A way from a mile off to dive and fasten a like Engine to any Ship, so as it may punctually work the same effect either for time or execution.
[How to be fastened from aloof and under water.] The wording of this article so far differs from the title as to allude only to diving, or a kind of submarine navigation, but gives no intimation of the fastening “aloof;” so that this latter may refer to any part of the ship’s sides above her water-line.
“Mersennius,” observes Bishop Wilkins, “doth largely and pleasantly descant concerning the making of a ship, wherein men may safely swim under water.” He further declares, that “such a contrivance is feasible, and may be effected, is beyond all question, because it hath been already experimented here in England by Cornelius Dreble.” He next considers various schemes, and mentions as one of the advantages of such a submarine vessel, that, “It may be of very great advantage against a navy of enemies, who by this means may be undermined in the water and blown up.”—Math. Magick, 1648, p. 178.
Among the Sloane MSS. No. 4159, in the British Museum, is one for a means of destroying an entire fleet with one ship. It is endorsed, “A proposition sent to Mr. Augier, from Paris,” and the following is a copy:—“A person who makes profession of honour, and saith he hath had the good [fortune?] to have been known of Sir Oliver Flemming during his public employments abroad, doth propound to a friend of yours that by a secret he hath he can, with one ship alone, break what naval army or fleet, &c.”
In 1596, the celebrated John Napier, of Merchiston, wrote a statement of four “Secret Inventions,” concluding with the remark: “These inventions, besides devices of sailing under the water, with divers other devices and stratagems for harming of the enemies, by the grace of God, and work of expert craftsmen, I hope to perform.” The original MS. anno 1596, is in the Lambeth Library, No. 658.
There is an article in Tilloch’s “Philosophical Magazine,” Vol. 18, for 1804, reviewing a Memoir of Lord Napier of Merchiston. On his device for sailing under water, the writer observes:—“The famous Dutch philosopher, Cornelius Drebell, the reputed inventor of the microscope and the thermometer, constructed for James I. a subaqueous vessel, which he tried on the Thames, and which carried twelve rowers, besides some passengers, for whom the effete air was again rendered respirable by a liquor, the composition of which Drebell never would communicate to more than one person, and that person told Mr. Boyle what it was.” The Marquis, might, likewise, even be acquainted with Napier’s statement of his secret inventions.
Evelyn, in his Diary, informs us on the 1st of August, 1666, “I went to Dr. Keffler, who married the daughter of the famous chymist, Drebbell, inventor of the bodied scarlet.” On which his editor, Mr. Bray, remarks, “Cornelius Van Drebbell, born at Alkmaar, in Holland, in 1572; but in the reign of Charles I. settled in London, where he died in 1634. He was famous for other discoveries in science—the most important of which was the thermometer. He also made improvements in microscopes and telescopes; and though, like many of his scientific contemporaries, something of an empiric, possessed a considerable knowledge of chemistry, and of different branches of natural philosophy.”—Diary, vol. ii. p. 9.
Pepys, in his Diary, under date the 14th of March, 1662, says: “This afternoon came the German, Dr. Knuffler, to discourse with us about his engine to blow up ships. We doubted not the matter of fact, it being tried in Cromwell’s time, but the safety of carrying them in ships; but he do tell us, that when he comes to tell the King his secret, for none but the Kings, successively, and their heirs must know it, it will appear to be of no danger at all.”—Pepys’ Diary, ed. 1858, vol. i. p. 264.
Dr. Robert Hooke, in his “Philosophical Collections,” published in 1679, has “an account of Jo. Alphon. Borellius’s De Mo. Animalium,” two volumes quarto, containing, among other things, “A way to make a submarine vessel, whereby several persons may pass together from place to place under water, accommodated with two ways to move it to and fro, and to make it rise and sink in the water, &c. It is supposed it may be much like that which Mersennus long since published.”
The American engineer, Robert Fulton, turned his attention to this subject, and published “Torpedo War, and Sub-marine Explosions,” 4to. New York, 1810.