Le capitaine Nemo (du latin nemo qui peut se traduire par « personne ») est un personnage de fiction créé par Jules Verne dans le roman Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers. Il en est le personnage principal en tant que commandant du sous-marin Nautilus. Il est aussi l'un des personnages secondaires de L'Île mystérieuse et réapparaît sous les traits de Maître Volsius dans la pièce Voyage à travers l'Impossible.

Biographie

Nothing concerning his past is revealed in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, except his dislike of imperialism (and of British imperial society more generally) and the apparent loss of his family in the past.

In The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo identifies himself as Prince Dakkar, son of the Hindu Raja of Bundelkund, and also a descendant of the Muslim Sultan Fateh Ali Tipu of the Kingdom of Mysore, famous for the Anglo-Mysore Wars. After the First Indian War of Independence of 1857, in which Dakkar lost his family and his kingdom, he devoted himself to scientific research and developed the Nautilus, wherein he and a crew of followers cruise the seas. They gather bullion from various shipwrecks in the oceans, most notably the wrecks of the Spanish treasure fleet in Bay of Vigo, sunk during the Battle of Vigo Bay. He claims to have no interest in the affairs of the world above, but occasionally he intervenes to aid the oppressed, such as by giving salvaged treasure to participants in the Cretan Revolt (1866-1869) against the island's Turkish rulers and by saving (both physically and financially) a Ceylonese or Tamil pearl hunter from a diving accident, or by saving the castaways from drowning in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and covertly protecting another set of castaways in The Mysterious Island.

Like many actual Indian princes of the era, Nemo had a European or English education, in which (he states) he spent his youth studying and touring Europe. In his first meeting with Professor Aronnax and his companions, they speak to him in French, English, Latin and German; Nemo later reveals that he is fluent in all of these. Aronnax comments that Nemo's French was perfect, and relies on his intuition and knowledge of ethnology to infer that he was from southern latitudes; but is unable to determine his origin. The Nautilus's library and art collection reveal Nemo to be familiar with European culture and arts. Further, he was an accomplished player of the organ.

Nemo is said to have died of old age, on board the Nautilus, at Dakkar Grotto on Lincoln Island in the South Pacific. Funeral rites were administered by Cyrus Smith, one of the castaways protected by Nemo himself, and his vessel was then submerged in the waters of the grotto.

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