| Number |
DescriptionXXXXXXXXX |
Purpose |
| 1 |
Starboard Window |
Two large windows allows the helmsman to navigate the murky depths of the silent world known only to the Nautilus. |
| 2 |
Helm Transfer Sprocket |
The ship's wheel is mounted to the Helm Pedestal and terminates at the rear of the housing at the Transfer Sprocket. A chain runs over the sprocket and descends thorough the wheelhouse floor. |
| 3 |
Compass |
Marine compass for directional navigation. The compass is mounted on a gimbaled housing to keep it level and thereby maintain accuracy. |
| 4 |
Unknown gauge |
This gauge can be clearly seen in several screen captures listed at the end of this table. It consists of two vertical strips and its intended use is unknown. Anybody have an idea? |
| 5 |
Trim Indicator |
Forward trim indicator is comprised of a hanging pointer on a pivot, that travels along a fixed curved scale. This in turn indicates the degrees of hull roll (trim). A very simple device. A second trim indicator is located on the cabin wall. |
| 6 |
Speaking Tube |
Standard marine communication horn which is piped into the engine room. In one scene, a crewman is asked to adjust a secondary power control in the engine room. |
| 7 |
Ballast Lever |
Overhead lever allows ballast to be discharged from holding tanks. This beam type arrangement is mounted at the center of the beam and opposite of the hand lever, is a rod that actuated the control. |
| 8 |
Cutting Teeth Mount |
Wheelhouse mounting bracket for the cutting teeth assembly. Also known as the 8th Raker. This protects the wheelhouse when ramming vessels. |
| 9 |
Ballast Control Valve |
Valve control wheel to trim ballast. Ned gives this one a turn just before the Nautilus sinks at the end of the movie. You can see this one in several screen captures below. |
| 10 |
Gauge Cluster |
A triangular pod of 3 separate gauges with unknown uses. Each gauge has a copper pipe attached which descends downward and then to the right. The coils in the gauge lines are for vibration absorption
and to allow for expansion and contraction due to temperature changes. |
| 11 |
Alligator Eye |
Two large lights are mounted at the top of the wheelhouse cabin. They provide illumination for navigation and inspection when surfaced. This feature also supports the main theme that Harper Goff intended, which is the illusion that the Nautilus is a cross between a Shark and an Alligator. |
| 12 |
Depth Indicator Ball |
This orange ball indicates the depth of the Nautilus. It travels up and down within a hollow tube suspended by a wire cable. The cable runs down through the deck and into the Map Room. Before entering the Map Room it makes a 90 degree bend around a pulley wheel above Nemo's cabin's door. |
| 13 |
Oil Cans |
Used for lubrication maintenance of the various levers and wheels within the wheelhouse. |
|
| 14 |
Atomic Counter |
Lever rocks back and forth when engines are on. As power is increased, the lever rocks faster. Lights on the Atomic Counter flash to indicate they have reached the maximum travel by hitting one of two Damper Assemblies. |
| 15 |
Damper Assemblies |
Cone shaped assemblies soften impact of the Atomic Counter's arm as it travels back and forth. When the arm impacts the damper, it sends a conformation pulse to one of two indicator lights on the face of the Atomic Counter. Harper Goff referred to these as the ice cream cones. |
| 16 |
Eye Superstructure |
Large bat winged structures which house the Alligator Eyes. |
| 17 |
Trim Indictor Mount |
Central Trim Indicator mounting bracket which is attached directly to one of the cabin wall gussets. This is the main bearing the allows the entire assembly to pivot with the help of gravity. |
| 18 |
Trim Indicator |
Each arrow points to a curved bar with etched numbers in degrees. This indicates the angle of assent or descent. There are 2 curved bars and two sets of pointers. Each curved bar is mounted with two struts. The aft curve bar has the lower mount attached to the large water pipe. All others mount to the cabin wall. |
| 19 |
Outside Grab Handle |
Used by crew members to ascend from the deck to the top of the wheelhouse and perform maintenance on the Alligator Eye Lamps or work on the Camera Obscura Hatch. |
| 20 |
Checklist Holder |
Holds five quick reference checklists on a articulated arm that can be manually positioned. (one on each side). These can be seen in several of the DVD screen captures below. |
| 21 |
Camera Obscura Hatch |
When opened, a pole containing the Camera Obscura mounted on top, is raised for navigation purposes. This was not actually used in the film. The hatch is way too small to allow egress by a crewman. |
| 22 |
Camera Obscura |
A real world device that uses a mirror or prism to project an image. Harper envisioned it to be used as a navigation aid. When surfaced, the Nautilus would use it to project the surrounding surface landmarks down on to the large map table below. It was never used in the movie. It is referenced on the detail plans but it is tucked into a compartment to the aft of the hatch which really doesn't work with the final wheelhouse cabin shape. This is a conceptual drawing only. |
| 23 |
Camera Obscura Pole |
Assuming that Harper designed the hatch to raise the Camera Obscura device, the logical way to do this is on a telescoping pole. If we had actually seen this in the film, Harper's imagination may have come up with something much more fanciful than this simple pole. |
| 24 |
Gussets |
The interior wheelhouse is reinforced with fancy gusset brackets throughout the cabin. There are approximately 9 of them on each side. We see two basic designs. Those that were intended to support pipes as well as the cabin ceiling and those without pipe passages. The plan sheets found elsewhere on this web site clearly documents these. |
| 25 |
Map Rollers |
This device is mounted near the ceiling at the aft end of the wheelhouse. It allows a large map to be rolled down and then secured for viewing. The helmsman can look aft from his forward position and navigate from the map. I never noticed this watching the film but check out the excellent DVD screen grab below which shows it in use. It was included in scenes so that a rear projection sequence would not have to be added to the aft window. |
| 26 |
Aft Window |
Allows observation of air intake vents and when surfaced, the supervision of movement of the crew when on deck. |
| 27 |
Procedure List |
A framed document attached to the cabin wall. Intended use unknown but may be a procedure checklist for raising the Camera Obscura mechanism or some other complicated sequence. |
| 28 |
Map Table |
Large map table to make measurements inside the wheelhouse instead of descending down into the map room. Also for Camera Obscura Projections when the surrounding landscape is projected downward on to the table to be used as an overlay on navigation maps. The actual film set map table differed from the original detail plan sheets. The original table plans can be seen elsewhere on this web site. |
| 29 |
Camera Obscura Mount |
Special socket recessed into the map table to be used for securing the Camera Obscura Pole. It was never used in the movie. The design I drew is merely my conceptual drawing. |
| 30 |
Small Map Drawer |
A pair of these are located at the very top of the Map Table housing. The are too small to house an actual map and most likely contain some mapping hardware such as dividers, rulers and so on. |
| 31 |
Medium Map Drawers |
Three side by side drawers stores medium sized map documents. |
| 32 |
Large Map Drawers |
Two large drawers hold the largest of the navigation maps. |
| 33 |
Descending Small Pipe |
We can only speculate what use Harper would of thought up for the purpose of this small pipe. |
| 34 |
Emergency Repair Tools |
One of five tools mounted on vertical brackets. Many of these can be seen on the clear DVD screen captures at the bottom of this page. Two hammers, two forked claws and pryers make up the tools that hang down on special mounts. Emergency repairs may be needed at any time and these tools could mean the difference between life and death. |
| 35 |
Trim Pendulum Weight |
The large round weight enables the Trim Indicator to smoothly swing when the Nautilus is ascending or descending. |
| 36 |
Haligan Spar Tool |
One of two horizontally mounted emergency tools. This is one of the easiest to see when watching the movie. |
| 37 |
Spiral Staircase Railing |
This is an exact copy of the original detail plan sheets which Freddie Stoos drew for the set designs. However, the actual set was built with the top railing level around the entire staircase. So as to not hide other details behind the top rail, I retained the original design instead of updating it to the movie's set design. Be advised that this is the one detail on this scaled drawing that is not accurate to the final movie set. |
| 38 |
Large Water Pipe |
Rising from the wheelhouse floor, we see this large pipe curve aft and run the distance of the small cabin. But what is this? It exits out the side! This is a blooper because we never see an exhaust vent on the outside of the many scenes of the exterior of the Nautilus wheelhouse. The original detail plan showed this large pipe descending down to the floor at the aft end. It also had a large valve like fitting as well. Another variation from the plans to the final build of the movie set. |
| 39 |
Atomic Counter Cables |
Two large cables snake from the Atomic Counter itself to the nearby Propulsion Switch. |
| 40 |
Stairwell |
A spiral staircase leads down to the Map Room. The only point of entry and exit from the wheelhouse for crew members of the Nautilus. |
| 41 |
Propulsion Switch |
Forward and reverse settings to change engine prop rotation and send the Nautilus in the desired direction. Throwing this lever toggles settings inside the nearby Atomic Counter. |
| 42 |
Depth Tube Turnbuckle |
An interesting detail on the Depth Tube. A pair of these (top and bottom) secures the clear tube itself. In addition, supporting metal straps (not pictured) rise up the sides to support the tube as well. The detail plan sheets show this feature up close and can be found on the Detail Plans web page elsewhere on this site. |
| 43 |
Depth Tube Glass |
A protective housing to guard the traveling depth indicator ball which rises and falls on a metal guide wire. For years I assumed that the tube was filled with water and floated the ball to indicate depth. Watching the film more closely reveals that this is not the case and the tube is empty. |
| 44 |
Water Valve |
The use of this valve is unknown as no scenes featured the use of this device. |
| 45 |
Guard Railing |
This rail prevents the crew members from falling off the upper deck where the helmsman are stationed. |
| 46 |
Helm Pedestal |
Large ornate base serves as the main housing for the ship's wheel and gimbaled compass. When the movie sets where on display in Disneyland (Anaheim), the ships wheel was replaced with another one as the one used for filming was rented. |
| 47 |
Upper Helm Deck |
The wheelhouse is configured on two separate levels. The helm area is raised up an additional 15 inches from the main deck. |
| 48 |
Helm Transfer Chain |
When the ship's wheel is turned, the movement is transferred to rudder control cables via this chain which descends through the wheelhouse floor. |
