WHEN Jules Verne wrote his great imaginative classic, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” in which men walked and worked on the bottom of the ocean within a few feet of the submarine they had just left through a trap door, he little thought that within a few years his dream would be translated into iron and steel by a practical submarine engineer - Simon Lake.
He had built submarines for governments for their destructive purposes; however, his life ambition was to build and operate submarines and undersea craft with special apparatus for commercial purposes, as - recovering sunken cargoes and treasures, mining and oil drilling, undersea construction, and harvesting the natural products of the sea, as fish, oysters, clams, pearls and sponges. With all his imaginative genius with all the romance of mermaids, the lure of golden treasures and the hidden city of Atlantis, Simon Lake adored all that the sea could provide - so much mystery, adventure, exploration and wealth. Was Captain Simon Lake the real Captain Nemo ?