Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea - The Submarine Seaview

The Submarine Seaview

The film's submarine design is unique in that it features an eight-window bow viewport that provides panoramic undersea views. In the novel of the film by Theodore Sturgeon, the windows are described as "... oversized hull plates which happen to be transparent." They are made of "X-tempered herculite", a process developed by Nelson. In the film, Seaview's bow has eight windows in the exterior shots, but only four windows appear to be seen in the interior shots of the Observation Room (the four upper windows were implied to be out of frame, at the top of the observation room). The bow also has a shark-like bottom flare, and the stern has 1961 Cadillac tail-fins, the "Cadillac" of submarines. In the film, the USOS Seaview (United States Oceanographic Survey) is under the authority of Nelson and the Bureau of Marine Exploration rather that the U.S. Navy. The novel mentions the bureau as being part of the U.S. Department of Science.