Photo: FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP / Getty Images
Drebbel: 1620- 1624
The British mathematician William Bourne
made some of the earliest known close-ups for a submarine around 1578, but the world’s first working prototype was built in the 17th century by Cornelius Drebbel, a Dutch scholar and inventor employed by the British King James I.
Drebbel’s sub was probably a modified rowboat covered in oiled leather and manned by a team of oarsmen.
Sometime around 1620, used it to dive 15 feet under the River Thames during a demonstration witnessed by King James and thousands of amazed Londoners.
Unfortunately, none of Drebbel’s plans or engineering drawings have survived to this day, so historians can only guess how his “diving boat”.
Tortoise: 1775
During the American Revolution, inventor and Yale graduate, David Bushnell
, provided the colonists with a secret weapon in the form of an experimental submarine called the “Tortoise”.
This one-man wooden craft relied on a human-powered crank and pedal for propulsion. A foot-operated water tank allowed it to be submerged and surfaced, and lead ballast kept it upright in the water.
If operated correctly, could approach an enemy ship without being detected and use a screw to plant a mine full of 15 pounds of gunpowder.
In the early hours of the morning of September 7, 1776, Continental Army Private Ezra Lee launched the first submarine attack in history when he piloted the Turtle Under the British warship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
However, Lee had only received minimal training and, after failing to place a time bomb on the ship’s hull, he aborted the mission and detonated his mine in open water.
Bushnell later abandoned the submarine project after that several other missions also failed to sink an enemy ship, but his invention earned him the respect of his fellow Patriots.
Nautilus: 1800
While working for the French government in 1800, American inventor Robert Fulton designed the “Nautilus”, an all-metal vessel often called the first modern submarine.
The ship of 21 feet featured several revolutionary innovations
, including a cigar-shaped hull and copper conning tower. It used a hand-operated four-blade propeller to move underwater, but also sported a collapsible mast and fan-shaped sail for surface travel.
Dive planes were used to help submerge , and Fulton also experimented with storing compressed air in copper bottles to provide his crew with oxygen.
The Nautilus made several successful trial dives in the early 19th century , but was dismantled and sold for scrap after failing to convince the French and English navies.
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