What do perpetual motion machines, compound telescopes, the mercury thermostat and the submarine have in common? Cornelius Drebbel. They all came from the brilliant mind of Cornelius Drebbel.  Cornelius was way ahead of his time on many of his ideas, especially the submarine. He began designing his underwater row boat for the British Royal Navy and it launched for the first time in 1620 in the Thames River. It is said that Drebbel Covered a boat with a leather bladder that he hardened and sealed with oil. Sticking out of the side of the boat were 4 oars carefully sealed against water leaking. The underwater rowboat of 1620 traveled 12 feet underwater and a distance of 15 feet.

It wasn’t until 1864 that a Confederate submarine named the H.L. Hunley sank a Union ship in battle. People were still using wagons pulled by oxen and horses and the idea of an underwater war vessel was crazy. To move the sub forward seven men sat around a hand crank and furiously turned the crank. In a daring mission to sink the famous Housatonic, the submarine headed into its first attack. The crew of the Housatonic didn’t know what was happening when they saw the submarine. The torpedo was successful but unfortunately the Hunley sank that day as well. 130 years later the sub was recovered and now lives at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, in Charleston, South Carolina.

If we fast forward to World War I (WWI) the Germans were the kings of the seas with their Unterseeboots, or U-boat for short. The German U-Boats were deadly for both sides. They were able to sink British ships but they also lost a lot more submarines and crew than the damage they caused. That changed on May 7, 1915 when U-20 fired a torpedo killing 1,200 civilian passengers. By the end of WWI Germany had sunk more than 500 ships. Germany began WWII with more submarines than any other country but the United States began making technological advances.

Today's submarines are very different from a leather covered rowboat.  It usually takes a combination of diesel engines, steam turbines and nuclear power working together to make the submarine work. Although the submarines are controlled mostly through the use of computers you won't find wifi on board. A submarine's job is to be quiet and stealthy. It is supposed to sneak around without the enemy knowing it's there. Surfing the internet could cause the ship to be sunk. Submarines are built bigger and dive deeper than people ever dreamed they could be and new engineering is helping with other advances.

With all the advances in submarine technology can anyone ride in a submarine? Yes. If you want to take a submarine to see the wonders of the sea you can book tours in Hawaii, the Caribbean, Australia and California and other places. These ships can take 4 up to 100 people and go about 200 to 2000 feet deep. If you had all the money in the world you could take the most expensive trip on Earth to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, it only costs $750,000. Or you can become a marine biologist and work for NOAA or another exploration company.