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During the American Civil War, the Union was the first to field a submarine. The French-designed Alligator was the first U.S. Navy sub and the first to feature compressed air (for air supply) and an air filtration system. It was the first submarine to carry a diver lock, which allowed a diver to plant electrically detonated mines on enemy ships.
The first submarine was not the Turtle or the Nautilus, but a little known Russian vessel. Learn about the history of submarines, a rich and exciting story that spans thousands of years.
From an oar-powered prototype to the original U.S. Navy submarine, here are nine undersea vehicles that were among the first in history to take the plunge.
Submarines first became a major factor in naval warfare during World War I (1914–18), when Germany employed them to destroy surface merchant vessels. In such attacks submarines used their primary weapon, a self-propelled underwater missile known as a torpedo.
The first confirmed building of a submarine comes from 1620, with a submersible designed and built by Cornelis Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of King James I of England. His device used oars to steer, and between 1630 and 1624, two improved versions were tested in the River Thames.
THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN SUBMARINE. Ten years after the end of the Civil War, Irish-born John Holland began designing and building submarines in the United States. Holland submitted his first...
The first military submarine was Turtle, which made its debut during the American Revolution. Built in 1775 by Connecticut inventor David Bushnell, the walnut-shaped submersible measured 7 feet high and 5½ feet wide.
On 17 February 1864, after it had been raised, refurbished and given a new crew, H.L. Hunley became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy warship when she sank USS Housatonic off Charleston.
Cornelis Drebbel (born 1572, Alkmaar, Netherlands—died November 7, 1633, London, England) was a Dutch inventor who built the first navigable submarine. An engraver and glassworker in Holland, Drebbel turned to applied science and in 1604 went to England, where King James I became his patron.
During the American Revolutionary War, inventor David Bushnell and mechanical wizard Isaac Doolittle put together that first submersible, the Turtle. It was a thing of Connecticut Yankee ingenuity: essentially an oak barrel with clockwork mechanics that used water ballast to control its depth.