What inspired Edgar Allan Poe's submarine?

Question

There is a February 1845 story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, in which he recites a long litany of natural wonders, which are explained in his footnotes to the text, with most being recognizable as fact to this day. I read this tale at the Edgar Allan Poe Society website.

Curiously, the tale includes a section reasonably familiar to readers of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, which was published 24 years later. Though Poe's description is whimsical and mysterious, it closely parallels how Verne introduced the Nautilus, and the diving suits used. And the remainder of Poe's story describes technological inventions in similarly obfuscated terms. To quote Poe:

“ ‘As the thing drew near we saw it very distinctly. Its length was equal to that of three of the loftiest trees that grow, and it was as wide as the great hall of audience in your palace, O most sublime and munificent of the caliphs. Its body, which was unlike that of ordinary fishes, was as solid as a rock, and of a jetty blackness throughout all that portion of it which floated above the water, with the exception of a narrow blood-red streak that completely begirdled it. The belly, which floated beneath the surface, and of which we could get only a glimpse now and then as the monster rose and fell with the billows, was entirely covered with metallic scales, of a color like that of the moon in misty weather. The back was flat and nearly white, and from it there extended upwards of six spines, about half the length of the whole body.

“ ‘This horrible creature had no mouth that we could perceive; but, as if to make up for this deficiency, it was provided with at least four score of eyes, that protruded from their sockets like those of the green dragon-fly, and were arranged all around the body in two rows, one above the other, and parallel to the blood-red streak, which seemed to answer the purpose of an eyebrow. Two or three of these dreadful eyes were much larger than the others, and had the appearance of solid gold.

“ ‘Although this beast approached us, as I have before said, with the greatest rapidity, it must have been moved altogether by necromancy — for it had neither fins like a fish nor web-feet like a duck, nor wings like the sea-shell which is blown along in the manner of a vessel;(8) nor yet did it writhe itself forward as do the eels. Its head and its tail were shaped precisely alike, only, not far from the latter, were two small holes that served for nostrils, and through which the monster puffed out its thick breath with prodigious violence, and with a shrieking, disagreeable noise.

“ ‘Our terror at beholding this hideous thing was very great; but it was even surpassed by our astonishment, when, upon getting a nearer look, we perceived upon the creature's back a vast number of animals about the size and shape of men, and altogether much resembling them, except that they wore no garments (as men do,) being supplied (by nature, no doubt,) with an ugly, uncomfortable covering, a good deal like cloth, but fitting so tight to the skin, as to render the poor wretches laughably awkward, and put them apparently to severe pain. On the very tips of their heads were certain square-looking boxes, which, at first sight, I thought might have been intended to answer as turbans, but I soon discovered that they were excessively heavy and solid, and I therefore concluded they were contrivances designed, by their great weight, to keep the heads of the animals steady and safe upon their shoulders. Around the necks of the creatures were fastened black collars, (badges of servitude, no doubt,) such as we keep on our dogs, only much wider and infinitely stiffer — so that it was quite impossible for these poor victims to move their heads in any direction without moving the body at the same time; and thus they were doomed to perpetual contemplation of their noses — a view puggish and snubby in a wonderful if not positively in an awful degree.

Within this context, I feel like readers of the story were expected to recognize a submarine, even though so far as I know these devices postdated even Verne's writing. But unlike his other devices, there is no explanatory note for this one. What inspiration or factual point of reference would there have been for the author or the readers of this story?

Answer 1

In my humble opinion I believe that the "creature" is supposed to be a surface ship and not a submarine.

It would appear to be a steamship. the metallic scales on its bottom would be copper plates to prevent corrosion. The spines would be masts without sails.

The rows of "eyes" would be rows of gun ports and the cannons inside them. The few especially large and gold colored "eyes" would probably be large "bow chaser" cannons made of shining polished bronze. A ship with two rows of cannons would would be a warship, and at at that time they were all made of wood. Thus it would need copper plates on the bottom to prevent wood worms and prevent plants from growing on the bottom.

Many merchant ships also carried cannons for defense, and many more disguised themselves by painting a broad horizontal stripe of a contrasting color along the side, like warships did. The stripes would be interrupted by gunports, real or fake.

If you look at photos of sailing ships abandoned in San Francisco harbor during the gold Rush you will see that most of them had those stripes like warships, despite being civilian ships.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ships-abandoned-in-Yerba-Buena-Cove-San-Francisco-during-the-California-gold-rush.-1849.jpg

The "upwards of six spines" which I take to be bare masts, are too many. At that time wooden steam warships were mostly designed like wooden sailing warships with a bowsprit and three masts.

Thus it is possible that Poe was thinking of one specific ship in his description, the one which was the model for all modern ships, the SS Great Britain, which entered service in 1845.

I wonder if "upwards of six spines" was actually an error for "six spines pointing upwards". Actually, the SS Great Britain originally had a bowsprit, six masts, and a smokestack.

The hull and single funnel amidships were both finished in black paint, with a single white stripe running the length of the hull highlighting a row of false gunports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain#General_description

Because the SS Great Britain was much longer than any other ship of that era, the spines or masts were

about half the length of the whole body.

While most 19th century sailing ships had masts about as tall as the ships were long.

Thus I guess the "sea creature" was partially a generic ship of the era and partially inspired by the SS Great Britain in particular. It arrived at New York City, where Poe was living, for the first time on August 9, 1845, so Poe would have been influenced by illustrations and descriptions of the long building wonder for his description in the story.

This passage:

..we perceived upon the creature's back a vast number of animals about the size and shape of men, and altogether much resembling them, except that they wore no garments (as men do,) being supplied (by nature, no doubt,) with an ugly, uncomfortable covering, a good deal like cloth, but fitting so tight to the skin, as to render the poor wretches laughably awkward, and put them apparently to severe pain. On the very tips of their heads were certain square-looking boxes, which, at first sight, I thought might have been intended to answer as turbans, but I soon discovered that they were excessively heavy and solid, and I therefore concluded they were contrivances designed, by their great weight, to keep the heads of the animals steady and safe upon their shoulders. Around the necks of the creatures were fastened black collars, (badges of servitude, no doubt,) such as we keep on our dogs, only much wider and infinitely stiffer — so that it was quite impossible for these poor victims to move their heads in any direction without moving the body at the same time; and thus they were doomed to perpetual contemplation of their noses — a view puggish and snubby in a wonderful if not positively in an awful degree.

Is Poe's satire of current male fashions, just as the story ends with his satire of current female fashions.