Sec. XIX. Of the Catamarin.
The catamarin, properly so called, is a floating raft, originally used in China, and among the Portuguese as a fishing-boat. The Indian catamarin consists of two logs of wood, upon which the natives float, and go through the heaviest surf.
The military or naval catamarin is a different thing. It is properly a case, filled with combustibles, and contrived to remain so low in the water as to be almost imperceptible. This, being towed to the building, or ship, against which the attack is to be directed, is left to explode, by means of machinery within itself, when its operation is sometimes very destructive.
English writers acknowledge, that the catamarin, submitted by the late Mr. Pitt to the English government, and which cost in its construction a considerable sum, was originally invented by our countryman, the late Mr. Fulton, of whose invention we will speak hereafter.
Some observations on a boat, named, by the French, Chelingues, and the Indian catamarin, may be seen in the Dictionnaire de l'Industrie, article Bateau.
Several diving machines have been invented in France and elsewhere. M. Castera (Archives des Découvertes, iii, p. 185) describes a plunging boat, which resembles in figure a cone. It is furnished with a reservoir, calculated to hold water, and may be filled or emptied by means of pumps. By means of glasses and copper handles, the navigator is enabled to see and to take hold of objects. It is also furnished with tubes for the transmission of the air necessary for respiration, that communicate from the interior of the vessel with the atmosphere; and a double bellows, designed as well for receiving, as expelling air. Besides oars or paddles, necessary to move it under water, there is a contrivance for detaching the boat from the reservoir, either wholly or in part, according to circumstances.
M. Castera, in a memoir on sub-marine navigation, has noticed several applications of the plunging boat, which may be seen in the Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement, No. 71. In No. 61, of the same work, is the first notice of Castera's invention, an extract of which may be seen in the Archives des Découvertes, ii. p. 121. A description of Lutgendorf's boat may be seen in the Magazin der Erfindungen, No. 46.
Sec. XX. Of the American Turtle.
It is well known that the diving-bell, and similar contrivances, have been used for naval purposes, in connection with naval warfare.
Divers, or those who made it a business, by long habit and experience, to remain under water, and go to a great depth, were often employed in war to destroy the works and ships of the enemy. When Alexander was besieging Tyre, divers swam off from the city, under water, to a great distance, and, with long hooks, tore to pieces the mole, with which the besiegers were endeavouring to block up the harbour. The invention of the diving-bell, the campana urinatoria of some, is generally assigned to the sixteenth century; but it is evident, from the writings of Aristotle and others, that, in his time, divers used a kind of kettle to enable them to continue longer under water.