"Day’s Submarine 1774 " Topic
3 Posts
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Tango01 | 06 Feb 2017 11:27 a.m. PST |
"Sir Murray Fraser Sueter (1872 – 1960) was one of the most colourful personalities of the Royal Navy prior to and through the First World War. He is best remembered today as a pioneer of aviation – of airships as well as fixed-wing craft – and he was essentially the creator of the RNAS, the Royal Navy Air Service. One of his most notable achievements was development of the torpedo-carrying aircraft, and his was also involved with innovative employment of armoured cars. A forceful personality, he ran foul of senior levels in the Admiralty late in the war, and he retired – or was perhaps induced to do so – at the age of only 48 as a Rear Admiral, entering politics thereafter. Prior however to his association with aviation, Sueter had been involved with introduction of submarines into the Royal Navy, a role that his specialism in torpedoes during his early career fitted him for. In 1907 he published a massive volume entitled "The Evolution of the Submarine Boat, Mine and Torpedo", with a subtitle of "From the sixteenth century to the present time." This massive tome, well-illustrated by old prints and later by photographs, is a goldmine of information for anybody interested in naval warfare. I have been lucky to have access to a copy and the following account, of an early experiment I had never previously heard of, draws upon it. John Day (? – 1774) was a ship's carpenter. When living in Norfolk in the 1770s he became fascinated with the idea of submarines. He does not seem to have paid attention to propulsion underwater and concentrated on the ability to submerge a human safely. He experimented initially with models and later modified a small boat in which he conducted test dives to 30-feet near Yarmouth, ascending safely afterwards. Following this success, he gained support of a gambler called Christopher Blake, and others, who put 340 Pounds Sterling at Day's disposal to build a "diving chamber". A 50-ton sloop was purchased for conversion and was fitted out for more ambitious tests…." Main page link Amicalement Armand
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Supercilius Maximus | 07 Feb 2017 8:42 a.m. PST |
Sad that the storm prevented the recovery of Day's body and a post mortem. Of course, there's no saying whether the scientific knowledge of the time would have allowed people to work out how to remedy whatever defect(s) caused his demise. |
Tango01 | 07 Feb 2017 11:00 a.m. PST |
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