JULES VERNE HYDROGEN CHALLENGES

Jules Verne was a practical sailor, giving him real insight into travel in his day. Like Herman Melville and Moby Dick, he drew inspiration for his science fiction e

The stories written by Jules Verne have inspired many people to create events, reflecting his written works of fiction, when such tales bear a striking resemblance to what is possible today, but was not possible in his day.

Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828–March 24, 1905) was a very popular French author, the founding father of science fiction with H.G. Wells (Herbert George). Verne's stories, written for adolescents as well as adults. His stories caught the enterprising spirit of the 19th century, its uncritical fascination about scientific progress and inventions. His works were often written in the form of a travel book, which took the readers on a voyage to the moon in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) or to another direction as in A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Many of Verne's ideas have been hailed as prophetic. Among his best-known books is the classic adventure story Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Verne was a pioneer of the science-fiction genre, noted for writing about cosmic, atmospheric, and underwater travel long before air travel and submarines were commonplace and before practical means of space travel had even been devised.

In 1854 Charles Baudelaire translated Edgar Allan Poe's works into French. Verne became one of the most devoted admirers of the American author, and wrote his first science fiction tale, 'An voyage in Balloon' (1851), under the influence of Poe. Later Verne would write a sequel to Poe's unfinished novel, Narrative of a Gordon Pym, entitled The Sphinz of the Ice-Fileds (1897). When his career as an author progressed slowly, Verne turned to stockbroking, an occupation which he held until his successful tale Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) in the series VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRES. Verne had met in 1862 Pierre Jules Hetzel, a publisher and writer for children, who started to publish Verne's 'Extraordinary Journeys'. This cooperation lasted until the end of Verne's career. Hetzel had also worked with Balzac and George Sand. He read Verne's manuscripts carefully and did not hesitate to suggest corrections. One of Verne's early works, Paris in the Twentieth Century, was turned down by the publisher, and it did not appear until 1997 in English.

For over 40 years Verne published at least one book per year on a wide range subjects. Although Verne wrote about exotic places, he traveled relatively little - his only balloon flight lasted twenty-four minutes. In a letter to Hetzel he confessed: "I must be slightly off my head. I get caught up in all the extraordinary adventures of my heroes. I regret only one thing, not being able to accompany them pedibus cum jambis." Verne's oeuvre include 65 novels, some twenty short stories and essays, thirty plays, some geographical works, and also opera librettos. Verne died in Amiens on March 24, 1905. Verne's works have inspired a number of film makers from Georges Méliès (A Trip to the Moon, 1902), Karel Zeman (Vynález zkázy / The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, 1958), and Walt Disney (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954) to such Hollywood directors as Henry Levin (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959) and Irwin Allen (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1962). Also the Italian painter Giorgio de Chiroco was interested in Verne and wrote on him in the essay 'On Metaphysical Art': "But who was more gifted than he in capturing the metaphysical element of a city like London, with its houses, streets, clubs, squares and open spaces; the ghostliness of a Sunday afternoon in London, the melancholy of a man, a real walking phantom, as Phineas Fogg appears in Around the World in Eighty Days? The work of Jules Verne is full of these joyous and most consoling moments; I still remember the description of the departure of a steamship from Liverpool in his novel The Floating City."

Captain Nemo's submarine, Nautilus, in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a brilliant film starring Kirk Douglas.

Jules Verne was born and raised in the port of Nantes. His father was a prosperous lawyer. To continue the practice, Verne moved to Paris, where he studied law. His uncle introduced him into literary circles and he started to published plays under the influence of such writers as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas (fils), whom Verne also knew personally. Verne's one-act comedy The Broken Straws was performed in Paris when he was 22. In spite of busy writing, Verne managed to pass his law degree. During this period Verne suffered from digestive problems which then recurred at intervals through his life.

PLANETSOLAR - This was the first boat to circumnavigate the globe using electric propulsion motors and solar panels to power them. The achievement was funded by industry and private enterprise. Government funding does not extend to such challenges. You should see the form filling and details demanded. It's more than enough to dissuade even the hardiest scribe. The red tape is enough to make you expire from boredom. You are better off building a project based on partnerships, than waste time on applications designed only for wealthy corporations, looking for accounting advantage.

ENERGY OBSERVER - This was the first boat to include hydrogen as part of a hybrid energy storage package. The French team is working with Air Liquide and Toyota, to promote zero emission waterborne transport; ZEWT. The 'Observer' is not a fast boat, in fact slower than when she was a yacht for racing, but the technology developed by the team forms the building blocks for further research.

In 1874, Jules Verne set out a prescient vision that has inspired governments and entrepreneurs in the 147 years since. In his book The Mysterious Island, Verne wrote of a world where: "water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable."

LEG	NAUTICAL MILES	BUNKERING	WAYPOINT	SUNSHINE DAYS
-	-	-	-	-
START	-	-	-	-
-	-	FILL UP	Gibraltar	00.00
1	729	-	Tenerife, Canary Islands	1.90
2	3,154	-	Trinidad, Port of Spain	8.21
3	1,182	1	Panama City	3.00
4	970	-	Galapagos	2.45
5	3,640	-	Tahiti	9.48
6	1,423	-	Tonga, Nukualofa	3.71
7	410	-	Fiji, Suva	1.07
8	1,886	1	Port Moresby PNG	4.91
9	340	-	Thursday Island, Cape York	0.88
10	724	-	Darwin	1.89
11	1,572	-	Jakarta, Indonesia	4.09
12	1,881	-	Colombo, Sri Lanka	4.90
13	2,109	1	Aden, Yemen	5.49
14	698	-	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	1.82
15	670	-	Port Said, Egypt	1.75
16	1,111	-	Palermo, Sicily	2.89
17	170	-	Naples, Italy	0.44
18	940	FINISH	Gibraltar	3.01
-	-	-	-	-
-	23,609	-	RUNTIME DAYS @ 12.5kts	78.70
-	-	(ADD 3 DAYS)	RUNTIME DAYS @ 13kts	75.67
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	(ADD 4 DAYS)	14 KNOTS AVE INC	70.26
-	-	-	AT 15 KNOTS AVE	65.58
-	-	-	AT 16 KNOTS AVE	61.48

IT IS POSSIBLE - The father of science fiction was right. But if we are to begin such an extraordinary journey on time, we need to move on the project immediately. We have begun the process with the above (draft) schedule. We have also undertaken preliminary calculations, that bear out the hypothesis. Please help us to make this happen if you are in a position to do so.