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Captain Nemo (; also known as Prince Dakkar) is a character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction books, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875). He also makes a brief appearance in a play written by Verne with the collaboration of Adolphe d'Ennery, Journey Through the Impossible (1882).
Nemo is a mysterious figure. Though of unknown nationality in the first book, he is described as the son of an Maharaja in the second book. A scientific visionary, he roams the depths of the seas in his submarine, the Nautilus, which was assembled from parts manufactured in several different countries, then shipped to a cover address. The captain is consumed by a hunger for vengeance and hatred of imperialism; Verne included references to anti-imperialist uprisings, including the Kościuszko Uprising and Indian Rebellion of 1857, in the various backstories of Nemo.
Nemo has appeared in various film adaptations of Verne's novels, where he has been portrayed by actors such as James Mason, Herbert Lom, Patrick Stewart, Naseeruddin Shah, Ben Cross, Omar Sharif and Michael Caine. He has also been appropriated by other authors for their own novels, including Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Philip José Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, Kevin J. Anderson's , Thomas F. Monteleone's The Secret Sea and Howard Rodman's The Great Eastern.
In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Captain Nemo is not described as an Indian yet; in fact, his nationality is unknown. This was a result of an argument between the author and the publisher on this subject. Verne's original intention was to make Nemo a Pole, a participant of the January Uprising against the occupation of Poland by the Russian Empire, and it was planned that Nemo would sink Russian warships. However the publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, strongly objected to this for fear of losing the lucrative Russian book market—the book would be banned by Russian censorship. In addition, Hetzel felt that the book would undermine French-Russian relations.
In The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo identifies himself as Prince Dakkar, son of the Hindu Maharaja of Bundelkhand, and a descendant of the Muslim Sultan Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore, famous for the Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767–1799) and Mysorean rockets technology. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which Dakkar lost both his family and his kingdom, the prince devoted himself to scientific research, ultimately building the Nautilus and cruising the seven seas with a crew of devoted followers.Jeff Rovin (1987). 081601356X, Facts on File. 081601356X They gather bullion from various shipwrecks in the ocean, most notably from the hulks of the Spanish treasure fleet sunk during the Battle of Vigo Bay.
Nemo claims to have no interest in terrestrial affairs but occasionally intervenes to aid people in distress, e.g., by giving salvaged treasure to participants in the Cretan Revolt (1866–1869) against the island's Ottoman Turks rulers; by saving (both physically and financially) a Sinhalese people or Tamil people pearl diver from a shark attack; by rescuing the castaways in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; and by covertly protecting another set of castaways in The Mysterious Island.
Like many actual Princely state of the era, Nemo received a Western education, during which, as he states, he spent his youth touring and studying throughout Europe. In his first meeting with Professor Aronnax and his companions, the three castaways speak to him in French, English, Latin, and German; Nemo later reveals that he is fluent in all of these tongues. Aronnax praises the captain's French, noting that he "expressed himself with perfect ease and without any accent." Relying on his intuition and knowledge of ethnology, the professor concludes that "there's southern blood" in him but can't determine the captain's exact origin. The Nautilus library, lounge, and art collections reveal that Nemo is intimately acquainted with European culture, and that he is an accomplished performer on the pipe organ.
Nemo dies of unspecified natural causes on board the Nautilus, docked permanently inside Dakkar Grotto on Lincoln Island in the Oceania. Cyrus Harding, leader of the castaways whom Nemo protected, performs the last rites, then submerges the Nautilus in the grotto's waters. Shortly after, the volcanic island is destroyed when magma reaches the seawater in the grotto, creating a massive steam explosion which blows the island and the Nautilus to pieces.
He avoids dry land, except for desert islands and uninhabited regions such as Antarctica. In keeping with his contempt for surface civilization, he uses few commodities that aren't marine in origin, be they food, clothing, or even tobacco. As for his political views, he reveals an intense hatred of oppression, which he associates with the world's imperialistic nations. He therefore identifies himself with the Earth's oppressed, whether Ceylonese pearl hunting, Cretans rising against the Ottoman Turks, or even right whales attacked by sperm whales. When Professor Aronnax suggests that Nemo violates maritime and international law by sinking warships, Nemo responds that he does so in self-defense when attacked. He insists that terrestrial laws no longer apply to him, exclaiming in one scene:
Nemo is devoted to his crew and grieves deeply when members are killed after a mysterious collision with a surface vessel or during a giant squid attack in the Caribbean Sea. He is equally compassionate in his treatment of the castaways in The Mysterious Island, also retaining a deep attachment to his deceased wife and children. Despite these tragic losses, he rarely expresses his anger. Moreover, he is a man of immense courage, taking the lead in every emergency, from fighting sharks and squids to releasing the Nautilus from Antarctic ice—an ordeal that entailed reduced oxygen stores and consecutive eight-hour shifts. Aronnax also credits him with discovering Atlantis.
An innovative engineer, Nemo both designed and manufactured the Nautilus, including her electric propulsion units and navigational systems. Utilizing them with extraordinary skill, he navigated some of the ocean's most difficult underwater passages, such as those beneath the Antarctic ice barrier, as well as a fictitious tunnel under the Suez.
He has an exhaustive knowledge of marine biology, and it is his respect for Professor Aronnax's preeminence in the field that led to his befriending the professor once the latter was cast aboard the Nautilus. Further, Nemo is a polyglot, able to read all the books in the Nautilus vast library, regardless of their language. He demonstrates his linguistic ability in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, when Arronax and two other character speak to him in French language, English language, German language, and Latin and he understands all four languages. Other than this he also knows Indian languages Hindi, Kannada, Tamil language, Telugu language, and Malayalam, furthermore Greek language among others. Nemo also invents a new language that he and his crew use to communicate with each other.
The captain has an exquisite taste in the fine arts, possessing many masterpieces of both painting and sculpture, from old masters to moderns. They are housed in the main lounge of the Nautilus along with Nemo's collection of , , seashells, and other marine items, all gathered with his own hands. "No museum in Europe," Aronnax tells the captain, "has such a collection of exhibits." Yet, despite the opulence visible throughout the Nautilus, Nemo's stateroom was furnished with little more than a bed, a worktable, and the navigational instruments essential to the Nautilus. Even so, Captain Nemo claims to be extremely wealthy, boasting that "without the slightest trouble I could pay off the two-billion-dollar French national debt!"
Nemo later tells Aronnax that he will enclose his scientific findings and autobiography in a small unsinkable container: "The last one of us left on the Nautilus will throw that container into the sea, and it will drift wherever the waves take it."
Subsequently, a rather different container does wash ashore in The Mysterious Island, bearing tools, firearms, navigational instruments, an atlas, books, blank paper, and even clothing. They are found in a crate lashed to empty barrels, its contents sealed in a waterproof zinc envelope and showing careful preparation, and packing. Throughout the same book, Nemo repeatedly acts in this providential way, as when the sailor Pencroff pines for tobacco, then the young naturalist Harbert identifies some of the island's plant life.
It is true that the first French hardcover issue of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (an octavo edition published in 1871 by Pierre-Jules Hetzel) contains minor errors that may have been perpetrated by its printers or even by Hetzel himself—who, at times, seems to have made edits without querying Verne. However the chronological discrepancies between this book and The Mysterious Island appear to have been present since its publication. They may have arisen from Hetzel's insistence that Verne drastically revise his original concept for the latter novel, in which, some scholars speculate, he had not initially planned to include Captain Nemo at all.
Nemo is the official file manager for the Cinnamon desktop environment; the name plays off of the Nautilus file manager from which it was forked.
The Michael Schenker Group instrumental song "Captain Nemo" was released on their 1983 album Built To Destroy.
A Polish singer – Bogdan Gajkowski – popular especially during the 1980s, started recording under the stage name "Kapitan Nemo".
In 1990, the group Dive released their debut single "Captain Nemo", based on Verne's character. This song was covered by Sarah Brightman on her 1993 album Dive.
In 1998, Swedish group, Ace of Base released their 3rd album, Flowers, with a song named Captain Nemo. The song refers to captain Nemo as one who prefers to avoid human contact, and watch the world from the bottom of the sea.
The Japanese Otome game visual novel features a scientist named Nemo. Nemo creates an airship named the Nautilus within the game. He considers the engineer Impey Barbicane, a reference to another Jules Verne novel, his ultimate scientific rival.
The Japanese mobile game Fate/Grand Order features a rider class servant named Captain Nemo. Nemo commands a magical submarine Nautilus through the Void Space.
Kevin J. Anderson wrote (2002), a fictional life of Captain Nemo.
In the 2006 graphic novel Captain Nemo by Jason DeAngelis (Seven Seas, ), set in an alternate timeline where Napoleon was never defeated at Waterloo but went on to found a dynasty whose descendants have conquered most of the world, Captain Nemo was, according to the French authorities, "slain and his accursed Nautilus sunk" in 1873, and twenty years later his son (who bears the same name as his father) leads his crew aboard the Nautilus II against the forces of Napoleon IV using the same tactics as his father, who is buried in a coral tomb, along with members of his crew, on the sunken island of Lemuria.
Daughter of the Deep, a 2021 novel by Rick Riordan, features two descendants of Captain Nemo as the protagonist and antagonist.
The animated series Space Strikers (known in French as 20,000 Lieues dans l'espace; translation: "20,000 Leagues in Space") stars a descendant of the original Captain Nemo, leading the crew of the spaceship Nautilus in a crusade to liberate Earth and other planets from the evil forces of Master Phantom.
In the novel ... no one of Alberto Cavanna (original title ... nessuno, Mursia, Italy, 2020), Nemo is John Digby, an admiral of the Royal Navy, appointed captain of the Nautilus by the dying builder.
Captain Nemo appears as the protagonist of the story Invitación al viaje (2023) by Óscar Esquivias.
Captain Nemo appears in two gamebooks, Nemo's Fury, and Nemo's 2: Octo War, by Chris Hunneysett.
The 2024 ten-part adventure drama television series Nautilus focuses on Nemo and the backstory of the eponymous submarine. A reimagining of the original Verne novel, the series presents an origin for Nemo as a prince-turned-crusading scientist.
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