Clara Fayula

David Bushnell’s Turtle, the first American submarine. Built in 1775, its intended
purpose was to break the British naval blockade of New York harbor during the
American Revolution. With slight positive buoyancy, Turtle normally floated with
approximately six inches of exposed surface. Turtle was powered by a hand-driven
propeller. The operator would submerge under the target, and using a screw projecting
from the top of Turtle, he would attach a clock-detonated explosive charge.

The first submarine in South America was the Hipopotamo, tested in Ecuador on
September 18, 1837. It was built by Jose Rodriguez Lavandera, who successfully
crossed the Guayas River in Guayaquil.

The Alligator (1862) was the first submarine purchased by the U.S. Navy. It
contained two crude air purifiers, a chemical based system for producing oxygen and a
bellows to force air through lime.

The first submarine not relying on human power for propulsion was the French
Plongeur, launched in 1863, and using compressed air.

February 17th of 1864, during the American Civil War, the Confederate States of
American´s submarine H.L. Hunley attacked the unionist ship U.S.S. Housatonic and
sank it. That was the first time that this kind of action was done.

The first combustion-powered submarine was Ictineo II, designed in Spain and
steam in 1867 by Narcís Monturiol.Monturiol invented an air-independent propulsion
system. While the air-independent power system drove the screw, the chemical process
driving it also released oxygen into the hull for the crew and an auxiliary steam engine.
Monturiol's fully functional, double hulled vessels also solved pressure and buoyancy
control problems that had bedeviled earlier designs.

The first submarine to be mass-produced was human-powered. It was the

submarine of the Polish inventor Stefan Drzewiecki—50 units were built in 1881 for the
Russian government. In 1884 the same inventor built an electric-powered submarine.

On September 8, 1888, an electrically powered vessel built by the Spanish

engineer and sailor Isaac Peral for the Spanish Navy was launched. It had two
torpedoes, new air systems, and a hull shape, propeller, and cruciform external controls
anticipating much later designs. Its underwater speed was ten knots (19 km/h). In June
1890 Peral's submarine launched a torpedo while submerged. Its ability to fire torpedoes
under water while maintaining full propulsive power and control has led some to call it
the first U-boat. After many successful dives the project was scrapped because of the
difficulties of recharging at sea and the short range of battery-powered vessels.

Isaac Peral (Cartagena, 1 June 1851 – 22 May 1895, Berlin), was a Spanish
scientist, sailor and inventor of the Peral Submarine (built 1884, launched 1888).
Intended for military use, this submarine pioneered new designs in the hull, control
systems and air systems, proving a success in two years of trials. Its ability to fire
torpedoes under water while maintaining full propulsive power and control has led
some to call it the first U-boat.

There are several streets in Spain named after Peral, including one at
Moncloa/Universitario section of Madrid, and others in Málaga, Córdoba, Santander,
Rota and Getafe.

The Peral submarine

The Peral submarine was first conceived on 20 September 1884, when Lieutenant
Isaac Peral wrote in a paper several notes which would become his "Proyecto de
Torpedero Submarino" (Project for a submarine torpedoboat).

After several studies and experiments, and having gained support from his
superiors and fellow officers, he exposed his idea to the Spanish navy, writing the
following year (September, 1885) to the Spanish naval minister, vice-admiral Pezuela y
Lobo, who ordered Peral to immediately go to Madrid and have a personal interview
with him. After this interview Pezuela y Lobo agreed to finance Peral's preliminary
studies in Cádiz with an initial budget of 5,000 pesetas, before launching a program to
build a full-scale submarine boat.

The first test consisted of testing human breath in a closed enclosure for several
hours. For this, a room of 58 square meters was used, with an air storage cell, loaded to
79 atmospheres and a storage capacity of half cubic meter. In addition to instruments to
measure the temperature and the humidity, there was a tube to expel viciated air from
inside, through a 4 m/m waterproof cloak and three water buckets to maintain the
humidity. Six people locked themselves inside the room; one of them had to leave an
hour and quarter later, but the rest remained for a total of five hours, and the test was
considered a total success.

On 21 July 1886, the new Navy Minister, rear-admiral Beranger, decided that the
project be reviewed by the Centro Técnico de la Armada (Naval Technical Center in
English), under the responsibility of Admiral Antequera. He considered necessary a
more complete study of the actuator before undertaking the construction of the hull and
the electric motor apparatus, authorizing Peral to carry out all the modifications that he
thought worthwhile, granting him 25,000 pesetas.

On 5 March 1887, Peral communicated that the electric motor or "Apparatus of

depth", as he called it, was ready. On 17th of the same month the Commander in Chief
of Cadiz, Florencio Montojo, who headed the technical committee which oversaw the
machine, gave the approval,asking Peral a budget for the submarine.

On 25 April, 1887 the submarine construction was finally approved by the

government; Keel was laid down on La Carraca on 7th October 1887, although work
didn't start until two weeks later. Nevertheless, the submarine had already undergone
numerous modifications: Peral's original project of 1885 conceived of a 61-ton
submarine, 18.8 meters long, with a beam of 2,52 meters and a single 40 shp (30 kW)
electric motor for a single shaft. The submarine being built had a length of more than 22
meters, a beam of 2.87 meters, a beam of 2.76 meters, two 30 shp (22 kW) electric
motors geared to twin screw, and a displacement of 77 tons surfaced and 85 submerged.

As for the motor-cooling system, this consisted of forcing compressed air stored in
the submarine over the motors, and though the original project had needed 430
accumulators, the final project installed 613 with a weight of 50 kilograms: the total
weight of the batteries was hence around 30 tons.

The top speed varied with the charge of the batteries. With a 1/4 tension the
submarine was able to reach 4.7 knots (8.7 km/h), with 1/2 6.9 knots, with 3/4 8.9 knots,
and with the batteries completely charged the submarine was able to reach 10.9 knots
(20.2 km/h). The range of the boat again depended on battery charge level; Peral
considered his original submarine able to reach 132 nautical miles (244 km) at a speed
of 6 knots (11 km/h).

The submarine was single-hulled, and the ballast tanks were located atn the
inferior part of the hull, underneath the torpedo tube. This single torpedo tube was the
only weapon in the submarine, with two hermetic covers on each end so the submarine
could launch a torpedo submerged: firstly flooding torpedo tube, firing the torpedo,
unflooding the torpedo tube, reloading and repeating the operation. Mechanisms used
for reloading were simple and fast, and the submarine had three reserves. In order to
avoid expenses the torpedoes that the Peral embarked on trials were loaned, two from
the torpedoboat "Retamosa" and one from the "Barcelo".

The air regeneration in the interior of the submarine was obtained by moving the
air using an auxiliary motor of 6 hp (that also served for the bailing pump), after passing
it through a Sodium Hydroxide purifier, eliminating CO2 exhaled by the crew. In
addition the same pump served to inject oxygen when needed.

Immersion of the submarine was obtained by means of the "Aparattus of depth"

which drove two shafts of vertical axes, located at both ends of the hull, moved by two
electrical motors of 4 hp (3.0 kW) in charge to submerge or emerge the submarine and
to maintain the horizontal stability in immersion. Ballast tanks as described above had a
storage capacity of 8 tonnes, and were used to stabilize the submarine. In order to
navigate, Peral used a magnetic needle installed in the ceiling of the turret, made of
bronze. This avoided any electrical influences over it. He also devised a quasi-
periscope, that was a fixed tube on the turret and by using a series of prisms, projected
the outside world to within the submarine.

The Peral was launched on 8th September 1888, sixteen days before another
pioneer electric submarine, the french Gymnote. On 6th March 1889 her sea trials
started, which consisted of handling and surface navigation. On 7th August that year,
she submerged for the first time up to the turret. Eighteen days later she would
successfully fire her first trial torpedo (without warhead). On 5 December she
submerged at 7.5 m; twenty days later she would pass her first non-static dive test,
sailing at a steady depth of 9.5 meters, and later in 1890 maintaining the same depth and
sailing underwater for one hour. The submarine had reach a maximum depth of 30
meters in trials.
On 25 June that year she made two simulated engagements on the cruiser Colón,
one at day and other at night. At the daylight trial the submarine was unable to attack
the cruiser, as her optical turret was spotted less than 1,000 yards (910 m) away from
the cruiser, which had 200 civilian and military guests, and obviously expected to see
the submarine, a fact that angered Isaac Peral.The simulated night attack was successful.
The staff that evaluated the trials of the submarine submitted a report, considering speed
and range insufficient, being especially critical about the failure of the submarine in
daylight attack and its electric motors. However, overall the report was positive, and a
second submarine was ordered, again under the direction of Isaac Peral but also
managed by several naval departments. Peral designed a 30-meter submarine of 130
tonnes, imposing the condition of choosing the yard where the submarine would be built
and the choosing the team. These conditions were not accepted by the authorities, who
considered this a refusal of Peral to build the submarine. Finally they ordered Peral to
return the submarine to the La Carraca yard where she was built. On 11 November 1890
a decree set the end of the projects of underwater navigation in the Spanish navy.

Similar figures of performance were only attained about a decade later in other
countries. The speed and endurance of the Peral would still hold to Second World War
standards.

Isaac Peral, frustrated, retired from naval active duty in November 1891 and died
in Berlin in May 1895 of meningitis, after a medical intervention to cure the cerebral
tumor he had been suffering for some years. In the same year John Philip Holland
would mark a major step forward in submarine design, designing for the first time a
mixed internal combustion/electric propulsion that would solve the problems of limited
range of batteries.

The first Spanish navy submarine which was built 22 years later was named after
Peral. His submarine was scrapped in 1913, but was salvaged and sent to Cartagena,
homeport of Spanish submarine flotilla, where she was conserved until the seventies,
when she was handed over from the navy to the city.