Drebbels submarine
The first submersible goes back to Cornelius van Drebbel, a Dutch inventor who later became the court inventor of King James I of England. England. Drebbel had the idea for the construction in 1623, when he observed fishermen pulling catch boxes behind their boats. He noticed that the boats sank deeper into the water when the lines to the boxes tightened, and they lifted out of the water when the lines hung slack again. This gave van Drebbel the idea of constructing a submersible boat. James I approved the plan and financed the project.
Drebbel's first submarine. 17th century, by unknown (x)
For his submersible, he covered a fishing boat with a half-shell-shaped wooden construction. Several layers of greased leather skins were applied to the outside of the construction to seal the hull. On each of the long sides, the boat had six oars, which were guided outwards by cleats sealed with leather and metal straps. They served to propel the ship and were operated by twelve oarsmen inside. There was a snorkel for the air supply. The foredeck of the ship was built sloping towards the front and additionally accommodated water ballast tanks made of goatskin. If the ship was now moved forward, the water flowing over the foredeck pushed the construction downwards and the ship submerged.
(x)
The shape of the overall construction thus resembled a primitive depth rudder. The maximum attainable diving depth was about 3.6 metres. In 1626, he then demonstrated it and had it successfully sail between 12 and 15 feet ( 3.5-4.5m) below the surface of the Thames for about 3 hours from Westminster and Greenwich and back again. This was watched by the King and many others.
A reconstruction drawing of the submersible, with snorkel and water pump (x)
The boat was purely an experimental vessel and had no economic or military significance, as the Royal Navy had no interest in a submersible. Â
