Who Invented the Submarine?

Explore the origins of submarine warfare, from Leonardo da Vinci's sketches to the daring mission of the Turtle in the American Revolution—history's first combat submarine. Dive into the untold story!

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[wyskass]

I love that the old drawings have the operator wearing a proper gentleman's suit.

[nicholasmontgomery]

I remember writing a paper about the Turtle in college. Not a lot of people know but the first deployment of the submarine was also the first deployment of an underwater time bomb.
These bombs would see action in the war with them being credited for disabling the HMS Cutty Sark

[joelellis]

King James probably wasn't the first monarch to travel under water, maybe the first to do so willingly and survive.

[jimtaylor]

The Drebble's design was tested at 2/3rds scale during the 00's actually, as part of a BBC2 tv series. The tests proved the concept was possible.

[seandelap]

The most nerve racking thing about a submarine is not submerging under the ocean but whether it will end up reemerging again i mean anything can go wrong when you're that far down

[Psychotol]

American Revolution Turtle: Deploys
Hunt For Red october Theme: Intensifies

[popuptarget]

Submarine rule #1 count number of dives and number of surfacings, divide by 2. If the answer does not come out even, do not open the hatch.

[skunkjobb]

H.L Hunley actually sand three times, killing it's crew every time. The first two times it was quickly raised and given a new crew but the third time it was lost for a long long time. Closing the hatch as its third crew would make me a bit nervous if I knew what happened twice before.

[lucasglowacki]

I remember seeing that cross section technical drawing as a child in one of my dads history of warfare books. I studied it like mad so me and my buddies could build one too😂

[CarlosGarcia-fiyu]

The of the matter is that "Spain's Ictíneo II with a double haul and a working ballast pump was the very first successful submarine. The Ictíneo II was a pioneering submarine Its launching took place in the Port of Barcelona on October 2, 1864 by the Spanish engineer Narcis Monturiol and it was the first air independent and combustion powered submarine and the first submarine to overcome the basic problems of machine powered underwater navigation.

[cmdrdredd]

I think it’s pretty interesting that DaVinci would have been thinking of people turning things into military weapons and not wanting to give out too much info on his ideas because he didn’t want to create weapons of war. Even if he is exaggerating how far along his ideas were in practice.

[dougcook]

I'm surprised, Simon, that you didn't mention that three years ago on this channel you released a video about the H.L. Hunley outlining it's success and many failures: 'The Ludicrously Dangerous Submarine that Somehow Became the First Sub to Sink Another Ship in Combat
'

[LeydenAigg]

Don't be silly. Everybody knows it was Captain Nemo!

[charlesachurch]

Thanks for another fascinating presentation, cheers Simon xxx

[chuckmesser]

Someone built a full-sized replica of the Turtle and it worked. It was first tested in a swimming pool, then a harbor.

[leemon]

Alexander the great had a giant enclosed glass submarine that let him sit below the water by a few metres. Apparently he saw a sun fish and got so scared he never used it again. So ya Alexander the great invented submarines

[caboose]

I would love to see a modern version of the Turtle made... Using fiberglass, foam, and aluminum...

[bttawfiq]

Another episode about the continuous development until the first "true" submarines we all know today were made would be nice.

[string_fellow_hawk]

Necessity really is the mother of invention. ❤❤

[TheJediCaptain]

Fun Fact: the Hunley was discovered by novelist Clive Cussler who ran a real-world team of his fictionalised NUMA from his books.