Those early efforts would have looked crude beside Captain Nemo's Nautilus. After that, submarine science lagged until John Holland and Simon Lake began experimenting with and building submarines that were accepted by several countries, including us and the Germans. The Hunley even experimented with electromagnetic engines, but that technology was not ready, so eight men sat inside the submarine and turned a crank that spun the propeller for propulsion.
That last thing, by the way, was a concept that nobody thought had been used before Howard Hughes flushed the rivets on an aircraft he designed in the mid-nineteen-thirties.
She was quite streamlined, and she had a rudimentary snorkel system with bellows to pump air, ballast tanks with pumps, diving planes and flush rivets to reduce water drag. When she was inspected at first hand and the silt and remains of her crew removed from inside, she was found to be far more modern in concept than was supposed. The Hunley sat on the bottom buried in silt for a hundred and thirty-six years before she was discovered, raised and placed in a conservation laboratory tank to preserve her for public display. Perlmutter nodded.Yes, the feat didn't happen again until fifty years later, in August of 1914, when the U-21 sank the HMS Pathfinder in the North Sea. Perlmutter contemplated his bottle of port, which was now two-thirds empty.Over that time, many ships disappeared under mysterious circumstances. What about Verne? Pitt inquired.There must be a museum, a home or relatives that collected all his papers, research records and letters. Pitt set his glass on the table but refused another when offered.I can't believe a supernatural vessel decades ahead of its time 'was built by private individuals. Not exactly an underwater craft to be taken lightly in 1894.Ĭome to think of it, the Kearsarge was not the only vessel reported sunk by an undersea monster. Probably somewhere in between, Pitt said thoughtfully.Somewhere slightly more than two hundred feet in length with a twenty-five-foot beam. The ship that sank the famous Confederate raider Alabama?
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