The First Diving Boat

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 5, 31 January 1907, Page 15

The First Diving Boat

In 1849-there^ was a war- between Germany and Denmark over the possession of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Germans were" seeMng ways to -fight the Dauit>n fleet., A hon-comniissioneu oiheer of tne Bavarian troops, Wilhelin Bauer, : thought he could solve . the piobiem. He built a boat tor which he took, his ideas lromi the seal, it was supposed to be a vessel whlcii could dive under the water, approach the enemies ships unseen, and blow them up. Out of the scanty means collected among the troops and from. private people wnom he interested, the man . "built his boat and tried it in the harbor of Kiel on ,the Baltic Sea. it was on February 1, 1851, that Banief, . with' two sailors named Witt and Thoinsen, made a third trial with ' The Devil of the Sea,' as the sailors called it. This time it was sent lower thian it had been before and the frail-built boat, being unable to withstand the increasing pressure of the water, sprang a leak - somewhere and sanit to the bottom. The boat was sunk by letting water into the ballast room- and thus making it? heavier", and to rise again by pumping out water. After reaching the bottom the_ sailors went to work at the pumps but to their terror they- found that the water pressure had made them useless too. But the inventor kept cool, his eye was _ on the hatchway. At present it- was impossible for a human hand -to open it. 'But the water which was slowly leaking in should be their saviour as it had been their destruction. The higher it rose the more " the air in the boat would be compressed and at last the counter-pressure woufil become so great that the hatchway would be opened and give them- a chance to get out into, the water and up to the surface. This was the only hope. The two sailors standing in the icy water and watching it rise around them could not understand this explanation, and in their despafir they . went to work again at the useless pumps. In the meantime there was'a new danger, of which Bauer had not thought. The watchers on the surface had grown anxious, and were looking for the sunken boat. Each' time an anchor " scraped the roof or struck ij;'s sides he was in agony lest it should strike a window, let in the water and let out tine compressed air, thus destroying their only chance* . Then a chain was thrown and its loop caught the htatchw^ay, closingit. Bauer was «n despair, though he said nothing. But fortunately the chain broke. The water was up to the necks of the men now, and the air was suffocating. It was time to) go. The force of the compressed air behind them shot them up to r the surface. Here they were picked up by the resuce boats. But Bauer was sad, for his boat, the firsts submarine boat, was at the bottom of the sea, and the unhappy- man guessed that it would . not be raised attain in his lifetime. He died after many hardships, and w^th him the secret of his boat, without having been able to benefit hiifiself or others by his wonderful invention.