In this war a "diving boat," supposed to have been one of Fulton's submarines, made several attacks upon the British man-of-war _Ramillies_ off New London, in the summer of 1813. In the first two attempts the approach of the submarine was detected by the crew of the man-of-war, who cut their cables, and stood out of the harbor as quickly as possible. In the third attempt, the diving boat succeeded in coming up in a position directly under the _Ramillies_, fastened itself to the keel and made a hole in the planking large enough to receive the screw which was to fasten the torpedo in place. In the act of fastening it, however, this screw was broken off, and the attempt had to be abandoned for the moment. This attack created such a panic aboard the British boat, that she did not return to the inner harbor but kept constantly in motion outside. Not satisfied with this protection against such "dishonorable attempts," the British commander took on board his vessel a hundred prisoners, apprising the Americans of the fact, and assuring them that a similar action would be taken by all the ships of the British fleet, so that in case a vessel was torpedoed the American prisoners would be blown up with her crew. This effectually frustrated Fulton's plans; for when the fact became known in the United States, the Americans were naturally as vigorous as the British in protesting against Fulton and his boats. Obviously the rule that "everything is fair in war" was not accepted in practice a hundred years ago. Fulton's attempts were regarded as the acts of a pirate, those of the British commander as perfectly legitimate and honorable methods. A SUCCESSFUL DIVING BOAT From the time of Fulton to the outbreak of the American Civil War there were few attempts at submarine navigation. On the opening of this war, however, efforts were made to perfect diving boats; and these efforts were so well directed that eventually one of these boats succeeded in destroying the Federal boat _Housatonic_ in Charleston Harbor on the night of February 17, 1864.