A Look Back At Submarines

It was centuries ago when men first delved into exploring water. Historical accounts show that men would submerse themselves underwater and breathe through hollow papyrus reeds as they hunted their unsuspecting prey. And although it is chalked up to a mere legend, it has been told that Alexander the Great descended in a device that kept its occupants dry and admitted light, possibly a glass tube of sorts.

It wasn't until 1578 that a design for an underwater vessel was recorded. This first design would have been fabricated of wood and waterproofed leather. It would have had the capability to row underwater. It would have, had it made it past the design process.

While the first design never sprouted wings, or fins if you will, in the 1600s the idea of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutch doctor living in England, in 1620 took to the water. This submarine was powered by rowers pulling on oars that protruded through flexible leather seals in the hull. Above the water, floats held Snorkel air tubes up for passengers to breathe from. This allowed submergence to last several hours. Van Drebbel's submarine successfully maneuvered at depths of 12 to 15 feet below the surface of the Thames River.

The first American submarine, dubbed the Turtle, came about thanks to David Bushnell, a Yale graduate. Built in 1776, this one-man vessel submerged by admitting water into the hull and surfaced by pumping it out with a hand pump. This pedal-operated vessel was, in the hopes of the American people, a secret weapon that would soon take out British warships in New York Harbor.

Over the decades that passed, the submarine evolved from an egg shaped vessel to a cigar shaped. Inventors around the world worked to make an airtight contraption that would act as an underwater weapon against their enemies. Most failed upon testing, but each provided further information that would be used in future attempts. For instance, the submarines escape device was created back in 1850 when a crew was shot to the surface with an air bubble that blew the hatch open.

The first successful American submarine was a converted steam boiler invented by Horace Lawson Hunley, although to a tragic start. During testing, the lives of two crews were lost when the submarine sank. The second accident cost the life of the crew as well as the inventor, but that didn't stop the testing from going on. In 1864, renamed the Hunley, this vessel attacked and sank a new Federal steam sloop, USS Housatonic, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, armed with a 90-pound charge of powder on a long pole. After the attack, the Hunley disappeared, to be rediscovered in the waters off Sullivans Island, South Carolina in 1995.

From the early moments in time, man has been on a quest to conquer all the earth. With a little imagination, an incredible mechanical device was worked into something magnificent and powerful. Today, submarines are used for purposes within war, and revered all over the world.