WORLD
SUBMARINE HISTORY TIMELINE
1580-2000
Prepared
for NOVA by Captain Brayton Harris, USN (Retired)
Author, The
Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History
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1623 1634 1653 1680 1696 1729 1773 1776 1800
1812 1850 1852
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1580
"It is possible to make a Ship or Boate that may goe under the water unto
the bottome, and so to come up again at your pleasure. [If] Any magnitude of body
that is in the water . . . having alwaies but one weight, may be made bigger or
lesser, then it Shall swimme when you would, and sinke when you list . . . ."
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However, Bourne wrote of expanding and contracting structures, not flooding chambers – and submarines built in England in 1729 and France in 1863 conformed with his idea exactly. | |
| 1623
Dutchman CORNELIUS DREBBEL, hired in 1603 as "court inventor" for James I of England, built what seems to have been the first working submarine. According to accounts, some of which may have been written by people who actually saw the submarine, it was a decked-over rowboat, propelled by twelve oarsmen, which made a submerged journey down the Thames River at a depth of about fifteen feet. There are no credible illustrations of Drebbel's boat, and no credible explanations of how it worked. Best guess: the boat was designed to have almost-neutral buoyancy, floating just awash, with a downward-sloping foredeck to act as a sort of diving plane. The boat would be driven under the surface by forward momentum . . . just as are most modern submarines. When the rowers stopped rowing, the boat would slowly rise. Reports that Drebbel's patron, James I, witnessed a demonstration, may be true. Reports that James I took an underwater ride are most unlikely. | ||
| 1634
French priest MARIN MERSENNE theorized that a submarine should be made of copper, cylindrical in shape to better withstand pressure and with pointed ends both for streamlining and to permit reversing course without having to turn around. Pressure? For every foot of depth, water pressure increases about half a pound per square inch (PSI). | ||
| 1653
The 72-foot-long "Rotterdam Boat," designed by a Frenchman (named DE SON) was probably the first underwater vessel specifically built (by the Belgians) to attack an enemy (the English Navy). This almost submarine – a semi-submerged ram – was supposed to sneak up unobserved and punch a hole in an enemy ship. The designer boasted that it could cross the English Channel and back in a day, and sink a hundred ships along the way. | ||
 The "Rotterdam Boat." Propulsion: a spring-driven clock-work device to turn a central paddle wheel. The device was so underpowered that, when the boat was launched, it went – literally – nowhere. | ||
| 1680
There is no evidence that Italian GIOVANNI BORELLI ever built a submarine, but this illustration continues to appear in books and magazines – in several variations – as if were a real boat, sometimes erroneously linked with Drebbel's or Symons's (below) efforts. Borelli did understand the basic principle of volume vs weight (displacement), but he illustrated a totally impractical ballast system by which weight would be increased or diminished by allowing a bank of goat-skin bags to fill with water, then by squeezing the water out to rise again. | ||
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1696
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Papin tested his first boat, but his patron lost interest and the second boat was never finished. Illustrations of this submarine look like a steam kettle. Papin was also the inventor of the pressure cooker. An engraver might have confused the two, or this may have been a joke – or Papin's attempt at secrecy. | |
| 1729
English house-carpenter NATHANIEL SYMONS created a one-man expanding/contracting sinking boat – no locomotion – as a sort of public entertainment. Sealed up inside, in front of a crowd of spectators, he cranked the two parts of his telescopic hull together, spent forty-five minutes underwater, then expanded the hull, rose to the surface, and passed the hat. One man gave him a coin. | ||
| 1773
Wagon-maker J. DAY, another Englishman, built a small submarine with detachable ballast stones, hung around the outside with ring bolts, which could be released from inside. This worked quite well in shallow water. Encouraged by a professional gambler, he built a bigger boat: they would take bets on how long he could remain underwater, further out in the deep-water harbor. Surrounded by ships filled with bettors, they hung some stones; the boat wallowed awash, but would not go under. They hung some more stones. The boat sank – like a rock – and would have collapsed long before the ballast could be released. | ||
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1776
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 "Turtle," as drawn in 1875 from the best information the artist could gather. There are several important errors. It shows ballast tanks when there were none; it shows an Archimedes screw (helical) for locomotion instead of the propeller like the "arms of a wind mill" or a "pair of oars"described by Bushnell and others. It also shows -- but this we may forgive -- the operator wearing a rather foppish late 19th-century outfit. | ||
| 1797
ROBERT FULTON, a marginal American artist but increasingly successful inventor living in Paris, offered to build a submarine to be used against France's British enemy: "a Mechanical Nautlius. A Machine which flatters me with much hope of being Able to Annihilate their Navy." He would build and operate the machine at his own expense, and would expect payment for each British ship destroyed. He predicted that, "Should some vessels of war be destroyed by means so novel, so hidden and so incalculable the confidence of the seamen will vanish and the fleet rendered useless from the moment of the first terror." | ||
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1800 | ||
 This most commonly-reproduced "Nautilus" was drawn two years before the submarine was built; Fulton added a deck and made a number of un-documented changes in the finished product. Illustrations which show "Nautilus" with the hull-form and sail rig of a surface sailboat represent the never-buil "improved" version. | ||
| Fulton
also attached the name "torpedo" to that maritime weapon we now call a mine. Fulton's
torpedoes were meant to be towed into position, either by a submerged boat or
a surface rowboat. When the French passed on the submarine, he offered so sell
torpedoes to the English; he demonstrated their utility by sinking an anchored
ship with a torpedo towed into place by a rowboat. In 1867, English engineer Robert Whitehead developed a self-propelled mine, which he called the "automobile torpedo" -- the true ancestor of the modern submarine-launched torpedo. | ||
| 1812-1815
There were at least two submarines reported during the War of 1812, to one of which a British admiral attached the by then-generic name "Turtle." There is no truth to the assertion that Bushnell "returned to the charge" in the War of 1812; by that time, Bushnell, whose family had not heard from him for more than 25 years, was in his 70s and living under an assumed name in Georgia. The other is preserved in the notebooks of Samuel Colt, a design attributed to SILAS CLOWDEN HALSEY: "lost in New London harbor in an effort to blow up a British 74." Of this, nothing else is known. | ||
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The drawing shows the operator with one hand on a tiller, the other on a crank to turn the propeller and drill bit. A technical "Turtle" clone: there is a "water cock" and a "force pump" at the bottom of the boat and an "air tube to shove up when at the surface of the water." A "torpedo" is attached by a line to the drill. | ||
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1815
Englishman THOMAS JOHNSTONE may – or may not – have participated in Fulton's efforts on behalf of the French and may – or may not – have been hired to build a 100-foot-long submarine to be used in a planned rescue of Napoleon Bonaparte from exile on the island of Elba. Whatever the facts of the case – Napoleon died before the (possible) submarine was finished. | ||
| 1850 The German port of Kiel was under blockade by the Danish Navy, and Prussian army corporal WILHELM BAUER persuaded a shipbuilder to construct his design for a blockade-breaking submarine which he called "Brandtaucher," (Incendiary Diver). The boat was made of riveted sheet iron, about the size and shape of a small sperm whale; propulsion, by a two-man-power treadmill which drove a propeller. A third crewmember steered. Buoyancy was controlled by ballast tanks, and trim was adjusted by moving a sliding weight along an iron rod. On its first appearance, Brandtaucher was sufficiently threatening to cause the blockading force to move further out to sea. On a subsequent submerged run, the sliding weight slid too far forward and the boat plunged to the bottom, getting stuck in the mud at 60 feet. Water pressure was too great to allow Bauer and his two companions to open the hatch, and, with water seeping in through the damaged hull, they had to wait until incoming water had raised the internal pressure to match that outside. After an unimaginable six hours – in the claustrophobic darkness -- they opened the hatch and were swept aloft in a bubble of escaping air. | ||
 "Brandtaucher" was recovered in 1887 and is now on display in Dresden. | ||
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1852
During the Civil War, Phillips again offered his services to the U. S. Navy, again, without success. | ||
Phillips was granted an 1852 patent for a "Steering Submarine Propller." The innovation: steering, as well as up-and-down movement, was controlled by a hand-cranked propeller on a swivel joint. | ||
| 1855
WILHELM BAUER built the 52-foot "Diable Marin" (Sea Devil) for Russia; this submarine made as many as 134 dives, the most spectacular of which was in celebration of the coronation of Tsar Alexander II. The boat took sixteen men underwater, four of whom made up a brass band whose underwater rendition of the national anthem clearly could be heard by observers on the surface. | ||
| 1859
French designer BRUTUS DE VILLEROI built a 33-foot-long treasure-hunting submarine for a Philadelphia financier. The target: the 1780 wreck of the British warship De Braak, lost near the mouth of the Delaware River. The method: divers, operating out of an airlock. The boat made at least one three-hour dive to twenty feet; no other details known. | ||
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1861
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A
Civil War-era submarine – which may, or may not, be "Pioneer" – was discovered
 A Civil War-era submarine -- which was long thought to be "Pioneer," but is not -- was discovered and raised in 1878 and is on display at the Louisiana State Museum. True origin? A mystery. | ||
| 1861
VILLEROI obtained a contract from the U. S. Navy for a larger submarine: the 46-foot-long "Alligator." Propulsion: originally sixteen oarsmen with hinged, self-feathering oars; improved, a three-foot diameter hand-cranked propeller. Weapon: an explosive charge to be set against an enemy hull by a diver. "Alligator" was placed in service on June 13, 1862 – the first submarine in the U. S. Navy, all reports to the contrary notwithstanding. Towed South from Philadelphia for operations in the James River, the boat proved to be too large to hide and support divers in the relatively shallow water. It foundered and sank in a storm, 1863, while being towed to a potential operating area off South Carolina. | ||
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| 1862
Confederate Army officer Captain FRANCIS D. LEE created the low-freeboard steamboat known as a "David" (as in, David versus Goliath). Weapon: a spar torpedo (an explosive the end of a long pole), or directly ram an enemy. Built by the Southern Torpedo Boat Company in Charleston as a profit-making venture (substantial bounties were being offered to anyone who could sink a blockading Union warship), they seemed like a good idea at the time but had little success. | ||
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| 1863 Hunley's New Orleans consortium shifted operations to Mobile, Alabama, and built a second, slightly-improved submarine which may have been called "American Diver." McClintock spent some time and money trying to replace hand-cranking with some sort of electrical motor, but without success. This submarine sank in rough weather in Mobile Bay; the crew was rescued. | ||
 Sketch made by McClintock in 1872, which may represent the features of "American Diver." | ||
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1863
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 These drawings were made, sometime after the Civil War, from information provided by W. A. Alexander -- one of the original (and suriving) builders. The cross-section (above) clearly shows the tight working space inside. | ||
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This submarine was sent to Charleston, to try to break the Federal blockade. Almost immediately, it, too, sank -- possibly twice, swamped by the wake of a passing steamer, with the loss of some crewmembers. Confederate Commanding General P. G. T. Beauregard became disenchanted but Horace Hunley persuaded him to allow "one more try" under his -- Hunley's -- personal supervision. The boat sank again, killing Hunley and the crew. It was found, and raised -- and two members of the original team who had not been aboard harassed Beauregard often enough that , after "many refusals and much discussion," he agreed to allow one more attempt -- but not as a submarine. The boat -- now named CSS H. L. Hunley in honor of her spiritual father -- was to be armed with a spar torpedo and operate awash, as a David. | ||
 CSS H. L. HUNLEY, recovered after a fatal accident and awaiting a "go-no go" decision by Charleston-area commanding General P. G. T. Beauregard, CSA. | ||
| 1863
A group of Northern speculators formed the American Submarine Company, to take advantage of a vote in the U. S. Congress to approve the use of privateers. However, when President Abraham Lincoln declined to accept the authority, construction of this consortium's submarine – the "Intelligent Whale" – languished. The boat was not completed until 1866, long after the end of the war. The then-ostensible owner, O. S. HALSTEAD, made several efforts over several years to sell it to the government; the U. S. Navy held formal acceptance trials in 1872. The "Intelligent Whale" failed. Halstead was murdered, probably by the jealous ex-lover of his mistress. | ||
 "Intelligent Whale" is now an exhibit at the Militia Museum in New Jersey. It should not – under any circumstances – be regarded as a serious contender in the submarine sweepstakes. | ||
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1863
A French team of CHARLES BURN and SIMON BOURGEOIS launched "Le Plongeur" (The Diver) – 140 feet long, 20 feet wide, displacing 400 tons. Power: engines run by 180 psi compressed air stored in tanks throughout the boat. Method of operation: fill ballast tanks just enough to achieve neutral buoyancy, then make adjustments with cylinders that could be run in and out of the hull to vary the volume – Bourne's concept. The boat was too unstable; the movement of a crew member could send her into radical gyrations. | ||
| 1864
On February 17, after months of training and operational delays, the spar-torpedo-armed CSS H. L. Hunley attacked USS Housatonic – which became the first warship ever sunk by a submarine. However, Hunley disappeared with all hands, not to be found until 1995, about 1000 yards from the scene of action. Best speculation on the fate of Hunley: with hatches open for desperately-needed ventilation, the boat was swamped by the wake of a steamer rushing to the aid of Housatonic. Hunley was recovered in the summer of 2000, and is now in the process of conservation and study. Follow the process: http://www.charleston.net/pub/index/hunley_index.shtml#charts | ||
| 1864
WILHELM BAUER proposed that submarines be powered by a visionary – but not yet practical – internal combustion engine. Overall, he was to spend twenty-five years developing (or at least, proposing) submarines on behalf of six nations – Germany, Austria, England, the United States, Russia, France. His plebeian origin and autocratic style – not to mention his lowly army rank – were a serious handicap in dealing with the aristocratic brethren who ran most of the navies of the day. Essentially ignored by his native Germany in his lifetime, Bauer became a posthumous hero in the Nazi era. | ||
| 1869
The U. S. Navy began manufacturing, under license, the WHITEHEAD torpedo, for use by surface ships and, especially, a new class: the torpedo boat. This spawned development of another new class, the torpedo boat destroyer. Some navies flirted with yet another class, the destroyer of torpedo boat destroyers. Whatever: surface launched torpedoes had marginal military effectiveness, and found their true home underwater. | ||
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Get
the whole story:
The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History"
February 19, 2006