The work begun by Bushnell in 1775 was taken up ten years later by Robert Fulton whose diving-boats so nearly fulfilled the conditions necessary for practical submarine navigation. As America was at peace at this time, and as her financial condition was at the lowest ebb, Fulton transferred his skill and energy to Europe which was then involved in the Napoleonic wars. Several attempts were made to interest the French government in his invention, but although certain commissions reported favorably on his ideas, nothing came of them for a time. In 1800, however, Fulton succeeded in interesting Napoleon in his scheme, and the following year he was given the opportunity of building his first submarine boat, the Nautilus. This boat was cigar shaped, about twenty-one feet long and seven feet in diameter, and made of copper supported by iron ribs. When operating at the surface this boat used a peculiarly shaped sail; but when submerged it was propelled by a screw actuated by machinery turned by hand. In this boat, Fulton, with three companions, descended to a depth of twenty-three feet and remained submerged for twenty minutes; and at a depth of five or six feet they are said to have remained submerged for six hours, air being supplied by a copper vessel, probably containing oxygen or compressed air.
The first experiment made in attempting actually to destroy a vessel with the Nautilus, was successful, a small vessel being sunk. Encouraged by this success Fulton proposed to build larger boats of this same type capable of destroying the largest battle-ships. In return he asked that a reward be paid him for each vessel destroyed, the price of his diving boat reimbursed, and a patent be given himself and the members of his crew, so that in case of capture they would be treated as prisoners of war and not hanged as pirates. Strangely enough this latter clause was the greatest stumbling-block, as the proposed methods of destroying battle-ships by torpedoes was held in such disrepute that the French government would not grant a patent rating the crew of torpedo boats or submarine boats as legitimate belligerents. In effect, their attitude was, that while a person was at liberty to destroy an empire from the surface of the water, he would be hanged as a criminal if he dived beneath the surface and destroyed a boat.
Discouraged by this stand of the French government, Fulton removed to England, where he succeeded in interesting the prime-minister, William Pitt, in his novel boat. A commission was appointed consisting of a number of prominent men, including Mr. Pitt, and Fulton was requested to demonstrate what could be done in actual practice by his submarine. On October 15, 1805, an old brig detailed for the purpose was destroyed by Fulton by the explosion of a torpedo containing one hundred and seventy pounds of powder. Yet in the face of this remarkable demonstration the commission remained unfavorable to Fulton's scheme, although Mr. Pitt to the last retained his faith in the possibilities of such boats.
Recognizing that further attempts in England would be fruitless, Fulton returned to the United States. Here, in 1810, Congress became sufficiently interested to appropriate five thousand dollars to assist him in his work, and as a final test of the boat he had built, the naval authorities prepared the brig Argus to resist an attack by the submarine. This preparation consisted in surrounding her with protecting booms of logs, supporting strong netting, and held a distance from the hull by spars. In fact all possible means short of actually building a wall about the Argus were taken to defeat the attack. It is probable that the brig, when her preparations for defense were completed, would have been invulnerable even to a modern torpedo, and it is not surprising, therefore, that Fulton's attack upon her utterly failed.
Commenting upon this failure and the means taken by the authorities to protect the Argus, Fulton significantly remarked that the very fact that a war vessel was obliged to make use of such means to protect herself against a system of attack then in its infancy, spoke volumes for the possibilities of this method of attacking when it should be more fully developed.
But although this failure to destroy the Argus caused Congress to withdraw its aid for future experiments in submarine warfare, Fulton himself never lost faith in the importance of his work. Even after his successful invention of the steamboat, for surface navigation, he is said to have remarked that, while this invention was important, it could in no wise compare with the revolutionary effects upon navigation that would eventually be produced by submarine boats. And despite his failure to convince the government of the possibilities of his diving boats, he continued his experiments with them. How nearly he succeeded in making a practical submarine was shown in the second war with England that followed soon after.
In this war a "diving boat," supposed to have been one of Fulton's submarines, made several attacks upon the British man-of-war Ramillies off New London, in the summer of 1813. In the first two attempts the approach of the submarine was detected by the crew of the man-of-war, who cut their cables, and stood out of the harbor as quickly as possible. In the third attempt, the diving boat succeeded in coming up in a position directly under the Ramillies, fastened itself to the keel and made a hole in the planking large enough to receive the screw which was to fasten the torpedo in place. In the act of fastening it, however, this screw was broken off, and the attempt had to be abandoned for the moment.
This attack created such a panic aboard the British boat, that she did not return to the inner harbor but kept constantly in motion outside. Not satisfied with this protection against such "dishonorable attempts," the British commander took on board his vessel a hundred prisoners, apprising the Americans of the fact, and assuring them that a similar action would be taken by all the ships of the British fleet, so that in case a vessel was torpedoed the American prisoners would be blown up with her crew. This effectually frustrated Fulton's plans; for when the fact became known in the United States, the Americans were naturally as vigorous as the British in protesting against Fulton and his boats.
Obviously the rule that "everything is fair in war" was not accepted in practice a hundred years ago. Fulton's attempts were regarded as the acts of a pirate, those of the British commander as perfectly legitimate and honorable methods.