I wish to express my thanks to those whose kindness and courtesy have made it possible for me to write this book. To Mr. Kelby, Librarian of the New York Historical Society, I am indebted for much information about Bushnell’s _Turtle_, and to Mrs. Daniel Whitney, of Germantown, Pa., a descendant of Ezra Lee, for the portrait of her intrepid ancestor. Both the Electric Boat Company and Mr. Simon Lake have supplied me most generously with information and pictures. The Bureau of Construction, United States Navy, E. P. Dutton & Company, publishers of Mr. Alan H. Burgoyne’s “Submarine Navigation Past and Present”; the American Magazine, Flying, International Marine Engineering, the _Scientific American_, and the _New York Sun_ have cheerfully given permission for the reproduction of many pictures of which they hold the copyright. Albert Frank & Company have given the cut of the advertisement of the last sailing of the _Lusitania_. Special thanks are due to Mr. A. Russell Bond, Associate Editor of the _Scientific American_, for expert advice and suggestion. Some well-known pictures of submarines are herein credited for the first time to the man who made them: Captain Francis M. Barber, U. S. N. (retired). This officer published a little pink-backed pamphlet on submarine boats--the first book devoted exclusively to this subject--in 1875. “The last time I heard of that pink pamphlet,” writes Captain Barber from Washington, “was when I was Naval Attache at Berlin in 1898. Admiral von Tirpitz was then head of the Torpedo Bureau in the Navy Department, and he was good enough to say that it was the foundation of his studies--and look what we have now in the terrible German production.” FARNHAM BISHOP. New York, January, 1916. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I IN THE BEGINNING 3 II DAVID BUSHNELL’S “TURTLE” 12 III ROBERT FULTON’S “NAUTILUS” 26 IV SUBMARINES IN THE CIVIL WAR 36 V THE WHITEHEAD TORPEDO 43 VI FREAKS AND FAILURES 56 VII JOHN P. HOLLAND 69 VIII THE LAKE SUBMARINES 82 IX A TRIP IN A MODERN SUBMARINE 100 X ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY DEVICES 124 XI MINES 139 XII THE SUBMARINE IN ACTION 156 XIII THE SUBMARINE BLOCKADE 177 XIV THE SUBMARINE AND NEUTRALS 189 INDEX 207 List of Illustrations PAGE U. S. Submarine _M-1_ _Frontispiece_ Cornelius Van Drebel 5 The _Rotterdam Boat_ 8 Symons’s Submarine 10