At first his work on a design for a submarine was merely incidental and secondary to his more cherished ambition to become a great constructor of canals. It was soon after his arrival in France that the idea of an underwater boat occurred to him, and this several years before mechanical operation of boats obtained the supremacy in his mind over small canals. His first move was apparently on the 24 Frimaire an VI (13 December, 1797) when he wrote to the Directory, “having in view the great importance of lessening the power of the English fleet, that he had a project for the construction of a mechanical Nautilus.” It is interesting to note that this letter was written but six months after his arrival in France, and in the same year that Delpeuch records Bushnell as having laid his own plan before the Directory. It is difficult to repress the thought that the latter’s efforts roused Fulton to action, even if they did not suggest to him the initial thought. On the 2nd January, 1798, Fulton made definite proposals to the Minister of Marine, among the terms being a request that rank in the French navy be conferred at least on him, if not on all the members of the crews of the submarines, because otherwise he feared the British would treat him as a pirate. On February 12, 1798, Fulton was informed that his proposals had been declined. Unlike Bushnell, who under similar circumstances went home discouraged and hid himself under an assumed name, Fulton prepared to renew the attack. Waiting until another Minister of Marine had been appointed, he submitted new proposals, under date of 5 Thermidor an VI (23 July 1798), concluding the offer by pointing out that the destruction of the English navy would assure the freedom of the seas and the nation which had the most natural resources—France—would alone hold, and without rival, the balance of power in Europe. The Minister convened a board of technical men to whom Fulton submitted his plans for a submarine that he called the “Nautilus.” This boat had the shape of an imperfect ellipsoid, with an over-all length of 6 m. 48 (21 ft. 3 in.) and extreme beam 1 m. 94 (6 ft. 4 in.). Beneath the ellipsoid there was a hollow iron keel 0 m. 52 (1 ft. 8 in.) in height, running to within 1 m. from the bow. The keel contained a quantity of ballast so that the difference between the weight of the flotation and that of the water displaced by it should be only about 4 to 5 kilograms. The only communication with the interior of the keel lay in the two parts of a suction and force pump which by means of a hand crank would permit the introduction into or removal of water from the metal keel at will. The excess in buoyancy of the Nautilus being small, the introduction of only a little water would make it sink, and conversely, the expulsion of a small quantity would cause it to return to the surface. On the forward and top part of the Nautilus there was a spherical dome pierced with port holes covered by thick glass for