|
|
Article: Submarines
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
SUBMARINES
SUBMARINES.
The first operating submarine was tested by the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel from 1620 to 1624, but a submarine was not used in combat until 1776, when David Bushnell's one-man wooden craft, the
Turtle,
failed in its submerged attack on the British ship
Eagle
in New York harbor. Later, Robert Fulton, a famous American artist and inventor, built the
Nautilus
(1801) out of wood covered by iron plates. Although successful in submerged tests against wooden ships, the
Nautilus
failed to interest the government of France, England, or the United States. Bushnell produced another submarine for the War of 1812 against England, but his craft was unsuccessful.
During the ...