Who built the first submersible/submarine?
First submarine designed in 1578 William Bourne, a British mathematician, drew plans for a submarine in 1578. But it was only in 1620 that Cornelius van Drebbel, a Dutch inventor, managed to build a submarine. He wrapped a wooden rowboat tightly in waterproofed leather and had air tubes with floats to the surface to provide oxygen. Of course, there were no engines yet, so the oars went through the hull at leather gaskets. He took the first trip with 12 oarsmen in the Thames River – staying submerged for 3 hours. The first submarine used for military purposes was built in 1776 by David Bushnell (1742-1824) of the US. His “Turtle” was a one-man, wooden submarine powered by hand-turned propellers. It was used during the American Revolution against British warships. The Turtle would approach enemy ships partially submerged to attach explosives to the ships’s hull. The Turtle worked well but the explosives did not. Two rival inventors from the US developed the first true submarines in the 1
