Ig15] SUBMARINE BOATS 119 
SUBMARINE BOATS 
By CoMMANDER WILLIAM HOVGAARD 
Professor of Naval Design and Construction, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, Boston, Mass. 
I. HIsTORICAL REVIEW. 
EARLY BOATS. 
(Read January 23rd, 1915). 
THE conception of submarine navigation is an old one, and sub- 
marine boats have been built and operated fairly successfully several 
times during the last hundred and forty years. As early as 1624 we 
hear of a Hollander, Dr. C. J. Drebbel, who constructed a wooden sub- 
marine boat propelled by oars. With this boat he experimented on the 
Thames. Submarine boats, however, did not acquire practical military 
importance till in this century, because not till then did the technical 
resources at the disposal of the inventors permit a practical solution. 
During the years 1771 to 1775 an American, David Bushnell of 
Connecticut, constructed a submarine vessel which he called the Amert- 
can Turtle. It was built of wood and the shape was that of two tortoise 
shells stuck together. The boat possessed in a primitive form most of 
the essential features of modern types. A mine box of wood containing 
150 lbs. of gunpowder was carried on the outside and was to be attached 
with a screw to the bottom of the enemy ship. During the War of 
Independence an attack was attempted against a British frigate, the 
Eagle, but the operator did not succeed in fixing the mine, which exploded 
harmlessly at a distance from the ship. Bushnell was the first inventor 
of the submarine mine. He showed, what was then considered marvellous, 
that gunpowder could be made to explode under water. He well 
deserves the title accorded to him as the ‘‘Father of Submarine War- 
fare’’. 
Robert Fulton took up the ideas of Bushnell and with more means 
at his disposal he advanced the solution of the problem considerably. 
It is of interest to note that Fulton was a peace advocate, and when 
he devoted so much energy to the development of the submarine boat 
as also of the submarine mine, it was on the ground that he believed 
these weapons would make war on the sea impossible. Other friends 
of peace have had the same belief. We know now how much they have 
been mistaken. Fulton went to Paris in 1797 and laid his plans for a 
