Drebbel's submarine
Submarino de remos de Drebbel
- Date
- 1620-1624 · confidence high
- Place
- London (River Thames), England
- Credited to
- Cornelis Drebbel; earlier design by William Bourne (1578)
- People
- 👤 Cornelius Drebbel1572–1633
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden boat lined with greased leather, propelled by oars passing through watertight seals, which sailed submerged along the Thames with twelve oarsmen. The first documented navigable submersible.
The details come from eyewitness accounts (Van der Woude, Boyle) rather than plans; how it achieved submersion and air supply remains disputed.
What it led to
- The idea of submarine warfare (Bushnell's Turtle, 1776)
- The study of breathable air (Drebbel used a 'quintessence of air', possibly oxygen from saltpetre)
- The reputation of Dutch mechanics at the English court
Built on
- Diving bell and diving suit1691 (campana) / c. 1715 (escafandra de Lethbridge)
- Bourne's Inventions or Devises (1578)
- Caulked shipbuilding
Made possible
- Bushnell's Turtle (combat submarine)1775-1776
- Ictíneo (Monturiol's submarine with an air-independent engine)1859-1867
- Bushnell's Turtle
- Fulton's Nautilus (1800)