An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology by McNeil Ian;

Author:McNeil, Ian;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 169485
Publisher: Routledge

SUBMARINES

Late mediaeval scholars speculated on the possibility of navigating beneath the surface of the sea, and early attempts to build a practicable craft included those of William Bourne in 1578 and Cornelius van Drebbel in 1620. The first successes were by Americans: David Bushnell's Turtle attacked HMS Eagle off New York in 1776 and Robert Fulton's Nautilus sank a schooner off Brest in a demonstration in 1802. Both boats were driven by screw propellers operated by hand. In 1850 a German craft Bauer's Der Brandtaucher, was actually used in war and in the following year was the occasion of the first recorded escape from below the surface. Several other such craft were built in Russia, France and Spain, as well as by both sides in the American Civil War, when in 1864 the submarine claimed its first victim when a hand-driven ‘David’ sank the USS Housatonic, although at the cost of its own loss with all its crew of nine.

All these efforts suffered from problems of controlling the craft, as well as the lack of a suitable power source and a feasible underwater weapon. In the 1860s and 1870s iron or steel provided a material that could be made watertight and the torpedo appeared, but trials of steam, oxygen, compressed air and paraffin engines all failed. In 1886 the French Gymnote, designed by Dupuy de Lôme and Gustave Zède, provided a basis for development, using electric motors driven by batteries. The work of J.P.Holland and Simon Lake in the USA produced worthwhile prototypes, and other vessels were built by Laurenti in Italy, Peral in Spain, and the Krupp firm in Germany. All used electricity under water and steam or petrol engines on the surface, until about 1909 when diesel engines became general.

Submarines came into full use during the First World War and, although a number of experimental types were built, moderate-sized boats of simple design were found most satisfactory, the German U-boats (Unterseeboote) achieving a high level of combat effectiveness, as they did again in the Second World War. Towards the end of that war the Germans were improving their submarines by fitting the schnorkel, a type of air tube to enable them to remain below water for long periods, as well as developing a submarine of great underwater speed driven by hydrogen peroxide. While the latter proved unsuccessful, all nations were soon using air tubes, called snorts in English, and streamlining hulls to achieve greater underwater speeds.

All these vessels were essentially surface craft which were able to dive and to cruise under water for limited periods. The development in the USA of a nuclear-powered propulsion unit enabled the USS Nautilus of 1952 to initiate the era of true submarine craft, capable of travelling submerged, at unprecedented speeds of over 55ph (30 knots), for virtually unlimited periods of time, aided by inertial navigation systems. Some of these vessels are intended to hunt and sink other submarines, while others carry ballistic missiles of strategic use.

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