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Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 7

Our modern siibu uriue^vs the direct descendant of the diving-bell which had proved that air could be supplied ior breathing purposes under water. Ivngland can claim'priority in this kind of adventure, although the first;' submarine boat on record was the invention of a Dutchman (the- "Daily- Chronicle" says). ' Oddly ....enough, ■'she v>ak propelled by oars. By command of James I. the trial trip of this grandparent of submarines was mado on tho Thames. The chief secret of the inventor, Drebell, was described thus; "The composition of a liquid that would speedily restore to the troubled air such a proportion of vital parts as would make it again for a good while fit for respiration." The secret wns never disclosed. Plymouth Sound, near which A7 went down, was the scene of the earliest submarine disaster ; for here it was that in 177 i a too sanguine experimenter named Day made a descent in a vessel of 50"tons— and never ea'me up again. ........