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When approaching the interior settings of the Disney NAUTILUS, "Making It Fit" is indeed a challenge. Tom Scherman and many others have tried but various placement problems exist and compromises must always be made. However, it's still a lot of fun to find the most workable design. Below are some thoughts to consider before attempting to arrange your own version of the NAUTILUS interior. I have included some wonderful photographs from my good friend Tom Scherman, who spent many hours "Making It Fit".
From an engineering standpoint, the Diving Chamber, and the Air Lock, would probably have been spherical, not flat bottomed. This would have allowed the movie set to fit in the narrowing lower areas of the submarine. And if this NAUTILUS were a real sub, this would have prevented the floor from 'oil canning' with the pressurization / de-pressurization process for letting divers in and out of the submarine. Otherwise, this would have led to catastrophic failure in a short time. It should also be noted that Disney’s NAUTILUS is approximately 18' wide but the movie sets were built to be 26' wide with the lengths proportional. This is just one of the challenges in "Making It Fit." The studio set plans are drawn to 1/24 scale, or one half inch to the foot. Tom Scherman wisely made his interior model to half inch scale. They would have fit in the 11' hero model just fine. The 11' SFX hero model is 1/16th scale. Below are 3 pictures of Tom Scherman's famous cutaway Nautilus which now resides at the Los Angeles Disney Imagineering offices. Tom spent many years trying to make all the movie sets fit within the confines of the NAUTILUS and this is his crowning achievement. Click on any thumbnail picture to enlarge it full size. |
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| At right is a very unique picture of the NAUTILUS with four decks. Tom created this one when he was living in Hollywood. Note in this rendering that the breather vents behind the wheelhouse are in the raised position. Click on the picture to enlarge it full size. |  |
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When one is "Making It Fit" the main idea is to be able to travel through the various compartments as you would in the movie. If we just arrange a compartment to take up dead space, it will often conflict with scenes shot in the movie and quickly spoil the credibility of our interior NAUTILUS plan.
We all know the spiral staircase leaves the Wheel House and descends to the Chart Room, and, from there, one travels to the Salon. The aft hatch is behind the Salon. All that has to fit. Another point to consider is that the Pump Room, or really the Engine Room, doesn't line up on centerline of the Propeller Shaft. The layout of the sub was set before filming began. In the beginning it was closely adhered to until the money was running short. Then there just wasn't time to move the camera to a different set and some of our interior design challenges were craved in stone right then and there. |
 | The picture on the left is a very early work done by Tom Scherman. He appears to be just starting to work out the placement of some of the more complex interior compartment issues. Notice the "N" for Nemo inside the NAUTILUS shell. This beautiful rendering was drawn by Tom on January 31, 1958. Click on the photo to enlarge it full size. |
| At right we see a cross section of an area known as Section 75. A very important set in the movie indeed, The Salon and Viewports. You can see the large pipes overhead and how the Salon descends down on each side to allow comfortable viewing of the Viewports. Click on the photo to enlarge it full size. |  |
