The Beginning of Submarines
Origins
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https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/holland-class-submarines
Launch of HMS Holland 1 at Barrow-in-Furness
Human curiosity to explore and conduct activity below the surface of the sea extends at least 2,500 years into our past. Alexander the Great conducted underwater operations 332 BCE. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a submarine, although he hid his work because he believed it would be misused. King James I (of England - VI of Scotland) was the first monarch to take passage in a submarine.
Submarine development to achieve the form we see today started in the American War of Independence with an attempted submarine attack against a British warship in New York Harbour. The first successful submarine attack was conducted in the American Civil War by a Confederate submarine which sank the United States Ship Housatonic near Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
However, it was the invention of the internal combustion engine (especially the diesel engine), the development of the lead acid battery and the work of John Phillip Holland in the late 19th century that made submarines as we now know them.
