U.S. and Worldwide Stamps
July 20-21, 2010
| Images | Description | Current Bid |
 | Lot #517 GREAT BRITAIN 1857 (July 2) cover from "The Nautilus Submarine Company" (backflap embossing) to New York, also same company's letterhead dated September 4th, plus a FL from Liverpool to the company at its London address. In addition, there is another letter from Liverpool to the builder of Nautilus offering congratulations for the successful trials of his submarine in London (1857). "The Nautilus" was designed between 1793 and 1797 by the American inventor Robert Fulton, then living in the French First Republic. He proposed to the Directory that they subsidize its construction as a means to balance British sea power, but he was turned down. His second proposal to them was that he be paid nothing until the Nautilus had sunk British shipping, and then only a small percentage of the prize money. Again, the design was rejected. Fulton directed his next proposal to the Minister of Marine, who finally granted him permission to build. While it is believed that Jules Verne based his Nautilus on Fulton's invention, it is possible  | Unsold |
