Charles River Editors - Submarine Warfare in World War I: The History and Legacy of the German U-boats and Allied Efforts to Counter Them

The ability to remain and travel underwater for an extended period of time has long been a dream for a good portion of mankind, perhaps second only to that of flying. The first submersible may have been a kind of glass container made for Alexander the Great so that he could observe undersea life firsthand. Despite this early attempt, fate decreed the idea of traveling beneath the surface of the water would lie fallow for nearly another 2,000 years after this experiment in about 332 BCE. Alexanders death the next year effectively squashed any further developments.

While people often tend to think of submarines as a modern invention, inventors created several prototypes from 1580 onward, and they even attempted to use them. Some of the designs remained theoretical and never got off the drawing board, but as time went on, several Europeans built and tested primitive submarines. Most of these early subs were made of wood and often possessed an awkward shape, but a French priest first proposed the now familiar cylindrical layout in 1634. He determined that this shape would make it easier for the submarine to withstand water pressure, while likewise improving maneuverability.

The potential for submarines to be used in warfare came to the fore very quickly. The Rotterdam Boat appears in history as the first submersible to be used for this purpose, built in 1634 for the express mission of attacking British vessels in the Thames. However, the mechanism intended to propel the boat proved so weak that it went nowhere at all, and merely sank.

Propulsion proved a major obstacle for early submarines. David Bushnell encountered this problem when he built a submarine in 1776 with the intention of drilling holes in the hulls of British ships during the Revolutionary War. In order to approach the ships, however, the Turtle, as Bushnell dubbed it, had to be towed right up to the intended target ship by rowboats. Dr. Benjamin Gale described the curious method by which the submarine would theoretically attach a waterproofed explosive charge, or magazine, to the target ship, in a letter to future congressman Silas Deane: The magazine for the powder is carried on the hinder part of the machine, without-board, and so contrived that, when he comes under the side of the ship, he rubs down the side until he comes to the keel, and a hook so fixed that when it touches the keel it raises a spring which frees the magazine from the machine, and fastens it to the side of the ship; at the same time it draws a pin, which sets the watch-work a-going, which, at a given time, springs the lock, and an explosion ensues. (Werner, 1899, 25).

A 19 th century diagram of the Turtle

This description proved somewhat optimistic compared to the reality. For example, the actual Turtle included a hand-powered drill to make holes to which the hook might hopefully fasten, unlike the almost automatic process Dr. Gale described. Although the brave sergeant manning the Turtle, Ezra Lee, did try to drill into the HMS Eagle, he failed to do so because the bit could not pierce the copper sheathing on the hulls exterior, which had been placed there to prevent shipworm damage. Lee soon returned to the surface, where British longboats approached to sink the Turtle, but they retreated in fear when he released the explosive magazine on the sea surface. His fellow Americans soon picked him up, with no harm being done to either side.