Submarines

Submarines I am going to be doing my report on the invention of the submarine. The very first attempt at creating the submarine was actually in the 1500s, but William Bourne the inventor died and so did his idea. David Bushel invented the first realistic submarine called the turtle. It was built in 1776 and there were attempts to use it in the revolutionary war. Although unsuccessful it was the begging of something great. The basic idea behind the submarine is to be discreet by going under the water. The plan was to use them to drive up close to ships and blow them out of the water. That plan was perfect using the element of surprise and being unnoticed. That is still what goes on today the same as it has for years. The first submarine used in the civil war was called the Hunley. The Hunley was a 40-foot long submarine, which was operated by an eight-man team on a crank system. It was invented on Feb. 16 1864. They would sit in rows of four and turn a crank that would then spin a propeller outside the body. It was sank three times and recovered each time before it was even close to being successful. The men would crank and crank until they just plain ran out of oxygen and suffocated and died. The plan of how to use this ship was to silently under the water row up to the enemy ship without being noticed. Then they would use a long pole the stuck out of the front of the submarine and drill a hole in the bottom of the ship and place dynamite inside the other ship. Then they would light a fuse and drive away before the explosion happened. Well the first three attempts were totally fails, the submarine barley went anywhere and the men inside would run out of oxygen and die. So the last attempt they didn’t close the lid until they were really close to the ship then they went under and planted the dynamite and paddled away. They did successfully sink the ship they were attacking called the U.S.S Houstonic, and then they died as they were running away. The confederates also had a submarine called the Davids. They were small steam powered submarines. The only real successful event of the Davids was on Oct. 5 1863 when it attacked the U.S.S New Iornsides. It disabled the ship but did not successfully sink the ship. The Hunley was found in may of 1995 off the coast of Charleston and then 5 years later it war recovered and can still be viewed to this day. Even though that was considered a failed attempt the Hunley started a wave of new ships and it brought us to where we are today.