The Story of the Submarine

In Short

Published in 1916, this book chronicles the evolution of undersea navigation from its early experimental origins through its pivotal role in the First World War. It details the struggles of inventors, the mechanics of underwater propulsion and weaponry, and the horrific reality of submarine warfare. As a clear, non-technical history, it has lasted because it captures a transformative technological shift at the exact moment it was reshaping world history, offering an eyewitness perspective on how submersibles disrupted traditional navies and tested international maritime law.

The Story

The narrative begins long before the modern steel-hulled submersible was imagined, charting the earliest mechanical attempts to navigate under water. It highlights key pioneers like David Bushnell, whose hand-powered, wood-framed Turtle sought to break the British blockade during the American Revolution, and Robert Fulton, whose Nautilus attempted to win over Napoleon’s France. These early trials established the core engineering challenges that would plague inventors for generations: maintaining depth, ensuring adequate ventilation, securing propulsion, and delivering a payload safely without destroying the attacking vessel.

As the nineteenth century progressed, experimentation intensified despite tragic setbacks. The American Civil War provided a grim testing ground with the Confederate submarine Hundley, a hand-cranked vessel that repeatedly drowned its own crews before successfully sinking the USS Housatonic, only to perish alongside its victim. Over the following decades, inventions grew increasingly bizarre, ranging from submarine track-cars and fish-gilled craft to clock-spring mechanisms, until true functional designs emerged at the turn of the century. Modern undersea craft took shape through the competing approaches of John P. Holland, who perfected dynamic diving and gasoline propulsion, and Simon Lake, who introduced hydroplanes for level submergence alongside bottom-rolling wheels.

The book transitions into an immersive exploration of modern submarine operation, taking the reader through the physical reality of living aboard an underwater warship. Life inside is characterized by cramped quarters, noisy engines, hazardous fuel vapors, and heavy reliance on diving rudders, ballast pumps, and periscopes. Parallel advancements in technology—such as self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes stabilized by internal gyroscopes and lethal fields of naval mines—transformed the submarine from a questionable curiosity into a lethal instrument of global strategy.

The climax brings the reader face-to-face with the immense conflict of World War I. The submarine becomes a central instrument of commerce destruction and naval blockades. The text details deep-sea rescues, high-seas sinkings, and disastrous collisions, culminating in the sinking of passenger liners like the Lusitania and Ancona. These incidents created profound diplomatic crises between neutral nations like the United States and the warring European powers over international law, merchant rights, and the ethical limits of undersea warfare.

How It Unfolds

The birth of underwater craft Early visionaries attempt to build water-tight vessels, leading to David Bushnell's Turtle in 1776. Operating by hand cranks and equipped with a clockwork trigger, it marks the first operational combat deployment of a submarine.

Fulton and the nineteenth-century trials Robert Fulton attempts to sell his Nautilus design to revolutionary France while supporting himself by inventing visual panoramas. Mid-century inventors experiment with diverse propulsion models, though many designs end in catastrophic failure.

Tragedy aboard the Peripatetic Coffin During the Civil War, the Confederate vessel Hundley repeatedly sinks during practice runs, claiming thirty-five lives. On its sixth attempt, it successfully destroys the USS Housatonic with a spar-torpedo, sinking alongside its target.

The modern pioneers emerge John P. Holland and Simon Lake revolutionize submarine mechanics around the turn of the twentieth century. Holland develops the diving hull concept while Lake perfects level submergence through hydroplanes, establishing the foundational templates for modern naval fleets.

Life aboard and total warfare The technical realities of twentieth-century submersibles are revealed alongside the devastating impact of gyroscopically guided torpedoes and naval mines. German U-boats inflict vast damage during World War I, sinking ships like the Lusitania and forcing global diplomatic reckonings.

The People

• David Bushnell: A Yale-educated inventor driven to protect the American forces in 1776. Confronted by British naval superiority, he invents the Turtle and underwater gunpowder ignition, establishing the feasibility of submarine warfare.
• Robert Fulton: An American artist and inventor who persistently seeks support for his submarine designs in France. Blocked by skeptical naval ministers, he funds his work by inventing public panoramas before securing temporary backing from Napoleon.
• Lieutenant Dixon: A courageous Confederate officer who volunteers to command the Hundley despite its deadly track record. Seeking to break the Union blockade at Charleston, he leads his crew on a fatal mission that sinks the USS Housatonic.
• John P. Holland: A dedicated inventor whose innovative designs lay the groundwork for the modern submarine fleet. He struggles against engineering disagreements and corporate shifts, dying just as his creations reshape world war.
• Simon Lake: An inventive rival to Holland who pioneer horizontal rudders and hydroplanes to submerge ships on an even keel. His mechanical innovations gain recognition worldwide, permanently altering submarine design.

In Its Own Voice

"The first experiment I made," wrote Bushnell in a letter to Thomas Jefferson when the latter was American minister to France in 1789, "was with about 2 ounces of powder, which I exploded 4 feet under water, to prove to some of the first personages in Connecticut that powder would take fire under water."

David Bushnell explains his early underwater gunpowder testing to Thomas Jefferson.

"Don’t ever strike a light in a submarine or a dynamite factory. It’s unhealthy."

A submarine engineer warns a visitor about the constant hazard of explosive fuel vapors inside the vessel.

"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life."

Theatrical producer Charles Frohman speaks his final calm words before going down with the Lusitania.

What It's Really About

The book explores how human ingenuity can rapidly transform a fringe invention into a world-altering weapon. Beneath the technical descriptions lies a question about the ethics of technological progress: when mechanical capabilities outpace existing international laws, human civilization struggles to maintain moral and diplomatic boundaries. The text highlights the tension between heroic individual invention and the indiscriminate destruction wrought by industrial warfare.

Why Read It Today

This work offers an immediate, captivating glimpse into a turning point in military history. Written in 1916 as the First World War raged, it captures the raw excitement and grave anxiety surrounding modern technology in real time. Readers fascinated by naval history, mechanics, and early twentieth-century politics will enjoy its clear, accessible prose and vivid accounts of daring inventors and hazardous voyages.

The reading experience is direct, fast-paced, and engaging, though it reflects the period in which it was produced. Because the narrative was composed during active wartime, certain sections have a immediate, ongoing quality, as global events were still actively unfolding. The book does not shy away from the horrific costs of early naval experimentation and unrestricted submarine warfare, detailing tragic drownings, explosions, and catastrophic sinkings. Yet, it remains an extraordinary historical document—a balanced, non-technical chronicle of how human curiosity conquered the ocean depths, forever altering the nature of human conflict.