Submarines

Experimentations from earlier times

The continuation of this Naval History follows on from: "Capital Ships"

Fighting man has been trying to spring the element of Surprise upon his opponent ever since the days of Ulysses and the Trojan Horse; and doubtless, earlier, it is not then, surprising to learn that this principal of Invisibility at sea was thought of long ago. Much ingenuity was spent upon it, and some remarkable results were achieved at dates considerably earlier than many suppose.

Apart from certain cryptic references in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci and others, which may or may not have resulted in "working models," the earliest submarine ship which was, in all probability, constructed was that of an Elizabethan Londoner, William Bourne, who left behind an account of it in his "Inventions or Devises" in 1578.

The idea, considering the materials he had at his disposal, is quite brilliant. He used an ordinary small boat and covered it over at gunwale level, with a watertight deck. Passing through this deck, by means of a watertight joint, was a hollow mast down which the outer air could be recieved inside the sealed chamber.

The sides of his boat he perforated with a number of holes, and inboard of these, he fitted two inner walls or bulkheads. These walls were movable in and out, being made partly, of leather loosely attached around the edges, so that the whole walls could be pushed out or pulled in a little way by a man inside of them.

They formed, a kind of bellows. Then he ballasted the whole boat until she had all but lost buoyancy. Now by pulling in the leather-trimmed bulkheads, he could draw water in through the holes in the outer walls, making the space between into a primative ballast tank.

Thereupon the ship lost buoyancy and sank. But when the inner walls were once more pressed outwards, the original positive buoyancy, though small brought the vessel once more to the surface.

This contrivance was, a mere toy, though a most ingenious one. It could hardly have had any practical use, since its only motion was vertical, and the depth to which it could descend was governed by the length of the tubular mast.

Capital Ships

The Dutch were experimenting too

The next experiment worthy of mention was that of a persistant Dutch inventor named Cornelius Drebbel, who is said, somewhere in the 1620s, to have built a submersible boat which travelled for several hours under water at a depth of 12 to 15 feet. It would be wise not to reject the story but wise to discount the figures given above.

Drebbel's idea was very simple. An ordinary boat was given a watertight cover as in Bourne's model, but here the motive power was the ordinary oar. Twelve of them, it is alleged, were fitted closely through holes in the boats side. Now the boat was ballasted until it retained a very small degree of positive buoyancy, and the oars were able to do the rest, pulling it down by means of strokes directed slightly upwards.

The whole device is no doubt possible, mechanically speaking. But all that really happened, probably, was that the boat proceeded, normally, more or less awash, and occasionally dived pasmodically for a length of time which might possibly have been measured in minutes but certainly not hours.

Used for the purpose of War

Several similar experiments adorn the half-forgotten annals of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It was only towards the end of the latter, that an underwater craft appeared whose inventor made a definate attempt to use it for the purpose of war.

The vessel in question was called the "Turtle," and its inventor was David Bushnell, an American who, while every bit as ingenious as Bourne and quite as persistent as Drebbel, was far more successful than either.

History has an undeniable habit of repeating itself; and it is an interesting illustration of this habit to note that the first submarine attack upon a hostile ship of war was made in a way, and by a craft, both of which sounds quite surprisingly modern.

The vessel was a one-man submarine, and the way was to proceed submerged to a point under the ship to be attacked, and when there, to fasten a heavy charge of explosive to the ship's bottom.

The ship Selected as the target was "H.M.S. Eagle," carrying Admiral Lord Howe; the date of the main attempt was 6th September 1776, when the old Colonies were making their great and successful bid for independence.

Bushnell's apparatus was quite unique. It was oval in shape, with a long axis vertical as it floated, made of oak, and strengthened with iron bands. The "crew" sat on a stout oak seat which served also as an extra interior stay, with his head in a small conning-tower consisting of a brass hatch, tightly screwed down, with eyelet holes of glass let into it.

He supplied the horizontal motive power by turning a crank, operated by either hand or foot, which revolved a screw propeller. The hydroplane was, unknown, but he obtained much the same effect by means of a second, and this time vertical, propeller opporated by hand. Descent was achieved by flooding the vessels bilges, and buoyancy was regained by pumping them dry with force-pumps.

Oak torpedo with a clock-detonator

The "torpedo" or "explosive charge" was a rounded oak receptacle containing 150 lbs. of powder. It was fastened on the outside, just behind the conning-tower, and could be released by a bolt whose withdrawal also set in motion a simple clock-detonator. This released a trigger in the torpedo after the set time had expired, and fired the charge.

A wooden-screw, also on the outside and detachable at will, was fastened by an ingenious apparatus to a crank on the inside of the conning-tower; the wooden-screw and torpedo were joined; on the outside; by a short length of rope.

All that the operator had to do was, on reaching the enemies keel, was to drive the screw into the bottom of the ship by means of a crank, releast the bolt and clear out. The torpedo should only explode when the operator was at a safe distance.

The attempt failed, not, through any revealed fault in the machine, but through ill-luck. Sickness not only prevented Bushnell from making the attempt, but also his brother, whom he had trained most carefully to take his place. Instead, Sergeant Lee, deputized, but, though a brave man, he clearly had neither the skill nor the familiarity with the strange machine. He was spotted, and when chased released his torpedo hoping that it would deter the pursuit. Which it didn't.

Fulton's submarine was rejected

The name of that versatile genious Robert Fulton appears again in the Submarine story. in 1801, he offered one called the "Nautilus" to Napolian, himself remaining under water for four hours; and during a realistic exhibition, he successfully "planted" a torpedo on a test-ship's bottom and blew her up. But his efforts were once more all in vain.

His boat seems to have resembled Bushnell's, only it was hand-propelled and had two vertical and horizontally geared screws. It was also of wood, iron-ribbed; but unlike Bushnell's it was copper-sheathed.

Either this machine or one very much like it also engaged in "war," and came even nearer to success than the turtle had done. This time the intended victim was "H.M.S. Ramillies," with Commodore Hardy (Nelson's) on board; for once again we were engaged in the little war of 1812-15, this time with the United States.

On this occasion not only did the submarine, at the third attempt reach its position under the hull of the British ship, but the hole was bored through her copper bottom. But this had taken longer than anticipated. The air inside the submarine was growing foul, and, in a hurry of doing the work against time, the wooden screw itself snapped off, and the "Ramillies" was saved.

These were creditable failures, and were due to the materials, rather than the lack of ability of the inventors. Until an all-metal hull could be used, and the vessel propelled by something better than hand or foot-power, real success was scarcely possible.

In 1861, Charles Brun a Frenchman, produced a small submarine called the "Plonguer" which was mechanically driven by means of a compressed-air engine.

During their Civil War, the Americans, ingenious as ever, persisted in their experiments. The South, built a number of tiny craft called "Davids," one of these midget Submarines attained the distiction of being the first to sink an enemy ship, the "Housatonic" in 1864. Unfortunately the aggressor went to the bottom too.

The crew were blamed and not the constructors, which we must doubt, when we discover that she was the holder of a very strange and unenviable record. She had already sunk five times before, on her trials and exercises, drowning most of her brave crew each time.

An Englishman invented horizontal rudders

The man, who may be said to have put the Submarine "on the map" was an Englishman, J.P. Holland, whose boat, built in 1877, contributed one of the major features of subsequent Submarines. It was horizontal rudders.

This invention is perhaps the key one, for here is the genious of the hydroplane, which, more than anything else, has permitted man to exercise control over his boat, both vertically for up and down motion, and horizontally to keep her on an even keel. All previous boats had gone down like a stone. Holland's slid down, in a dive.

After this it was a case of improving the materials to be used, of inventing an infinity of apparatus, and especially of designing suitable engines to work in the exceptional underwater conditions prevailing in Submarines. The Diesel for the surface and the electric motor for underwater were the answers here.

The Swede Nordenfelt-a most versatile inventor-and the Frenchman Goubet were prominent in the work, and by the turn of the century the Submarine was a type of ship whose possibilities were being carefully studied all over the world.

The "urge" behind the development, was the invention of the new self-propelling torpedo, and the consequent desire to obtain the priceless asset of Invisibilty for the ship that was to launch it.

The British authorities were reluctant (once again) to encourage the development of so dangerous a threat to all our vast naval and merchantile interests. But they realized in time that it was too important to be neglected, and that was only just in time too.

The elaboration of the Submarines led to the question of what arms she should carry besides torpedos; including on the face of them. More importantly here in a revolutionary sense, was the question of anti-submarine type of ships and their duties.

The anti-submarine ship-types produced in the First and Second World Wars, their duties comprised not only the offensive task of destroying the pest, but also the vital defensive one of protecting our ships whose structure had never been designed to withstand so violent an enemy as the torpedo.

There is too; the problem of Submarine defence against aerial attack...Clearly the end of this part is not even now insight.

The continuation of this Naval History will be called: "Trajectories"

Submarines Trajectories

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