Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

THE “HOLLAND” SUBMARINE.

THE “GOUBET” SUBMARINE.

Probably the first really successfully designed submarine was that of Robert Fulton, the American, who submitted his plans of the Nautilus to the French Directory in 1797. His first boat was tried experimentally on the Seine in 1800. His next boat had iron ribs, and was copper-sheathed, and was shaped like a very long egg; it was fitted with a small hinged mast and a bat-wing sail, so that it could be used for surface navigation if necessary. He made a few descents in the Seine with success, but at no time stayed under water more than twenty minutes. Still, the experiment was held to be sufficiently promising for the boat to be tried at Brest, where he failed in his attempts to do any damage to the English ships of war. A preliminary experiment, before that against the English, was successful. On the British side, a so-called catamaran was contrived, by which it was intended to blow up the French ships at Boulogne. The catamaran consisted of a framework in which one man should sit immersed up to his arm-pits, and should paddle himself along under cover of darkness, and tow a floating box of powder to be exploded by clockwork in so many minutes, this affording him time to paddle away in safety. This floating mine or torpedo was to be fastened under the counter of the wooden man-of-war. Fulton is supposed to have had a hand in this, but the attack when it was made ended in an absolute failure, the catamarans making the attack being mostly blown up, while those vessels against which it was directed suffered no harm whatever. Upon his return to America, Fulton constructed a submersible called the Mute, which was to fire “Colombiads,” or under-water guns. Her inventor died during the course of her trials, which, however, did not reveal anything to show that the boat would have been other than an absolute failure as a warship. Though the British and the French naval authorities were strongly opposed to submarine warfare for a variety of reasons, American inventors continued their experiments. A diving boat passed under the British 74-gun ship Ramilies three times, and at last got close under the vessel, and tried to fasten a clockwork mine to it by means of a screw after the plan Bushnell adopted, but the screw broke. Other attempts were made, and as there were then no means of discovering when a submarine attack was intended, the British officer in command placed a number of American prisoners on board his ships and notified the American Government that if any of the ships were blown up, the American prisoners as well as the crew would go with it. What was known as an American torpedo-pilot was really a large boat covered from end to end with a curved iron deck, above which was a small pilot-house or look-out chamber, which also served as a ventilator; the boat was propelled by paddle-wheels, and travelled so low in the water as to be practically awash, and towed a mine behind her. Some of these mines or torpedoes contained as much as six barrels of gunpowder. An Englishman named Johnson designed a submarine or diving boat in which he was to have rescued the ex-Emperor Napoleon from Saint Helena, but Napoleon’s death intervened.

Various inventions were tried at one time and another, and the misfortune is that in many cases the first experiment proved to be the last, for the contrivances were the inventors’ coffins. Some of these fatalities were unquestionably due to the submarines being made to descend too low, when they gave way under the enormous pressure of the water.

The first effective submarine designed for war purposes was a cigar-shaped boat constructed by an American shoemaker named Phillips. The boat was built of iron and carried a colombiad, which could be fired through a port in the iron plating, and also a couple of torpedoes or mines. Numerous experiments with this boat were successful, but Phillips descended once too often.

A German named Bauer invented a diving boat, which scared the Danes badly in the war between Denmark and Prussia in 1848-50. At its second voyage it descended too far, but Bauer and his two companions escaped through the scuttle. Thirty-six years later the boat was fished up, and is now in the Naval Museum at Berlin. Failing to get any more money in Germany, and being suddenly dropped in Austria after the Court and Government had given him much encouragement, he came to England, where the Prince Consort became his patron. He designed a submarine, but his plans were altered by some of the leading engineers, ship-builders, and statesmen, who, whatever their skill in surface navigation and diplomacy may have been, knew next to nothing of submarine navigation. The consequence was that his boat as altered to suit their views was a failure, and the discredit was cast upon Bauer. Still believing that he was right, he betook himself to the United States, but the American Government, probably finding that the local supply of inventors and submarines was a long way in excess of the demand, turned a deaf ear to all his suggestions. He went back to Europe, and the Russian authorities authorised him to construct his Sea Devil which, after numerous experiments, was sunk under circumstances never fully explained. He managed, however, in one of his trips with her, to enter Sebastopol harbour, to the great dismay of a Russian sentry who, seeing him gliding by night in a standing position along the surface of the water, took him for a ghost, dropped his rifle, and ran. The loss of his boat has been attributed to an order of the Russian Government that it should be deliberately sunk to get it out of the way.

The French boat Plongeur, launched at Rochefort in 1863, was cigar-shaped with the upper side flattened, and was driven by an engine deriving its power from compressed air. She was too long for her width to be of much use, and had no stability.

The first Confederate David has already been alluded to, and the Southerners were so pleased with the success that they ordered another. In five experiments the second boat sank five times, and drowned altogether thirty-five men. Before she went down the next time it was determined that she should attack one of the Federal warships. She was directed against the Housatonic, then one of the fleet blockading Charleston. The David was being navigated along the surface of the water instead of beneath, and her scuttles were open. The little vessel’s spar-torpedo struck the warship in line with the magazine. Nothing was ever seen of the David afterwards, nor of her crew. The Housatonic went down, but nearly all on board were saved.