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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
In 1850 the hand-propelled submarine boat Sea Diver, built by Wilhelm Bauer, dived out of control to the bottom when setting out to attack the Danish Fleet off Kiel. Shelford (1960) has described how Bauer and his crewmen Thomsen and Witt first tried to raise the boat using compressed air to blow the water out of the ballast tanks and, when the air was exhausted, they decided to try to escape by flooding the boat in the hope of equalising the pressure on the inside and the outside of the hatch. Eventually the hatch gave way and the first three underwater escapers arrived in a rush of air at the surface, to the surprise of those who had been grappling for the sunken boat.