Sub Marine Explorer Sub Marine Explorer is a submersible built between 1863 and 1866 by Julius H . Kroehl and Ariel Patterson in Brooklyn , New York for the Pacific Pearl Company . It was hand powered and had an interconnected system of a high - pressure air chamber or compartment , a pressurized working chamber for the crew , and water ballast tanks . Problems with decompression sickness and overfishing of the pearl beds led to the abandonment of " Sub Marine Explorer " in Panama in 1869 despite publicized plans to shift the craft to the pearl beds of Baja California . Construction . " Sub Marine Explorer " had an external large volume ( 560 sq . ft . ) high air pressure chamber which was filled with compressed air at a pressure of up to by a steam pump mounted on an external support vessel . Water ballast tanks were flooded to make the " Sub Marine Explorer " submerge . Pressurized air was then released into the vessel to build up enough pressure so it would be possible to open two hatches on the underside , while keeping water out . This meant that air pressure inside the submarine had to equal water pressure at diving depth , exposing the crew to high pressure , making them susceptible to decompression sickness , which was unknown at the time . To surface , more of the pressurized air was used to empty the ballast tanks of water . A contemporary ( August 1869 ) newspaper account of dives in " Sub Marine Explorer " off Panama documents 11 days of diving to , spending four hours per dive , and ascending with a quick release of the pressure to ambient ( sea level ) pressure . Modern reconstruction of Explorer ' s systems suggests an ascension rate of ; or a rise to the surface in just under two minutes . Even if it took longer to rise , decompression sickness would have been a factor . Using now - standard U . S . Navy diving tables , the men inside Explorer would have exceeded their no - decompression limit in 25 minutes at . After a two hour dive ( half of the documented time spent ) a decompression schedule of one hour , 32 minutes and 40 seconds was required with staged stops at . The problems of decompression do not appear to have been clearly understood ; the contemporary reference notes that at the conclusion of the dives , " all the men were again down with fever ; and , it being impossible to continue working with the same men for some time , it was decided , the experiment having proved a complete success , to lay the machine up in an adjacent cove . . . ( The New York Times , August 29 , 1869 ) . The basic premise of " Sub Marine Explorer " was based on an earlier 1858 patent by Van Buren Ryerson of New York for a diving bell also named " " Sub Marine Explorer " . " Ryerson and Kroehl had worked together , Kroehl using Ryerson ' s bell to blast and partially clear Diamond Reef in New York harbor . Kroehl , working with Brooklyn shipbuilder Ariel Patterson , extensively modified Ryerson ' s design , extending the hull form to a , craft of intricate design . While some have termed Kroehl ' s " Sub Marine Explorer " a " glorified diving bell , " its sophisticated systems of ballast , pressurization and propulsion make it a nineteenth century antecedent to more modern " lock out " dive systems and subs . History . After construction , the " Sub Marine Explorer " was partially disassembled and transported to Panama in December 1866 , where she was reassembled to harvest oysters and pearls in the Pearl Islands . Experimental dives with the " Sub Marine Explorer " in the Bay of Panama ended in September 1867 when Kroehl died of " fever . " The craft languished on the beach until 1869 , when a new engineer and crew took it the Pearl Islands to harvest oyster shells and pearls . The 1869 dives , with known depths and dive profiles that would have inevitably led to decompression sickness , laid the entire crew down with " fever " , and the craft was laid up in a cove on the shores of the island of San Telmo . The wreck of the " Sub Marine Explorer " was rediscovered on San Telmo in the Pearl Islands in 2001 by archaeologist James P . Delgado of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology . The wreck was well - known to locals , but was assumed to be a remnant of the Second World War . Identification of the craft , with the assistance of submarine historians Richard Wills and Eugene Canfield , led to four separate archaeological expeditions to the Explorer in 2002 , 2004 , 2006 , and 2008 . Documentation of the " Sub Marine Explorer " has resulted in detailed plans , including interpretive reconstructions of the craft , scientific study of its environment and interaction with the surrounding water , bathymetric assessment , scientific analysis of rates of corrosion , and considerable historical research . Work in 2006 was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Office of Ocean Exploration . The 2008 expedition was funded by the Waitt Institute for Discovery of La Jolla . The vessel is now included in the Historic American Engineering Record of the U . S . National Park Service . A recent ( 2007 ) report summarizes preservation options for the submarine for the Panamanian government and recommends the recovery , preservation and public display of the craft in Panama . Metal analysis confirms that the craft is in a critical stage and faces irreversible deterioration and loss . The " Sub Marine Explorer " was the subject of two documentary films ; the first was an episode of the " Sea Hunters " that aired on National Geographic International Television in 2004 , and the second , by Der Spiegel , which aired in Europe and in the US on the Smithsonian channel in 2010 .