Since you liked that one....

 Since you liked that one.....

        The response to the "Nautilus" story was such that the history teacher  in me said, "Why not go farther back?" So here goes. This is gonna take several blog entries. There's no really good way to break these up, but I'll try by doing non-military attempts pre late 1800s  first.

        For longer than we have real records, there have been attempts to explore underwater. The earliest example we find is anecdotal, and alleges that Alexander the Great actually had himself lowered underwater in some sort of glass diving bell.

       It is worthy of note that this painting, of Islamic origin  from the 16th century, is unique in several ways. First, it portrays Alexander dressed in 16th century Islamic attire, though he had been dead for about a millennium before Islam was established.  Second, this painting shows images of human beings, not traditionally done in the vast majority of Islamic cultures, especially in that time period. That fact tends to indicate that the painting is Persian or Turkish, not traditional Arabian.  It is worthy of note that there was no semblance of propulsion involved here, other than the boat above.

The Bourne design (not a movie title)

       The first really documented attempt to design a craft actually capable of submerging and resurfacing was probably the brainchild of Englishman William Bourne, circa 1578. Although there were discussions and various "plans" for submersibles or submarines during the Middle Ages,  Bourne actually designed  the first prototype submarine in 1578. This was to be a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface.  

                         Bourne's concept design

       It had a conventional hull, similar to a modern Britsh canal barge, which could be sealed, as could the oarlocks (yep, oarlocks!) and there were leather bellows (for want of a better term) which could be expanded or contracted by screws to increase the volume of the vessel (making it float) or decrease it, allowing submergence.  It bears mentioning that the device was never built, but one assumes Bourne had every confidence that it was feasible, although he may well have been the only one who thought so. It is also significant that Bourne was the first to analytically discuss buoyancy and displacement with respect to a submersible craft. Archimedes would have been proud, and would probably have understood.

Drebbel's "leather clad" Submersible

Cornelius Drebbel

        There are anecdotal references to a couple of failed attempts, but no plans or even artist's concept drawings until  Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England,  designed and built the first successful submarine in 1620.

             

                Drebbel's 3rd design on the Thames    

Drebbel's boat was also propelled by human manual labor (oars in this case) as would they all be until post Civil War and his first design is thought to have incorporated floats with tubes to allow air down to the rowers. This actually is kinda/sorta the first "snorkel"(albeit a crude attempt) although ancient Egyptian drawings do show men underwater breathing through hollow reeds. This actually makes it something other than a real submarine, but I won't tell.  Two of Drebbel's crafts were actually  tested in the River Thames between 1620 and 1624.  

        Reports of the time suggest that King James I actually rode in the third submarine on a trip under the Thames in 1626. This final  model had 6 oars and could carry 16 passengers. At a dazzling depth of 15 feet submerged, the vessel sank when bladders which the  rowers sat on (surfaced) were allowed to fill with water via tubes . These would be the first inboard variable ballast tanks, which also explains the 15 foot depth limit, huh?  The submarine stayed submerged for three hours and could travel from Westminster to Greenwich and back, cruising at a depth between 12 and 15 feet.  

       Apparently Drebbel also experimented with using some chemical combination involving saltpeter (Potassium nitrate, the oxidizer in gunpowder) to create oxygen inside the vessel., allowing as long as three hours submerged operation. To surface, the rowers placed the bladders back under their collective asses and sat on them, forcing the water back out to sea,  and "Hey presto, prepare to surface!"

Model of Drebbel's first (and smaller) design

       Probably the first written arguments for why submarines might be militarily useful came from a somewhat unlikely source - a member of the Clergy! The strategic advantages of submarines were first set out by Bishop John Wilkins of Chester in his book - Mathematical 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. (Boy can I call "bullshit" on that allegation. This guy obviously never was Diving Officer  under the Norwegian Sea in January!) 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."

Papin's "Ugly Bucket"

Denis Papin

        Between 1690 and 1692, the French physicist Denis Papin, designed and built two submarines, although they were neither slim sleek and racy or maneuverable. The first design (1690) was essentially just a strong and heavy metallic square box, equipped with an efficient pump that pumped air into the hull to raise the inner pressure. When the air pressure reached the required level, holes were opened to let in some water. This first machine was destroyed by accident. (probably just as well) The second design (1692) had an oval shape and worked on similar principles. A water pump controlled the buoyancy of the machine. neither design had any sort of mobility and was really more a glorified diving bell, and a poor one, at that.

Papin's "submarine"

       It is worthy of mention that, while Papin designed a relatively shitty submarine, he also devised what he dubbed the "Steam Digester" which today we simply know as a pressure cooker. The shape of his "submarine," not surprisingly, closely resembles the design of his pressure cooker!

        By the mid 1700s, more than  a dozen patents for submarines/submersible boats had been granted in England alone . In 1747, Nathaniel Symons patented and built the first known working example of the use of a ballast tank for submersion. His design used leather bags that could fill with water to submerge the craft. A mechanism was used to twist the water out of the bags and cause the boat to resurface. (note this is rather similar to Drebbels "ass bag" ballast!)  In 1749, the Gentlemen's Magazine reported that a similar design had been proposed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680. By this point of development, further improvement in design pretty much stagnated, until new industrial technologies for propulsion and stability were developed. could be applied.

       Finally for this entry, even though it is a later design, there was no military goal in mind, so we'll go back later to military subs. For now let's consider the Icteneos and their designer.

Monturiol's Designs

Narcis Monturiol

       Spanish designer Narcis Monturiol was somewhat of an anomaly among his submarine designing peers, in that he apparently had zero military aspirations for his brainchildren. He had been a  controversial writer and publisher and was involved in the revolution of 1848 to the extent that he self-exiled to France for about a year, finally returning to Barcelona and devoting his energies to science.

        While vacationing in  Cadaqués he observed  the dangerous job of coral harvesters, actually witnessing the death of a man who drowned while performing this job. This encouraged Monturiol to focus on  submarine navigation. In 1857, in Barcelona he organized the first commercial society in Catalonia and Spain dedicated to the exploration of submarine navigation.

        In 1858 Monturiol presented his concept in a scientific thesis, titled "The Ictineo" ("fish-ship") The first dive of his prototype , Ictineo I, took place in September 1859 in the harbor of Barcelona.

Ictineo I - 1859

       As was the standard of the period, the vessel was human powered, which Monturiol found inadequate, so back to the drawing board he went. The result 5 years later was Icteneo II.

Launched in October, 1864. Ictineo II made her maiden voyage under human power on 20 May 1865, submerging to a depth of 30 metres (98 ft). Note that, by this time, CSS Hunley had killed three  crews at depths of less than 1/3 that deep and had killed  herself in the final process! 

        Dissatisfied, however,  with the limitations of human propulsion, Monturiol, after much experimentation, invented a chemical combination that generated both heat and oxygen when mixed. With the heat generated by this mixture he hoped to drive a small steam engine, which could also be powered with coal during surface operation.

Icteneo II

        Monturiol's ultimate plan was to create a  vessel custom-built to house his new engine, which would be entirely built of metal and with the engine housed in its own separate compartment. Due to the state of his finances, construction of the metal vessel was out of the question. Instead, he managed to assemble enough funds to fit the engine into the wooden Ictineo II for preliminary tests and demonstrations.

       In October 1867, Two years and several alterations later,  Ictineo II made her first surface journey under steam power, averaging 3.5 kn with a top speed of 4.5 kn . On 14 December, Monturiol submerged the vessel and successfully tested his anaerobic engine, without attempting to travel anywhere.

        To fully grasp the significance of Monturiol's achievement, consider that no other submarine employed an anaerobic propulsion system until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles on the "too late" Type XVII submarines. The problem of air-independent propulsion was finally resolved with the construction of the first nuclear powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

 Today, some of the quietest and most capable submarines in the world are the AIP (Air Independent Propulsion) designs built by Siemens and Swedish firms for export.

     

The boat above reflects Monturiol's vision in the form of an Israeli Dolphin Class boat fitted with the Siemen's fuel cell AIP system - fast, stealthy and capable.  Sadly,  anyone with the bucks can buy one.

 So, for now we leave the land of submarines, I'll be back with military boats later.