History of Submarines - Early History of Submarines and The First Submersibles

Early History of Submarines and The First Submersibles

The concept of an underwater boat has roots deep in antiquity. Although there are images of men using hollow sticks to breathe underwater for hunting at the temples at Thebes, the first known military use is of divers being used to clear obstructions during the siege of Syracuse (about 413 BC), according to the History of the Peloponnesian War. At the siege of Tyre in 332 BC divers were again used by Alexander the Great, according to Aristotle. Later legends from Alexandria, Egypt, in the 12th century AD suggested that he had used a primitive submersible for reconnaissance missions. This seems to have been a form of diving bell, and was depicted in a 16th-century Islamic painting. Abraham ibn Ezra (about 1150) interprets Noah's Ark as being an vessel that floated for 40 days on water, after which it floated to the surface.

After various plans for submersibles or submarines during the Middle-Ages, the Englishman William Bourne designed a prototype submarine in 1578, although these ideas never got beyond the planning stage. However, the first submersible proper to be actually built in modern times was constructed in 1605 by Magnus Pegelius but this became buried in mud.

The first successful submarine was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I; it may have been based on Bourne's design. It was propelled by oars. The precise nature of the submarine type is a matter of some controversy; some claim that it was merely a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the Thames between 1620 and 1624.

Though the first submersible vehicles were tools for exploring under water, it did not take long for inventors to recognize their military potential. The strategic advantages of submarines were set out by Bishop John Wilkins of Chester in Mathematicall Magick in 1648:

1. Tis private: a man may thus go to any coast in the world invisibly, without discovery or prevented in his journey.
2. Tis safe, from the uncertainty of Tides, and the violence of Tempests, which do never move the sea above five or six paces deep. From Pirates and Robbers which do so infest other voyages; from ice and great frost, which do so much endanger the passages towards the Poles.
3. It may be of great advantages against a Navy of enemies, who by this may be undermined in the water and blown up.
4. It may be of special use for the relief of any place besieged by water, to convey unto them invisible supplies; and so likewise for the surprisal of any place that is accessible by water.
5. It may be of unspeakable benefit for submarine experiments.

Between 1690 and 1692, the French physicist Denis Papin, designed and built two submarines. A detailed description of his work is given in the book named "recueil de diverses pièces" (1695). The first design (1690) was a strong and heavy metallic square box, equipped with an efficient pump. Once the hull is in the water, and weights loaded on board, the "man hole" is bolted, and it is time to pump air to raise the inner pressure. When the barometer shows that air pressure inside is high enough, holes F on the floor can be opened, to let the operator intake the necessary amount of water. This first machine was destroyed by accident, before it was tested in water.

The second design was built in 1692 : the hull has now an oval shape, naturally resistant to the outside pressure : outside air goes in and out freely in the hull, thanks to a centrifugal air pump. After having loaded the hull with enough solid weight, the top of the hull nearly match the water surface, and the "man hole" has to be bolted. A water pump allows then to take in or out a volume of water, to control buoyancy. According to some sources, a spy of Leibniz, called Haes related that Papin and another man, met success in experimenting this second design, on the river Lahn.

By the 17th century the Ukrainian Cossacks were using a riverboat called the chaika (gull) that was used underwater for reconnaissance and infiltration missions. This seems to have been closer to (and may have been developed from) Aristotle's description of the submersible used by Alexander the Great. The Chaika could be easily capsized and submerged so that the crew was able to breathe underneath (like in a modern diving bell) and propel the vessel by walking on the bottom of river. Special plummets (for submerging) and pipes for additional breathing were used.

By 1727, 14 types of submarine had been patented in England. In 1749 the Gentlemen's Magazine described a proposal made by Giovanni Borelli in 1680 for a boat with goatskins in the hull, each being connected to an opening. The boat would have been submerged by letting water into the goatskins and surfaced by forcing water out by a twisting rod. This seems to be the first approach to the modern ballast tank.