page_title: History of submarines
section_title: Early
hierarchical_section_title: History of submarines / Early
caption_attribution_description: Drebbel's first submarine. 17th century.
context_page_description: Beginning in ancient times, mankind sought to operate under the water. From simple submersibles to nuclear-powered underwater behemoths, humans have searched for a means to remain safely underwater to gain the advantage in warfare, resulting in the development of the submarine.
context_section_description: The concept of underwater combat has roots deep in antiquity.  There are images of men using hollow sticks to breathe underwater for hunting at the temples at Thebes, but the first known military use occurred during the siege of Syracuse (415–413 BC), where divers cleared obstructions, according to the History of the Peloponnesian War.  At the siege of Tyre (332 BC), Alexander the Great used divers, according to Aristotle.  Later legends from Alexandria, Egypt from the 12th century AD, suggested that Alexander conducted reconnaissance, using a primitive submersible in the form of a diving bell, as depicted in a 16th-century Islamic painting.
  According to a report attributed to Tahbir al-Tayseer in Opusculum Taisnieri published in 1562:
  two Greeks submerged and surfaced in the river Tagus near the City of Toledo several times in the presence of The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V,  without getting wet and with the flame they carried in their hands still alight.
  Although there were various plans for submersibles or submarines during the Middle Ages, the Englishman William Bourne designed one of the first prototype submarines in 1578. This was to be a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. Comprising a completely enclosed wooden vessel sheathed in waterproofed leather, it was to be submerged by using hand-operated wooden screw thread adjustable plungers pressing against flexible leather bags located at the sides in order to increase or decrease the volume of water to adjust the buoyancy of the craft. The sketch (left) suggests that the depth adjustment was by means of a crankset projecting above the surface. There is no obvious accommodation for crew. In 1596 the Scottish mathematician and theologian John Napier wrote in his Secret Inventions the following: "These inventions besides devises of sayling under water with divers, other devises and strategems for harming of the enemyes by the Grace of God and worke of expert Craftsmen I hope to perform."
  It's unclear whether or not Napier ever carried out his plans. Henry Briggs, who was professor of mathematics at Gresham College, London, and later at Oxford, was a friend of Napier, whom he visited in 1615 and 1616, and was also an acquaintance of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England, who designed and built the first successful submarine in 1620. Hence, it is not impossible that it was because of the interest taken by Napier in the submarine that Briggs came in touch with Drebbel.
  Drebbel's submarine was propelled by oars. The precise nature of this submarine is unclear, it may be possible that it resembled a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the River Thames between 1620 and 1624. Of one of these tests Constantijn Huygens reports in his autobiography of 1651 the following:
  Worth all the rest put together is the little ship, in which he calmly dived under the water, while he kept the king and several thousand Londoners in the greatest suspense. The great majority of these already thought that the man who had very cleverly remained invisible to them - for three hours, as rumour has it - had perished, when he suddenly rose to the surface a considerable distance from where he had dived down, bringing with him the several companions of his dangerous adventure to witness to the fact that they had experienced no trouble or fear under the water, but had sat on the bottom, when they so desired, and had ascended when they wished to do so; that they had sailed whithersoever they had a mind, rising as much nearer the surface or again diving as much deeper as it pleased them to do, without even being deprived of light; yea, even that they had done in the belly of that whale all the things people are used to do in the air, and this without any trouble. From all this it is not hard to imagine what would be the usefulness of this bold invention in time of war, if in this manner (a thing which I have repeatedly heard Drebbel assert) enemy ships lying safely at anchor could be secretly attacked and sun
caption: Submarine of Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, 1620 and 1624.
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