Submarines: History -Milestones in Depth

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In 1620, Danish doctor Cornelius Van Drebbel is credited with designing and building the first workable submarine. The submarine was rowed underwater and tubes to the surface provided air, allowing the submarine to travel at depths close to 15 feet (4.6 meters) for several hours.

In 1690, Edmund Halley of comet fame patented a diving bell which was connected by a pipe to weighted barrels of air that could be replenished from the surface. Both barrel and bell, the latter with men in it, were lowered to depth; dives to over 60 feet (18.3 meters) for 90 minutes were recorded. Diving bells were shown to be practicable devices.

In 1715, Englishman John Lethbridge built a "diving engine", an oak cylinder which was reinforced with iron hoops and had a glass viewing port. Inside this device, a diver could stay submerged for 30 minutes at 60 feet (18. 3 meters), while protruding his arms into the water for salvage work. Water was kept out of the suit by means of greased leather cuffs, which seal around the operator's arms. The diving engine was said to be used successfully for many years.

On Sept. 6, 1776 the Turtle , designed by David Bushnell, became the first submarine to be used in war. The watertight, oak, one-person submarine was propelled by a hand crank and could remain just below the surface for up to a half-hour. During the American Revolution, it was used in three unsuccessful attempts to sink the British HMS Eagle in the New York Harbor. Bushnell unsucessfully used his design once more in the War of 1812 against the British.

In 1801, while in France, Robert Fulton built the two-person submarine Nautilus . The submarine carried enough air that two people could stay underwater for more than three hour at depths of 25 feet (7.6 meters). Ballast tanks were used to submerge the boat and a hand crank propelled it, while on the surface a sail was used.

In 1900, the US Navy purchased Holland's sixth submarine (built in 1896) for $160,000. The 53.3-foot-long, 63-ton submarine, which became known as the USS Holland (SS-1), could travel to a depth of 100 feet (30.5 meters). Holland's submarine, which held six crew, was the Navy's first operational submarine.

In 1930, William Beebe, a diving pioneer, descended 1,426 feet (434.6 meters) in a round, 4'9" bathysphere. It was attached to a barge by a 7/8" non-twisting steel cable.

On August 15, 1934, William Beebe and Otis Barton descended 3,028 feet (922.9 meters) in a bathysphere near Bermuda. This dive set a depth record that remained unbroken for 14 years.

In 1939, The U.S. Navy successfully rescued men trapped in a submarine 243 feet (74.1 meters) below the surface by a new diving bell, the McCann Rescue Chamber. Four separate trips were used to rescue the men.

In 1948, Otis Barton descended in a modified bathysphere to a depth of 4,500 feet (1371.6 meters) off the coast of California.

In 1954, famed Swiss balloonist August Piccard and his son Jacques pioneered a new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe, which meant deep boat. The bathyscaphe was completely self-contained (not tethered to the surface) and designed to go deeper than any bathysphere.

On Febuary 15,1954, off the coast of French West Africa, a bathyscaphe containing Georges S. Houot and Pierre-Henri Willm exceeded Barton's 1948 diving record, reaching a depth of 13,287 feet (4049.8 meters).

On January 23, 1960 Jacques Piccard and Navy lieutenant Don Walsh descended over 35,800 feet (10,911.8 meters) in the August Piccard-designed, Swiss-built, US Navy- owned bathyscaphe Trieste. This dive took place in the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench, 250 miles southwest of Guam, the deepest part of the ocean.

In 1968, the USS Dolphin (AGSS-555) is commissioned. This small diesel submarine could be operated at 3,000 feet (915 meters), greater than any other known submarine, and was intended to be used for research and development purposes.

In 1977, while diving nearly 8,000 feet (2,438.4 meters) on the East Pacific Rise near the Pacific Ocean's Galapagos Islands, ALVIN (an ONR- research submersible operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) and its three passengers happened upon a hydrothermal vent, the first ever seen by humans! In 1985, U.S.-French team headed by Woods Hole researcher Robert Ballard, using a remotely-operated- vehicle, Jason Jr., found the wreck of the Titanic. The ship sat broken into two sections at 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) depth, some 400 miles northeast of New York.