my predecessors and successors, in attempts at submarining, and, strange to say, some of them still believe in it, very evidently because they have never tested them. A good many submarine and other inventors are satisfied with designs on paper and do not bother to make experiments. We determined some other very evident matters that it was necessary to prove by actual experiment; that is, that it is not practical to cause a boat to lie still at any given depth without the employment of complicated machinery that should have no place in a submarine boat. Several other important points regarding the design, construction, and management of submarines, which still cause difference of opinion and design, were determined fairly well. For instance, the modern craze for 'good, big boats,' as well as for large, high conning towers, was proved to be absurd. Even though our views on these and other matters were exhibited to the Navy Department Ordnance Bureau, practically no notice was taken of them. I disliked the idea common among politicians that my failures to get a government contract was owing to political influence or 'pull,' but, judging by my short experience in Washington, I concluded that there was another, and much more serious, hindrance to the adoption of my ideas. "The history of the efforts I made to induce the government to consider the claims of the first submarine boat proposed to them by me in 1875, as well as the results, reflects no credit on the officials that had anything to do with it, as can be clearly seen from what follows. "The first proposition was made in 1875, through a friend of the late Secretary of the Navy Robeson, for his consideration. It was referred by him for a report to the late Admiral Sampson, at that time commander of the torpedo station at Newport, Rhode Island. The Admiral reported in good time that the project was practically impossible, owing mainly to the difficulty of finding in what direction to steer the boat under water, and the attempt to do so would be an aggravated case of trying to find one's way in a fog. Very evidently he had no notion of the possibility of steering by compass under water. The same incredulity was expressed by a distinguished Swedish officer whom I afterward met in New York. "After having determined the correctness of my ideas regarding submarines, and adding a few points revealed by the experiments made on the Passaic River, my financial supporters, the trustees of the Fenian Skirmishing Fund, determined to build a larger boat that could be employed for breaking blockades.[2] Toward the end of May I started to design a new boat of about nineteen tons displacement; in other words, one small and light enough to be carried on ship's deck and launched overboard whenever her services would be required. Only three men were required for her crew. [Illustration: THE "FENIAN RAM"