Who invented the submarine?

Answer 1

Submarines were envisioned long ago as an undersea weapon to be used against surface ships, but technology could not deliver one for practical naval warfare for hundreds of years following their ideation.

Though modern historians credit the submarine's invention to one individual, it's not quite that cut and dry. As it is probable that the earliest sailors wondered what it might be like to sail beneath the sea, it might be best to say that the submarine appeared as the result of a journey of many technological and scientific steps over hundreds of years. The creation of a pressure hull of sorts had to be coupled with solutions to problems associated with buoyancy as well as water pressure. All this had to be merged with weapons, crew facilities, and the critical issue of suitable propulsion, air, ballast control, etc. Imagine trying to build a fully functioning submarine with the tools of a blacksmith.

While there were many who contributed to submarine development over the centuries, there are several key individuals who are responsible for advancing submarine design, development, and engineering over the course of several hundred years, ultimately leading to the technologically advanced submarines we have today:

Leonardo da Vinci

Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel

William Bourne

David Bushnell

Robert Fulton

Horace Hunley

John P. Holland

Hyman G. Rickover

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci conceptualized the submarine, and it is possible (probable) that others could have thought of the idea of an undersea vehicle, but the technology to put a working model in the water and safely and effectively operate it didn't come along for over a century following Leonardo.

William Bourne /Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel

Historians credit the invention of the submarine to William Bourne, a British mathematician and ex-Royal Navy gunner who published a design in 1578. The first navigable submarine for which reliable construction data exists was built from Bourne's design in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutch inventor in the employ of King James I of England.

David Bushnell's Turtle

David Bushnell's submarine Turtle, designed by Bushnell and built in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775, was so named because it looked like a turtle due to its shape. It was manually powered, constructed of wood, heavily covered in pitch and reinforced with metal bands. Though it is considered the first submarine used in combat (Revolutionary War) its attacks on British warships were never successful. This was due in large part because it didn't have a way to penetrate the copper cladding around the lower part of British warship hulls. It was sunk by the British while attached to its tender.

Robert Fulton's Nautilus

Robert Fulton's submarine Nautilus, designed between 1793-97, was the first practical working submarine design of record. It had a working ballast system, successfully dove to 25 feet and returned to the surface without any deaths, and successfully attacked stationary targets.

Living in France at the time, Fulton petitioned the French Government twice to fund his project, but was rejected. He later approached the French Minister of Marine to subsidize the construction, and was finally given permission in 1800. Though it had initially impressed the French during trials, the Nautilus suffered from leaks, which is the primary reason Fulton gave up. When Napoleon wanted to see it, he found that Fulton had already dismantled the Nautilus and destroyed many of its key components. Napoleon thought that Fulton was a charlatan, and the French Navy had no use for what they believed then to be a suicidal machine.

Even though Fulton's project didn't continue, the British, wanting to keep control over what appeared to them to be a potentially lethal device, brought Fulton to Britain to continue his submarine work. However, with Nelson's victory over the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, the French threat was eliminated, and Fulton was ignored until he finally left to return to America. His papers were left at the U.S. Consul in London, and went undiscovered until 1920. He never again worked on submarine designs, though his contributions to submarine development are still remembered and honored today.

Horace L. Hunley & the H.L. HunleySubmarine

While its place in submarine evolution is small, her place in changing Naval Warfare history forever is significant. The first submarine to successfully sink an enemy combatant, the H.L. Hunley, was commandeered by the Confederate States' Army from its inventor, Confederate Marine Engineer Horace Lawson Hunley, and his business partners.

Built specifically as a submarine by Hunley, it incorporated a hand-cranked screw (7 crewmen) for propulsion, 2 watertight hatches, 2 conning towers (fore and aft), and a working ballast system. Her spar torpedo (essentially a long pole with a remote-detonated explosive charge on the end) was designed to pierce wooden ships with the charge, then back away and detonate it from a safe distance using an attached wire.

It was successfully used to attack and sink the Union sloop-of-war USSHousatonic on February 17, 1864, then anchored in Charleston Harbor, during the the Civil War Union blockade of Charleston, S.C. Often incorrectly referred to as the CSS Hunley, it in fact was never a commissioned warship in the Confederate States of America. It was commandeered by the Confederate Army, crewed by 1 Confederate sailor and 8 Confederate Army soldiers.

Though the Hunley was thought to have been sunk by the explosion of the attack, investigation of historical records showed that she had signaled her base on Sullivan's Island with a blue carbide lamp that her attack was successful, and that she was returning to base. New forensic evidence uncovered after the recovery of the Hunley several years ago revealed that her crew likely died of asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen, while returning to Sullivan's Island. One key factor is that the crew remains were found at their posts, rather than grouped near an exit, which would be the natural response to sinking.

Had they successfully returned from her mission, it is likely that submarine engineering and evolution would've advanced a lot faster than it did.

John Phillip Holland & the Diesel-Electric Submarine

The "better" submarine design, over 30 years after the Hunley's sinking, incorporated internal combustion engines, electric motors, generators, and battery technology. John Phillip Holland's USS Holland(SS-1), the U.S. Navy's first commissioned submarine (launched in May 1897, commissioned in 1900), was the first real effective submarine design. Incorporating rechargeable battery technology and combustion engines for surface transit/battery charging, the Holland is considered the forerunner of all modern submarines.

Holland was also the first to apply for and receive patents on key submarine technology, much of which is essentially the same today, though more advanced in some areas. The company founded to build submarines to his designs, Electric Boat, still survives as one of the United States' premier submarine builders, General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division, in Groton, CT.

Hyman G. Rickover, Nuclear Power, and the Nautilus

Not until the advent of Nuclear Power and the vision of Naval Engineer Hyman G. Rickover (Admiral Rickover, "Father of the Nuclear Navy"), did submarines become true submersibles.

Until that time, submarines were essentially designed as surface vessels that had a limited submerged operational capability, and were designed to run faster on the surface than underwater. Captured U-boats after WWII showed how far the Germans had advanced the art of submarine hull design and technology; while many of these innovations found their way into modern submarines, it was Rickover who realized that harnessing a nuclear reactor in a small design used to power submarines (and later ships) would give submarine warfare a significant technological boost. Unlike diesel-electric technology, nuclear power offers the advantage of huge power generation, which means better equipment (sensors, weapons, navigation, huge fresh water / air generating capacity, etc.), underwater speed (a major departure from previous designs) and virtually unlimited cruising range.

With Rickover's successful pressurized-water reactor design (still in use today) installed on the United States' (and the world's) first nuclear powered submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), nuclear power changed submarine technology and warfare from the limited role that it had in previous conflicts to the multiple mission threat it is today.

The application of Nuclear Power "sealed the deal" and allowed for the development of the highly capable and extremely complex modern submarine. Modern boats are only limited by her crew requirements, can dive deeper and move much faster underwater than on the surface, and have many different tactical capabilities. They are true submarines by every definition.