During the same period that King George's navy was establishing an almost complete domination of the seas, the new Republic of France was considering a scheme that may have well broken that supremacy. In 1797, the American engineer, inventor and one time portrait painter, Robert Fulton offered the French Directorate a submarine, further he offered to construct the machine at his own expense, only charging 4000 livre a gun on the rating of every ship he sunk and 2000 livre for each unrated ship, his only stipulation was that sailors manning his vessel should be given naval rank to ensure their combatants status should they be captured. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your view-point) it was this reason that the Directory objected to, they offered half the sinking money, and issued a rebuke from the minister of war... "The Government cannot openly avow men who carry out this kind of operation, the English who are ingenious with destructive machines, would soon be using similar destructive devices and would as a result be exempt from the code of war which justly inflicts punishment on those who are not really inclined to behave in such an atrocious manner." Fulton replied. "It seems that the reasons for refusing my offer are pitiable considerations of humanity, as if it were possible to protect against the use of a means of revenging oneself and freeing oneself of one's most implacable enemy, of annihilating the insolent despotism of the English navy, in doing so, ensuring the freedom of the seas for the commerce of all nations, of draining the spring which nourishes the new coalition and brings peace to the world." He was nevertheless prepared to build his semi-submersible, and on July 31st 1798, after trials conducted on the river Seine, she was launched at Rouen. Fulton named his new vessel "Nautilus", she was 5.8 meters in length and 1.8 meters in the beam, moreover she was of wooden construction with iron plates fitted and overlaid with copper sheeting. Power was provided by a hand operated propeller and the machine was controlled by two rudders, one vertical and one horizontal. To dive, water was admitted into the hull and to the surface it was driven out by a hand operated pump. On the top was a dome fitted with thick glass panels which never submerged and through which the craft was directed, a collapsible mast and sail provided propulsion when surfaced. There was also a crew of three and with these Nautilus could remain sub-merged for up to three hours. Weaponry was provided by an explosive carcass which could be attached to an enemy ship by means of a "barbed point" and fired at the end of a 100 metre cable. Once completed, Fulton asked for a credit of 60,000 livre, but by this time Bonaparte was First Consul and he being extremely con-servative about new forms of weaponry and would supply nothing more than a small quantity of gunpowder. This prompted Fulton to give the government a demonstration of the vessel on October 31st 1800 at Le Havre, where Nautilus succeeded in blowing up an enemy hogshead moored off the quay, but due to wind and tide two British ships eluded the slow submarine. However, this did persuade the Minister of Marine to make an enquiry which reported that "this submarine was far from perfect but may repay research". This gained Fulton 10,000 francs and permission to carry on his experiments. At Brest in July 1801, Nautilus blew up an elderly sloop with a charge of 9 kilograms. According to the Maritime Prefect, "The Chaloupe leapt into the air and descended into a thousand pieces." Encouraged, Fulton sought permission to make an attempt on two British Frigates anchored off the roadstead (Ed. O.E.D. states a roadstead is a road for ships!). All he asked for was the support of six armed pinnaces (Ed. Again for the ill informed including me, a pinnace is a Warship's small boat O.E.D.) to cover his withdrawal, but the Admiral refused to supply these on the grounds that anyone captured in such a venture was sure to be hanged. This he added was "no death for a military man". Frustrated, Fulton appealed direct to the First Consul: "With three of these devices, England would be forced to submit, each craft carries 20 or 30 carcasses and one has only to take them onto the approaches of the naval bases at England and let them drift with the current or anchor them at the entrances to Portsmouth, Plymouth or Torbay or at the mouth of the Thames. I have two kinds of carcasses, the first has a mechanism, like that of a clock, which can be set to operate between 4 minutes and 4 hours later. The other can be fixed by grapples to the bottom of the ship, four or five feet below the waterline. No navigator could avoid these secret dangers and at little cost the enemy ports could be blocked. The interruption to trade at the Thames would be enough to bring England down, for it would stop the trade which is the nerve and soul of the government at St. James." Bonaparte's reaction was to cut off assistance to Fulton, who being a shrewd businessman as well as a talented inventor, took his business and offered it to the British navy. First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord St. Vincent was of the opinion that: "Such ways of waging war are useless to those who already possess command of the sea, if it is successful, they will deprive themselves of their supremacy." This however did not prevent him authorising further experiments at government expense and Fulton developed an unmanned, fully submersible, explosive craft. In 1805, his craft sunk the brig H.M.S. Dorothy in a test run. The vessel was then used in a raid against the invasion flotilla at Bolougne on October 2nd and succeeded in sinking a French pinnace. However, no news of its success reached England and in the aftermath of Trafalgar the admiralty lost interest in submarines. Fulton returned to America and by 1807 was operating a steamboat between New York and Albany on the Hudson, yet his interest in submarines was still not tarnished by previous experiences of official indifference in Europe. He succeeded in getting Congressional support for a more ambitious undersea craft. This new submarine was to carry 100 men and be powered by steam. Fulton died in 1815 before his new craft was complete, it was never finished and was left to rot, eventually sinking at its moorings. Editors note. This article has been previously published sometime ago in another publication. Unfortunately, I have mislaid the authors note, acknowledgement will be made at a later date. Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #17 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com