations of the next two years.

"More people have been to the moon than to that depth of the ocean," Bailey S. Barnard, associate editor of luxury magazine Robb Report, told ABCNews.com.

The magazine for the "ultra-affluent" has written about private submarines in the past and plans to include the vessels in an upcoming "Toys of Summer" feature.

"They're pretty darn cool and we'll continue to see more of an uptick in them as toys and vessels for exploration, as opposed to underwater homes," Barnard said.

For those who consider sports cars, yachts, and private planes old news, private submarines may be the new accessory of choice for the wealthy, ranging from about $2 million to $90 million, depending on the model.

"Most people don't have any idea what happens below the surface of the ocean," L. Bruce Jones, U.S. Submarines CEO, told ABCNews.com. "I've been doing this for 25 years and it's something that's getting more popular all the time."

In addition to U.S. Submarines, Jones is CEO of four other companies including Triton Submarines, which specializes in luxury deep-diving submersibles. Depending on the model, the subs hold two to three people, dive between about 1,000-3,000 feet and cost between $2-3 million.

The company sells about four or five subs every year, but Jones has seen an "awful lot of activity" in customer interest for the private vessels. Most of the interest has come from mega-yacht owners wanting to get a submarine for their boats that they can take out whenever they want, without having to go through an underwater tourism company.

"They can sip champagne, sit around and see things no one else has seen," Jones said. "They love it."

U.S. Submarines built one $90 million submarine that was the equivalent of an underwater yacht, complete with dining areas, kitchens and a gym. Even so, Jones does not expect submarines to become common.

"I think that they're always going to be relatively unique," Jones said. "We expect to continue to accelerate to a new place in production, but I don't think it will ever become a household item."

Ian Sheard, director of engineering for SEAmagine, a leading producer of two to three person submersibles, agrees with Jones.

"We started in tourism and then had people asking, 'Can I have one?'" Sheard said. "[Customers] want a submarine and they want to drive it themselves."

SEAmagine is currently training its latest customer to purchase one of the vessels, a sea enthusiast who plans to move his yacht and submarine all over the globe to the world's best diving spots, like Costa Rica, the Galapagos and Alaska.

So, what's the draw?

"It's exclusivity. People can't just go do it," Sheard said. "It's mind-blowing what you can see down there. The places you have the possibility of going are literally where no man has been before."

Not everyone agrees that the crafts are the new plaything of choice for the rich and famous.

"There's been an increase in the interest of submarines generated by those interested in increasing that interest," Stockton Rush, co-founder and CEO of OceanGate, told ABCNews.com. OceanGate organizes underwater expeditions, mostly for research purposes.

"It doesn't take much to double sales," Rush said, when only a handful of subs are sold each year.

Rush also pointed out that boat and submarine combinations can be tricky, as they require special attention.

Subs require specialized training, dedicated space on the boat due to their bulkiness and weight and special certification to travel to certain places.

"There's definitely an interest in undersea exploration and in submarines in general, but the interest is in going underwater and seeing stuff, not in owning submarines," Rush said.

Rush doesn't deny the draw of the dive, which he calls a "spiritual experience" where passengers see and hear things differently than they ever have before.

"All the sensory input you get, plus the emotional side…it's totally indescribable," he said. "Everyone gets passionate about the experience."

And for those who happen to be both passionate and wealthy, a submarine may be just the thing they're looking for.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/private-submarines-yachts-wealthy/story?id=15953822#.UJGeT2dP-F8

Extreme Explorer Yachts

 

On most megayacht charters, adventure means motoring from one idyllic Caribbean cove to another, or hopping among the Mediterranean’s most glamorous ports of call for ****tail hour. But a new breed of explorer yachts is bringing the same level of comfort and service one might find in Monte Carlo to the extreme ends of the Earth. From Greenland to Patagonia, these durable, long-range expedition vessels offer safe access to rarely visited regions of the world—and a host of tenders and toys for exploring them. Here we present five of our favorite megayachts for charting the adventure of a lifetime.

Built for traveling through icy waters, Aquos Yachts’ 148-foot explorer vessel Big Fish cruises comfortably from the Northeast Passage to Ant­arctica. But one of the standout features of this 10-month-old yacht is best enjoyed in the tropics: a massive foldout deck that wraps around the stern, creating a “beach” that provides passengers easy access to the water.

Charter guests can hit the water in one of several tenders and toys, which include a 14-foot Nautica RIB and a custom 26-foot boat with a 300-nautical-mile range. Big Fish packs 12 sets of diving gear (the crew includes a divemaster), as well as snorkeling, fishing, and windsurfing equipment; paddleboards, wakeboards, and surfboards; and water skis and kayaks. Crew members can capture all the action with Big Fish’s two underwater cameras, images from which can be displayed on the main salon’s three-story video wall.

Thanks to its stash of water-sports equipment, and its ability to access remote destinations, Big Fish appeals to an active clientele. “One charter party turned up in Tahiti on their [Gulfstream] GV,” says Jim Gilbert, the commercial director for Aquos Yachts. “They went directly to the stern beach [deck], unpacked their kitesurfing bags, and took off for a sail around the island.”

 

Like most charter yachts, the Lürssen-built Northern Star spends plenty of time in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas. But with a 7,000-nautical-mile range and a hull built to ice-class specifications, this 247-foot explorer is equally suited to navigating the Earth’s extremes. Recent charters have taken Northern Star from Greenland and Norway to the Galápagos Islands and through the Panama Canal. With its hull, alloy superstructure, advanced sound- and vibration-reducing features, and zero-speed stabilizers, the yacht remains a comfortable ride in virtually all sea and weather conditions. (According to Sean Zamora at Moran Yacht & Ship, the charter broker for Northern Star, crew members claim that one cannot feel any movement on the boat while in rough waters.) The vessel’s double-thick windows—several of which slope inward to ensure that snow and rain do not stick—offer unobstructed views of the surrounding sea. For an even closer view, passengers can embark on an underwater adventure from Northern Star’s dive center.

Built by the 104-year-old Ger­man shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen, Silver Cloud has a Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) marked by a superwide, 58-foot beam. The bulk of the vessel’s displacement is below the waterline—a feature unique to this type of design—which makes the 135-foot expedition yacht nearly impervious to most wave turbulence. The water-bound fortress accommodates as many as 12 guests in five staterooms and keeps them entertained with a 39-foot Intrepid Walkaround outfitted with deep-sea and sportfishing gear, as well as a 23-foot Novurania that can tow toys including a wakeboard, a banana boat, and inner tubes. Silver Cloud also carries diving and snorkeling equipment, plus sea kayaks and paddleboards. It does not include a helicopter, but an aft-deck helipad is at the ready for passengers who bring their own.

During her ongoing circumnavigation of the globe, Exuma has cruised along the Pacific coast of Central America, making stops in Costa Rica and Panama’s San Blas and Las Perlas islands. This spring and summer, the 164-foot motor yacht—designed by architect Philippe Briand and built by Perini Navi’s Picchiotti division—will be available for charter in the South Pacific, where its 7.5-foot draft will allow it to nose into shallow coves inaccessible to most yachts of its size. A hovercraft and an amphibious vehicle (plus a pair of bicycles and a moped) facilitate land-based adventures, while 14- and 21-foot Castoldi tenders tow water toys that include wakeboards, skis, and inflatables. Exuma also comes with diving and snorkeling equipment, a Sea-Doo, and two Seabob personal diving watercraft.

Launched more than 80 years ago and fully restored in 2005—with a stint in the U.S. Navy somewhere in between—the 233-foot Haida G is a classic yacht built for transatlantic travel. This old-school explorer boasts a maximum range of 5,000 nautical miles courtesy of a nearly 50,000-gallon fuel tank. Its extended range has enabled Haida G during previous trips to cruise along the Pacific coasts of Canada, the United States (including Alaska), and Japan. The boat’s classic styling harks back to the golden era of yachting, but Haida G features a host of amenities and toys befitting the modern adventurer. In addition to a dive compressor and six sets of scuba gear, the vessel carries 12 snorkeling setups, a banana boat, a wakeboard, water skis, deep-sea fishing equipment, a pair of WaveRunners, and 21- and 24-foot tenders.

http://robbreport.com/Boating-Yachting/Extreme-Explorers

1. Submarines to dredge lake for Nazi gold | World news | The Guardian

   www.guardian.co.uk › News › World news

   25 Jan 2000 – An American-Israeli submarine mission is preparing to dredge an Austrian lake said to have been the dumping ground for Nazi gold and Third ...
   
2.  

   Submarine dredge.

   gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=1761.0;wap2

   To working a detecting gold probe. Dredge nozzle has 4 or 5 joints and is 4' long. And is like a stinger you can work into the cracks or around boulders. Nozzle ...
   
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   Platypus Submarine Gold Dredge - A Brief History | Suite101

   suite101.com/.../platypus-submarine-gold-dredge---a-brief-his...

   11 May 2010 – The story behind the curious remains of New Zealand's first submarine, built in 1874, lying beside the Strath Taieri Museum at Middlemarch, ...
   
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   gold dredge | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

   www.flickr.com/photos/jdory/3873815462/

   26 Aug 2009 – gold dredge. I've seen a lot of contraptions to try and wrest gold from the sea floor and beach, but this one takes the cake. Be interesting to see ...
   
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   Pro-Mack Mining-- Underwater Mining Specialists

   www.promackmining.com/bio.htm

   His father was a career Naval Officer, mostly commanding submarines during ... Dave with a dredge of his own, for a percentage of Dave's gold recovery until the ...
   
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   Patent US1497360 - GOLD-PLACER-MINING SUBMARINE - Google

   www.google.com/patents/US1497360

   GOLD-PLACER-MINING SUBMARINE DREDGE. CHARLES B. ... US4163330, Jun 14, 1977, Aug 7, 1979, Dredge cutter head having a volute compartment ...
   
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   Cape Nome Alaska, Bering Sea and Beach sand gold prospecting

   nevada-outback-gems.com/.../nome_gold.htm - United States

   Gold nuggets and flakes - placer gold on the Bearing Sea beaches: Nevada ... pan, dredge or something else you may be able to get some of that placer gold - and .... Interest in finding possible submarine beaches off the coast led to extensive ...
   
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   Gold Dredging Forum - New Zealand's Pioneer Submarine Boat

   golddredgingforum.proboards.com › General › Historical

   5 posts - 4 authors - 28 Sep 2011

   We. or at least the act thinks that a bottle dug frOm an old gold fields site is ... winches, gold stampers, dredge remains...and yes...a submarine!
   
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   Submarine Dredging

   chestofbooks.com/reference/...Of.../Submarine-Dredging.html

   31 Dec 2011 – Commerce is not the only peaceful mission of the submarine. ... to aid in submarine tunnel building, to dredge for gold, to fish for pearls and ...
   
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    Gold from the Sea

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    Gold is still being profitably mined and dredged from these beaches and more .... of gold and associated trace elements in modern submarine gossans from the ...

-- Edited by admin on Thursday 1st of November 2012 05:17:41 PM

Richard Branson, Necker Island, Virgin Oceanic, James Cameron, Bob Ballard, Chris Welch, Wilfried Ellmer, floating concrete platforms, honeycomb floating platform, floating concrete shell construction, ocean colonization business alliance, ocean base, deep sea investigation, vent base alpha, deep sea mining, oceanic aquaculture, floating structure development, floating marina development, key player network, underwater hotels, underwater tourism development, submarine yacht, seasteading, Peter Thiel, ocean investigation, business, Greg Venter,

1. Oceanic Support, Network Status, Planned Outages, Known Issues ...

   www.aroundhawaii.com/support/network_status/ - United States

   AroundHawaii.com is Oceanic Time Warner's Community Website with access to Oceanic Support Services information such as network status, planned outages ... ATTN: Road Runner Business Class Subscribers:ROAD RUNNER BUSINESS ...
   
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   Time Warner Cable Business Class | Home

   www.twcbc.com/hawaii/

   News flash: fiber network accelerates productivity. We give you innovations the phone company can't. Enjoy faster online speed and an all-inclusive ...
   
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   Internet Broadcasting TV on the Ocean Network

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   Bringing you the world of water. One Roku channel dedicated to our oceans, seas, and waterways. If it happens in, on, or around water -- you'll see it on the ...
   
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   OCEANIC Company Profile [Archive] - ScubaBoard - Scuba Diving ...

   www.scubaboard.com › ... › Oceanic

   1 post - 1 author - 11 May 2006

   In 1972, Hollis founded American Underwater Products, doing business as Oceanic. The company started out with a dozen diving products, ...
   
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   Oceanic Wireless | LinkedIn

   www.linkedin.com/company/oceanic-wireless

   Welcome to the company profile of Oceanic Wireless on LinkedIn. A leading network service provider based in the United Kingdom, Oceanic Wireless currently ...
   
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   Submarine communications cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_communications_cable

   Eastern Telegraph Company network in 1901 .... In the 1960s, transoceanic cables were coaxial cables that transmitted frequency-multiplexed voiceband ...
   
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   Oceanic Business Plan Outline

   www.docstoc.com/docs/.../Oceanic-Business-Plan-Outline

   2 Sep 2011 – production as a savvy business investment and benchmark entertainment piece. 2. ONE: Oceanic Network of Enterprises Table of Contents ...
   
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   OCEAN PALM BUSINESS NETWORK - Consultants - Company Profile

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   OCEAN PALM BUSINESS NETWORK - Consultants - Let B2BPakistan help you achieve your marketing objectives. Our database of accurate and reliable ...
   
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   Wave Glider, a Floating Robot, Seeks to Network the Oceans ...

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   by Quentin Hardy - in 381,871 Google+ circles 1 Nov 2011 – A California company is working to network a fleet of oceangoing robots to measure the data of the sea.

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    Trans Oceanic Company - Exporter, Service Company from Hong ...

    www.hktdc.com › ... › Computer & Peripherals › Network Products

    All, |, Products/Services, |, Company Name, |, Buying Leads, |, Events, |, News, |, Multimedia .... Antenna Wireless Wi-Fi Network Adapter (Hong Kong) ...

OceanElders

OceanElders is an independent group of global leaders who have joined together to use their collective influence and experience, supported by science and data, to promote ocean conservation, pursue the protection of the ocean's habitat and wildlife, and preserve its ecosystems and species biodiversity.

OceanElders was created to be a locus of collaboration in the field of ocean conservation. By working with and leveraging the work of other ocean organizations, OceanElders intends to encourage, endorse, and champion their ocean initiatives. The structure is optimized and the team focused to be a catalytic agent of change in order to achieve lasting impact at scale in ocean conservation and sustainability.

The idea for OceanElders began on the Mission Blue voyage to the Galapagos Islands in April 2010, where over 100 scientists, business leaders, philanthropists, and entertainment icons came together to support Dr. Sylvia Earle, 2009 TED Prize Winner, in her TED Wish to draw public attention to the urgent need for ocean protection. Gigi Brisson returned home from that voyage with a renewed commitment to ocean conservation. It seemed to her that all the efforts were admirable, but fragmented, and hence, often ineffective. The ocean needed one voice; one very loud voice. Aware of the mission and impact of The Elders in human rights, Gigi believed that a similar structure could be applied to benefit the ocean. Gigi created and funded OceanElders, developed its plan and model, and sought out global leaders who had a personal passion for the ocean and its wildlife. OceanElders welcomed Dr. Earle as its first Ocean Elder in June 2010 and has added eleven to the team since. We plan to add more Ocean Elders, including individuals from China, Japan, India, Europe, Africa, and South America.

http://www.oceanelders.org/

Submarine Superyachting

 

7 October, 2012, Ft. Lauderdale: The Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show will be featuring a large number of new yachts, tenders and marine products this year but, as it turns out, not all vessels at the show will be surface vessels. While megayachts have been known to carry small submarines Triton Submarines is not only launching a new line of personal subs, but also offering a new service: Triton Submarine Charters, in a partnership effort with captains and megayacht charter owners.

People who want to charter a submarine might have to wait however. Triton Submarine, based in Florida, currently only has two submarines ready for delivery. Marc Deppe, VP of sales and marketing, explains that the market has yet to fully develop and planning ahead is still very necessary. Deppe says that if the boats are to be delivered locally, in South East Florida, charters can be arranged fairly quickly. But in most cases anyone who wants delivery out of the area there needs to be at least three weeks lead time for delivery. One of the reasons for this is that Triton provides pilot, surface officer, technician and in some cases even a RIB pilot.

Passengers are not trained by receive pre-dive briefings and the crew itself is professionally trained. The two subs currently online both have dive capabilities of 1,000 foot but they have different passenger/crew capacities. The maximum capacity is currently either one or two passengers, plus the pilot. Charters must be made for at least two weeks (no maximum length) but fees are quoted by the day and include crew, shipping and any specialty equipment needed or requested. One of the first boats to use the Triton subs is the SuRi, which will be cruising in Antarctica at the end of this year. Triton has plans to add more subs, with deeper diving capability (as deep as 3,300 feet) before the end of 2013.

http://www.blueoceanyachting.com/yachting-news-and-information/general-marine-news/1937-submarine-superyachting.html

 

Richard Branson, Necker Island, Virgin Oceanic, James Cameron, Bob Ballard, Chris Welch, Wilfried Ellmer, floating concrete platforms, honeycomb floating platform, floating concrete shell construction, ocean colonization business alliance, ocean base, deep sea investigation, vent base alpha, deep sea mining, oceanic aquaculture, floating structure development, floating marina development, key player network, underwater hotels, underwater tourism development, submarine yacht, seasteading, Peter Thiel, ocean investigation, business, Greg Venter,

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/private-submarines-gain-popularity-with-millionaires-a-819643.html

What Richard Branson hopes to find at the bottom of the sea

Submarine LNG Tankers

Russia's Kara Sea may very well replace both the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea as the world's primary source of gas reserves for the first half of the 21st century. Its giant gasfield Rusanovskaya is believed to hold gas reserves of 282 tcf and up to 4 billion bbl oil, and the Leningradskaya and Zapadno-Sharapovskaya Fields, just 30 and 80 miles south of Rusanovskaya, respectively, could both prove to be supergiants near or greater than Rusanovskaya, if current studies prove correct - certainly enough to supply Japan and China for the next 250 years.

Rusanovskaya, with a water depth of only 50 meters, and the related structures of the Kara Sea shelf are, however, icebound approximately ten months of the year and are only accessible with icebreakers. Several proposals have been made for exploiting these enormous reserves, but the usual configuration of arctic rigs and concrete platforms put forth by the Russians and occasional Western oil companies simply can't handle the Kara Sea ice. Furthermore, although Europe may be a market for the huge gas reserves of the Barents Sea to the west, Asia is a more likely market for those of the Kara Sea.

Faced with these daunting conditions, few operators have made overtures to the Russians for tapping the Kara Sea's resources until now. Recently, the American company Werner Offshore proposed a unique solution to the quandary - submarine production and a fleet of submarine LNG tankers.

 

Submarine Solution

Jules Verne foresaw the conduct of commerce beneath arctic ice back in 1870, with the publication of his remarkable adventure tale, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In that classic science fiction novel, he told how the mighty Nautilus submarine commanded by the indomitable Captain Nemo, mined the ocean floor and plied the frigid polar waters at a depth of 3,000 ft beneath more than 4,000 ft of ice.

Only the US nuclear submarines Nautilus and Skate have since traversed the polar ice cap, in 1958, via the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. During World War II, however, in the Battle of the Atlantic, German U-boats constantly patrolled the Atlantic to sink Allied ships, and to keep them constantly on duty, a fleet of submarine tankers carrying diesel fuel hid beneath the polar ice until needed, then sailed out to refuel the U-boats.

Dubbed "Milch Kuhs", or "Milk Cows", the U-boat tenders were actually modified U-boats themselves. They were built at the Deutsche Werke and Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany, with a length of 67 meters and width of 9.35 meters. They each carried just over 200 tons of diesel fuel and a crew of about 60 men.

Herbert Werner, head of Werner Offshore, was a U-boat commander during World War II. To approach the problem of tapping the Kara Sea's gas resources and transporting them to market, he remembered the near-forgotten Milk Cows of the German Navy and adapted the idea of submarine tankers to meet the difficult conditions to be encountered. Once conceived, Werner took his ideas to the Russians and consequently signed a joint venture agreement to exploit the Rusanovskaya and Leningradskaya Fields.

Werner plans to build a fleet of 22 submarine tankers by the year 2013 at a new shipyard set to begin construction in Vladivostok in 1997, which will be jointly operated by Werner Offshore and its Russian partners. The tankers will be 1,300 ft long with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of LNG. They will be manned by a crew of 14 and powered with an air-independent, closed-cycle diesel system from CDSS of the UK.

Werner's production scheme consists of a fully automated, subsea production system - designed by Werner Offshore - which will produce the oil and gas, with the oil piped to conventional surface tankers for transport to Europe. The gas, however, will be piped to a gas liquefaction plant on the coast of Novaya Zemlya Island, where it is to be processed into LNG, then transferred to submerged submarine LNG tankers.

The plan is for Werner's submarine LNG tankers to carry the gas in an 11-day voyage under the polar ice across the Kara, Laptev, and East Siberian Seas of the frozen Arctic Ocean north of Russia to Alaska's St. Matthew Island, in the Pacific Ocean's Bering Sea. Once at St. Matthew, the LNG is to be transferred to conventional surface LNG tankers for further transport to Japan or China.

The first voyage of LNG under the arctic ice is expected to occur in May 2004. Werner Offshore predicts peak production will find the submarine fleet carrying more than 21 million tons of LNG a year

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The Submarine Technology of Jules Verne

 

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_21/verne.htm

 by Edward C. Whitman

As an inspiration to the submarine pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, no other literary figure loomed as large as Jules Verne, the “father of science-fiction” and the author in 1870 of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. American submarine inventor Simon Lake, for example, credited his life-long interest in undersea exploration to having read Verne’s novel as a boy – and in 1898, he was thrilled to receive a telegram of congratulations from the author himself when his own Argonaut completed its first substantial ocean-going voyage. Educated as a lawyer, Verne lacked formal training in science and engineering, but nonetheless chose so shrewdly from the speculative technologies of his day in creating a futuristic submarine for his protagonist, Captain Nemo, that the essentials of his undersea vision – examined here – have nearly all been realized.

 

 

Nemo’s Submarine Precursors

Although very early submarine experimenters such as Cornelius van Drebbel in early 17th-century London and David Bushnell in the American Revolution had demonstrated occasional successes, it was only in the early and mid-19th century that the problems of underwater navigation were attacked in earnest. In France, for instance, the American Robert Fulton – later renowned as the “inventor” of the steamboat – attempted to win the support of the government of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte for an undersea craft capable of breaking the British blockade. Awarded a contract for building a man-powered submersible of his own design, Fulton christened his boat Nautilus – the same name chosen by Jules Verne 70 years later – and successfully demonstrated it on the Seine in 1800 and later at Le Havre. Napoleon soon lost interest in Fulton’s initiative, but subsequently, he supported the evaluation of a less-expensive wooden submersible built at Le Havre by two brothers named Coessin. Their prototype achieved some limited success, but then nothing more was heard of it.

In the 1830s and 1840s, several other French inventors – DeMontgery, Petit, Villeroi, and Payerne – offered other submersible concepts, and some were actually built. But it was only when the French Navy became interested in a design by Captain Simon Bourgeois and naval constructor Charles Brun that significant progress was made. In 1863, Bourgeois and Brun launched Le Plongeur (“the Diver”) at Rochefort and experimented with the boat for three years. Powered by a reciprocating engine driven by stored compressed air, the 140-foot long Le Plongeur managed to average five knots submerged but suffered from inadequate longitudinal stability and was eventually abandoned. At the same time, other European countries were pursuing their own submarine programs, and on the far side of the Atlantic, the American Civil War had stimulated more immediate interest in submersible combatants, particularly in the Confederacy, where raising the Union economic blockade was a primary objective. There, the most spectacular success was achieved by the hand-cranked submersible CSS Hunley, which in February 1864 sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor – the first-ever sinking of a warship by a submarine. In light of his voracious reading and exhaustive reportage of the Civil War by the European press, Jules Verne would certainly have known of these events at the time he embarked on writing Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

For the submarine community, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea raises fascinating questions: Just how prophetic was Verne in exploiting technologies nascent in 1870 to create Captain Nemo’s Nautilus? How accurately did he predict the actual evolution of the modern submarine? And how many of the undersea innovations he envisioned 130 years ago have actually been realized?

 

Designing and Building Nautilus

According to Verne’s tale, Captain Nemo and his men built Nautilus on a desert island in total secrecy by ordering components and materials from disparate sources and arranging their delivery to a variety of covert addresses. The design was entirely Nemo’s, based on the engineering knowledge he had gained from extensive study in London, Paris, and New York during an earlier part of his life. The steel double hull is spindle-shaped and 70 meters (230 feet) long, with a maximum diameter of 8 meters (just over 26 feet). As Captain Nemo describes it,

…Nautilus has two hulls, one interior, one exterior, and they are joined by iron T-bars, which gives the boat a terrific rigidity. Because of this cellular arrangement, it has the resistance of a solid block. The plating can’t yield; it’s self-adhering and not dependent on rivets; and the homogeneity of its construction, due to the perfect union of the materials involved, permits it to defy the most violent of seas.4

Submerged, the submarine displaces 1,507 metric tons (roughly 1,670 short tons) and surfaced, with only one-tenth of the hull above the water, it displaces 1,356 metric tons (1,495 short tons) – Verne is quite precise about this.5

Nautilus is controlled from a small, retractable pilothouse set into the top of the hull about a quarter of the way back from the bow. Several large bi-convex glass windows – 21 centimeters thick at the center – provide an all-around view, augmented by illumination from a separate electric searchlight mounted in an external pod abaft the pilothouse. There is no periscope – these would not come into general use for more than three decades. For use while surfaced, a small, flat deck fitted with removable manropes is apparently installed just behind the pilothouse, and this can be accessed by a hatch from below. Nemo and his first mate frequently use this platform for celestial navigation in conjunction with a pit log read out by electrical telemetry. The only other protuberance topside is a low “dry-deck shelter” faired into the hull for housing a metal dinghy that can be entered and launched from within, even while underwater.

Electricity – A “Powerful Agent”

With its imaginative technology, Nemo’s engineering plant for Nautilus is certainly the most extraordinary aspect of his design. On behalf of his nautical protagonist, Verne conceived what was essentially an “all-electric” ship at a time when the first practical applications of electricity were only a few decades old and a century before building any such ships became feasible. In Captain Nemo’s oft-quoted words,

There is a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, facile, which can be put to any use and reigns supreme on board my ship. It does everything. It illuminates our ship, it warms us, it is the soul of our mechanical apparatus. This agent is – electricity.

 

And indeed, Nautilus uses electricity for cooking, lighting, distilling fresh water, running pumps and other auxiliaries, instrumentation, and, of course, main propulsion. The ship is fitted with a conventional four-bladed propeller at the stern, six meters (20 feet) in diameter and coaxial with the centerline of the hull. Consistent with the relative diameters of the hull and propeller and the freeboard prescribed by Captain Nemo, Aronnax observes that when surfaced, the propeller blades occasionally rise above the waves, “beating the water with mathematical precision.” Verne has Nemo claiming a speed of 50 knots at 120 revolutions per second – probably in error. 120 revolutions per minute makes much more engineering sense for a propeller that size, particularly in view of the type of engine that powers the submarine.

 

Curiously, the main propulsion engine on Nautilus is not a rotating electric motor. English scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) had established the principle of the rotating motor by 1825, and an American blacksmith, Thomas Davenport, had patented a direct-current (DC) motor with all its essentials – rotating coils, a commutator, and brushes – in 1837. Yet, despite the fact that several motor-driven electric vehicles had been demonstrated in both Europe and America by mid-century, Verne’s notional design for the prime mover on Nautilus emerges as the electrical analog of a reciprocating steam engine, “where large electromagnets actuate a system of levers and gears that transmit the power to the propeller shaft.” In other words, the main engine seems to be mechanically equivalent to a steam engine with “large electromagnets” replacing conventional pistons – a choice that seems strangely backward-looking in light of Verne’s technical sophistication.

 

In contrast, the “breakthrough” that enables Nemo to generate virtually unlimited electrical power extrapolates electrical science so far into the future that only “the willing suspension of disbelief” keeps technically-astute readers onboard. Although some hasty writers have wrongly portrayed Nautilus as “nuclear-powered,” the actual source for her vast reserves of electricity is described as a hugely scaled-up elaboration of a well-known 19th-century primary battery, the Bunsen cell. Invented in 1841 by German physicist Robert Bunsen (1811-1899) – better known for devising the “Bunsen burner” – the Bunsen cell uses a carbon cathode in nitric acid and a zinc anode in dilute sulfuric acid, with a porous separator between the liquids. The device generates a potential of 1.89 volts, and later versions added potassium dichromate as a depolarizer.6 Let Captain Nemo describe his fundamental modification:

 

Mixed with mercury, sodium forms an amalgam that takes the place of zinc in Bunsen batteries. The mercury is never consumed, only the sodium is used up, and the sea resupplies me with that. Moreover, I can tell you, sodium batteries are more powerful. Their electric motive [sic] force is twice that of zinc batteries.

 

Had this actually been tried, the reaction of metallic sodium with sulfuric acid would have been exciting to behold.

 

Despite some ambiguity in Verne’s description, it also appears that the relatively low voltage of the Bunsen cells is stepped up to a more useful level using a double-wound variant of the induction (i.e., “spark”) coil invented in Paris by another German, Heinrich Ruhmkorff (1803-1877), around 1850.7 This same combination of a sodium-based Bunsen cell, probably some kind of periodic interrupter, and a Ruhmkorff coil is described later in the novel as a high-voltage power source for portable undersea lights. Ultimately, Nemo replenishes his sodium supply by distilling seawater and separating out its mineral components at a secret operating base located inside the crater of a volcanic island near the Canary Islands. The energy for this process is derived by burning sea coal, which he and his men mine from the ocean bottom.

 

 

Submerging, Surfacing, and Life Onboard

Similar to the approach adopted by subsequent submarine pioneers Simon Lake and Thorsten Nordenfeldt, the basic technique described for submerging Nautilus and maintaining a desired operating depth is to flood ballast tanks to establish net neutral buoyancy at the corresponding water density. The main ballast tanks are sized to bring the boat just under the surface when completely filled. For deeper submergence, additional water is introduced into supplementary tanks, which can increase the weight of the submarine by as much as 100 metric tons to match the increasing weight of its displacement with depth. As John Holland later established in his first successful submarine designs, a much more efficient depth-control technique is to establish slightly positive buoyancy and maintain depth using the dynamic forces generated by the boat’s forward speed. In fact, “with a view to saving [his] engines,” Captain Nemo also exploits dynamic forces, but only when he wants to take Nautilus below 2,000 meters. Then, two horizontal hydroplanes mounted at the center of flotation (that is, amidships) are used to angle the boat downward in response to the thrust of the propeller. Within a few decades of the appearance of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, it had also been realized that stern planes are much more efficient for controlling depth dynamically, but Nautilus has no stern planes. In any event, Verne claims extreme depth capabilities for Nautilus – Aronnax reports reaching a depth of 16,000 meters (52,500 feet) in the South Atlantic – reflecting a time when it was not yet known that the world ocean reaches a maximum depth of nearly 36,000 feet in the Challenger Deep.

To regain the surface, the ballast tanks are emptied – not by compressed air, but rather by using powerful electric pumps, supposedly capable of working against even the highest back-pressure. Aronnax even describes what we would call today an “emergency surface blow”:

The Nautilus rose with terrific speed, like a balloon shooting into the sky. Vibrating sonorously, it knifed up through those waters. We could see nothing at all. In four minutes we traveled those four leagues between the bottom and the surface.8 After emerging into the air like a flying fish, the Nautilus fell back into the water, making it leap like a fountain to a prodigious height.

Although Nemo acknowledges that he has the scientific acumen to “manufacture” air for ventilating the submarine underwater, he opts instead to use electrically-driven compressors to store breathing air in special tanks, with periodic visits to the surface to replenish his supply. However, when Nautilus becomes wedged beneath an ice cap near the South Pole – another geographical misapprehension – this dependence on surface air puts the crew in extremis until they devise a clever way to free the boat by melting the surrounding ice – using electricity, of course.

Nemo’s crew are a strange, largely silent lot, and it’s never clear how many there are. The most Aronnax ever sees on deck at one time are about 20, but there are likely more below. However,
the crew’s berthing compartment on Nautilus is only 5 meters (16 feet) long, so unless the berths are stacked like cordwood – or there’s a lot of hot-bunking going on – it seems unlikely
that there could be more than 40. On the other hand, Captain Nemo’s quarters are quite lavish, consisting of a 5-meter bedroom, a 5-meter private dining room, a library of about the same size, and a 10-meter salon – 25 meters out of a total hull length of 70 meters. Moreover, the salon contains a priceless collection of European art, a small museum of unique biological specimens, and most famously, a pipe organ. Large observation windows, concealed by movable panels, are fitted into the outboard bulkheads, providing a close-up view of the passing underwater scene to both sides, illuminated as necessary by the external searchlight.

 

Captain Nemo as Scientist and Explorer

For underwater exploration, treasure-hunting, and gathering food from the ocean bottom, Captain Nemo has provided Nautilus with an integrated airlock and a suite of sophisticated diving equipment, which includes diving suits with a self-contained underwater breathing capability clearly recognizable in today’s SCUBA gear. Nemo credits the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze diving apparatus – a “demand-valve” system invented in France in 1864 – as the basis for his version, which uses back-packed tanks of highly-compressed air capable of sustaining underwater excursions ten hours long. For undersea illumination, spiral gas-discharge tubes – actually invented earlier in the century – are used as lanterns, with excitation by the high-voltage output of a portable version of the Bunsen-Ruhmkorff system described above.9 Outfitted in this way, Professor Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land join Nemo and his men for a series of vividly-depicted underwater expeditions, where they get to experience both the wonders and dangers of the deep.

Despite Nemo’s obsessive, vengeance-driven dark side, Verne credits him with unparalleled accomplishments as an underwater scientist and explorer. Among his many discoveries are the lost continent of Atlantis, a subterranean passage between the Red Sea and the Mediter-ranean (i.e., a subaqueous Suez Canal), countless new species of undersea life, and new findings in oceanography. He maps the ocean bottom, measures thermal profiles, and observes that in all the deeps of the world, the water temperature approaches the same limiting value of 4.5 degrees Centigrade. He skillfully conns Nautilus through the Strait of Gibraltar by taking advantage of the same deep-lying, outward-flowing current layer exploited by savvy submariners in two world wars decades later. In the wonderful world of Twenty Thousand Leagues, there is seemingly nothing that Captain Nemo cannot do.

 

The Undersea Legacy of Jules Verne

Accelerating progress in fielding undersea vehicles in the late 19th century – and rapid advances in both natural science and engineering technology – created the milieu within which Verne launched his “submarine novel.” For a non-specialist, Verne was unusually well-informed about recent progress in the science and technology of his times. Consequently, his reputation as a futurist rests not only on his imaginative predictions of things to come, but also on his uncanny skill in crafting convincing extrapolations of the technologies of his era to achieve those visions. Flying continental distances, journeying to the moon, penetrating to the center of the earth, exploring the depths of the ocean at will – all these had been thought of by other men. But it was Jules Verne who first popularized notional solutions to these challenges and created a sense of possibility that had been absent before.

So alive does Nemo become for us in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea that generations of readers have been tempted to credit him with creating Nautilus and stimulating our subsequent fascination with the undersea world. But it is really the broad erudition – and extraordinary imagination – of Jules Verne that illuminate these pages, much as Nemo’s Ruhmkorff lights illuminated the treasures of the deep. Verne died in 1905, just as the first generation of modern submarines reached fruition and less than a decade before they achieved their first lethal successes in undersea warfare. In foreseeing the possibilities inherent in the submarine 35 years before, he had been right about some things and wrong about others, but the likelihood of fulfilling all the essentials of his vision is now little doubted.

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Wilfried Ellmer

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