THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



the time to be had at first hand. Thus Admiral Earl 

 St. Vincent, when opposing the views of William Pitt, 

 who had become enthusiastic over the possibilities of 

 Fulton's submarines, is on record as having opposed 

 such craft on the ground that by encouraging such de- 

 velopment *'he was laying the foundation which would 

 do away with the navy." In 1802, M. St. Aubin wrote 

 in this connection, *^What will become of the navies, 

 and where will sailors be found to man ships of war, 

 when it is a physical certainty that they may at any 

 time be blown into the air by diving boats, against 

 which no human foresight can guard them?'* 



Such opposition has undoubtedly tended to retard 

 the progress of submarine navigation; but be the 

 cause what it may, it has made slow and laborious 

 work of it ; and we are only now approaching a solution 

 of the question that seemed almost within grasp a hun- 

 dred years ago — ^before the days of steam or electricity. 



THE FIRST SUBMARINE 



As early as the sixteenth century the possibilities of 

 submarine navigation was the dream of the mariner, 

 and tentative attempts at submarine boats are said to 

 have been made even at an earlier period than this; 

 but the first practical submarine boat capable of navi- 

 gation entirely submerged for any length of time was 

 made by David Bushnell, of Westbrook (then Say- 

 brook), Maine, U. S. A., in 1775. Details as to the 

 construction of the remarkable craft, are recorded in a 

 letter written by the inventor to Thomas Jefferson in 



[94] 



