The San Francisco call., 1898-04-24
HOLLANDS NEW
 SEA FIGHTERS
Continued from Page Seventeen.

This is one of the most difficult fac tors in the problem. The men who go down into the waters in these boats must take their lives in their hands, Once they are sealed under the matches, whether they accomplish their mission of destruction or not, their chances of return to Gods sunlight are infinitely small.
 The advance of modern electrical sci ence has rendered possible many things which were impossible even a genera tion ago, and therefore we may hope for better results from the Holland boat than from the famous Davids, which the Confederates constructed, and employed with such disastrous re- suits to themselves.
 The first David. so named after its inventor, was built at Charleston in 1S63 The material used was boiler plate, and the craft was propelled by the power of eight men working a crank Three times was this unfortun- ate vessel tried, and every time she re- fused to rise to the surface after disap- bearing beneath the face of the waters.
 All on board periShed, yet men were found ready to man her a fourth time, when, marvellous to relate, her errand of death was successful. She made her way out of Charleston harbor, sought and found the Northern vessel HouSa- tonic, and blew her up with e torpedo. l Unable to clear herself from the wreck in time, she went down with her vic- ] tim, and this was the last of the Da- vid'S career. Several other boats of the l same pattern were constructed by the rebels, but they rever achieved any, | thing of note.
 Though this is perhaps the only re- corded instance where a submarine | boat has been successfully used in ac- tion, the idea, II lke most other ideas un- der the sun, Is by no means new It Is centuries old. As far back as the be- ginning of the seventeenth century a Dutchman named Cornelius Drebel constructed a submarine boat on the Thames and induced King James I to sanction it's trial Far in advance of his times, he proposed to use artificial air to sustain the lives of those on board; but as history does not record what became of this Dutchman and his boat, we may presume that the enter prise was a failure. The next inventor in the field was rash individual of the name of Day, who in 1774 made a de- scent in Plymouth harbor in a vessel of fifty tons which he had fitted ont for the purpose. He accomplished the de- scent rlght enough-most ships will sink when the conditions are favora- ble-but he failed to come to the sur face again.
 A year later the New Englanders, ever of an inventive turn. took a hand Tn the game. One Bushnell of Connec- tlcut built vessel to be propelled by screws, very much like those now in use At the end of the century Full ton, the famous steamboat inventor, developed the idea still further. He used compressed air. and with it's aid was enabled to contrive a boat which actually remained four hours beneath the water, at depth of twenty-five feet The boat could be propelled in any dlrect1on, and during a series of experiments in Brest Harbor he antici- pated modern warfare by attaching a torpedo to the bottom of a vessel and blowing he. up.
 Still. the time was not ripe for tho use or torpedo. For more than half a century the old wooden walls and smooth-bore guns were to prevail. Now ana again during this long period some rasn inventor would make tentative ex- perlments, but nothing came of it, un- Ill, as we have seen, the Confederates produced their Davids. The attention l or the scientific world was aroused