At the beginning of the last century, a ship-of-the-line was a very unwieldly affair. She was bluff bowed and high sided and consequently could be handled satisfactorily only when “off the wind.” Even under these favorable conditions, speed was comparatively slow. With a light wind, especially with a light adverse wind, she could make but little headway. Such a wind rendered capital ships practically helpless. That they were not destroyed by the opposing force was because at such times the opposing force was helpless too. A boat that had offensive power of attack and had means of locomotion enough to overcome tidal currents would have been an effective menace. As Fulton pointed out, the only measure of defense by a large vessel at anchor would lie in a cordon of small boats. But a boat fully, or even partially, submerged would have had an excellent chance to get through a cordon and destroy her prey. In spite of the limitation of speed and cruising range that today would condemn any such boat as absolutely worthless, these limitations were sufficiently generous when compared with the status of naval architecture that prevailed in 1800–1806 to make Fulton’s submarine, when he proposed it, a factor of actual and positive value. If that can be said of the Nautilus, all the more it is true of the design that he submitted to the British Government. Between the Brest experiments in 1801 and his proposals in 1804, as evidenced by his “Drawings and Descriptions,” it is clear that he had given the matter considerable thought and to some purpose. The specifications as submitted to the British agent called for a boat 35 feet long and 10 feet beam as compared with the similar dimensions of the Nautilus of 21 ft. 3 in. and 6 ft. 4 in., respectively, giving at least three times the tonnage. It was to carry a crew of six instead of three men with provisions sufficient to enable her to be kept at sea for 20 days. The offensive capacity was 30 submarine bombs (or mines) as against a single trailing one with the Nautilus. The vessel designed for the British Government was a real sea-going boat that could independently navigate the Channel while the little Nautilus could not venture far from land or from some large vessel acting as a base. An examination of the details, particularly those on Plates First and Second will disclose many improvements over the French prototype, shown facing page 26. In the first place the hull is that of a seagoing boat, equipped with a well-developed sail plan for propulsion when on the surface and not the queer contraption that the French marine architects condemned. On the surface this boat could have been handled as easily and she would have sailed as fast as any sloop of the same size. The mast could have been laid back on the deck and the sails disposed of in a few minutes preparatory to plunging.