Submarines trace their origins back centuries, with the first practical navigable submarine credited to Cornelis Drebbel in 1620.

Earliest Concepts

William Bourne sketched the first theoretical submarine design in 1578—a leather-covered rowboat that could submerge by adjusting its sides. No prototype was built then, but it inspired later inventors. Cornelis Drebbel, a Dutch engineer working for England's King James I, turned ideas into reality around 1620-1624. His oar-powered, sealed vessel carried passengers underwater in the River Thames for hours, using a chemical air-refreshing system with saltpeter for oxygen.

Key Milestones

  • 1747 : An unnamed inventor patented a ballast-like system using goatskin bags filled with water to dive and rods to expel it—foreshadowing modern tanks.
  • 1776 : David Bushnell 's Turtle , the first combat submarine, tried (but failed) to attach explosives to British ships during the American Revolution. It was a one-man wooden craft propelled by hand-cranked screws.
  • 19th Century : Robert Fulton pitched submarines to Napoleon, and the Nautilus (1800) tested steam power, but reliability issues persisted until electric batteries emerged in the 1880s.

These early subs were marvels of ingenuity yet perilous—limited by air, propulsion, and pressure. Drebbel's Thames dives proved humans could operate underwater, sparking naval evolution from curiosity to stealth weapon by World War I.

Modern Context

Though invented over 400 years ago, submarines hit peak military relevance around 1900, sparking controversy—like British Admiral Arthur Wilson's quip calling them "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English," suggesting crews be hanged as pirates. Today, in January 2026, advanced nuclear subs dominate global fleets, far from those wooden pioneers.

TL;DR : Practical invention in 1620 by Drebbel; concepts from 1578.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.