The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1917-11-29
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SUB
MARINE.


Americas first submarine was designed
and built in ITS by David Bushnell, a ma
tive of Connecticut Prior to that time
attempts had been made in England to
build an undersea boat, without much
success. 1t is not known whether Bush
nell's boat was entirely his own invention,
or whether he was aided somewhat by
the work done by the English designers
and craftsmen. Bushnell's boat was
christened The American Turtle, carried
one man and could remain submerged
about 80 minutes. 1t was propelled by a
screw which was worked by hand. The
torpedo was a copper cylinder filled with
gunpowder, and was carried outside the
boat The operator was to affix the tor
pedo to the bottom of the enemies ship
by simple and not very effective device,
ignite the fuse and escape if he could.
AS far as is known there is no complete
description of this craft on record. The
boat was a failure but Revolutionary
soldier named Ezra Lee, succeeded on one
occasion in soaring the British fleet out
of New York harbor with this, the first
American submarine. Twenty years
later, Robert Fulton who afterwards in
vented the first successful steamboat,
went to France and under the patronage
and pay of Bonaparte, built a submarine
called the Nautilus. This boat was not
an invention but an improvement of
Bushnelps failure, and carried crew of
four men and once at least remained sub
merged for four hours. The pilot steered
the boat and the other three men pro-
PEELED her at the rate of two miles an
hour, by means of paddles projecting
through her sides. Fulton succeeded in
blowing up an English vessel in the har-
boz of Brest and in an attempt to destroy
the British fleet made complete failure.
Bonaparte then refused further financial
aid Fulton. hot with chagrin and anger,
changed his name, went to England and
offered his submarine to the enemies of
France. Here he received no encourage
ment because England, mistress of the
seas, did not wish to encourage the in
vention of anything which would destroy
ships, and events have proved her wis
dom. After this no great effort was any
where made to develop undersea boats
until early in the Civil War, when the
Confederates built several submarines
which they named Davids with the hope
that the Federal ships would be Goliaths.
All but one of these Davids submerged
and never reappeared. The largest of
the Davids was 40 feet long, about feet
wide amidships, and carried a crew of
nine men. She was built in Mobile in
1864 and sunk during one of her tria
trips and her whole crew was suffocated
She was raised, started out to make an
attack and sunk again. After being
sunk and raised three times more she
succeeded in torpedoing a Federal ship,
the Housatonic, in Charleston Harbor,
and was herself destroyed. Although the
Davids were, in effectiveness, not much
superior to the boats of Bushnell and
Fulton, naval experts both here and in
Europe now recognized the possibilities
of the future, and from 1864 to 1886 in
CT tn daci obi nd
practical boats. The Peacemaker, de-
signed in New York was, at the close of
this period, produced as the best result of
American effort. This vessel was 80
feet long and carried a crew of two men,
a pilot and an engineer She could re-
main submerged for 80 minutes, her I'M
derwater speed was about miles an
hour, and was built by private capital.
In 1887, the next year after her trial
trips, the government of the United
States for the first time took official &C
ton to encourage inventors to present
designs and bids for the construction oil
submarines. Nothing was accomplished
however, and the navy relaxed it's efforts
In the meantime England, France anc
even Spain and Denmark each built {
few boats, and full descriptions of then
were published, showing that the foreign
craft were not any great improvement
over the Peacemaker This is the earl!
history of the submarine brought dow
to rs years ago. Since then we and gu
Allies have made progress, but it ha
has developed our inventions, kept he
own secrets inviolate, and devoted he
energies to produce U-boat which is
terror on the sea.