In the novel On Two Planets, published in 1897 by the German mathematics teacher Kurt Lasswitz (1848–1910), a group of Arctic explorers are abducted to Mars by aliens from the red planet; the expedition finds the planet’s surface criss-crossed by innumerable canals and the Martians a nautical race who then send a fleet of battleships to England to defeat the Royal Navy, a piece of wishful thinking that demonstrated the navalist ambitions of some Germans even before a German navy had been built.
