Early Submarine Discovery: The Secret of the Pearl Islands
For the past 137 years, a
mysterious wreck has emerged at low tide each day on a beach off the
coast of Panama. Researchers now know that it's the presumed lost "Sub
Marine Explorer," one of the world's first submarines and a vessel that
would ultimately kill its German inventor.
The tower was the first thing Jim Delgado saw. Inch by inch, it
emerged from the deep-green surf of the Pacific Ocean -- an encrusted
piece of black metal covered with barnacles, rust and seaweed, a ghostly
apparition slowly rising from the sea.
Delgado was sitting on the roots of an ancient palmetto tree, staring
at the water as if transfixed. Aside from the hermit crabs digging in
the sand at his feet and the brown pelicans screeching in the treetops,
Delgado was alone -- the only human being on this godforsaken island
known as San Telmo, somewhere southeast of Panama City.
Low tide came slowly and sluggishly, eventually exposing the
mysterious rust-eaten wreck a fisherman had described to Delgado. The
man believed it was a Japanese submarine that had been on a mission to
attack ships near the Panama Canal during World War II, only to fall
prey to the treacherous waters of the Pearl Archipelago.
But the more the tide retreated, the more Delgado -- director of the
renowned Vancouver Maritime Museum -- was convinced that the fisherman's
story couldn't possibly be true. This thing appearing before his eyes
had to be older, much older.
The design reminded the scientist of an "iron cigar," and he
instinctively thought of the "Nautilus," that legendary underwater
vessel author Jules Verne described in his novel "20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea." Delgado had devoured the book as a young boy.
But could something like this be possible? Delgado was mesmerized.
Years ago, working as a marine archaeologist, he had recovered the wreck
of the "General Harrison," a ship from the days of the California gold
rush, from San Francisco Bay. He was also involved in the raising of the
"H.L. Hunley" from the harbor entrance at Charleston, South Carolina --
the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship, during the American
Civil War in 1864.
And now, on this isolated beach on a tropical island -- during his
vacation, no less -- he had apparently happened upon the most
spectacular find of his career.
Without any equipment, and wearing nothing but boxer shorts, Delgado
swam out to the mysterious wreck. He cursed when he scraped his left leg
on the sharp-edged metal -- and because he didn't have a measuring tape
to document the object's exact dimensions. The size, shape and
condition of the chambers corresponded to none of the vessels he was
familiar with -- and Delgado thought he knew just about everything that
had ever floated. But this craft's technology seemed much more modern
that that of the "Hunley." The shape of the hull was more reminiscent of
the fantasy forms he'd seen in old science fiction books. Why on earth,
he wondered, had he never heard about this vessel?
When Delgado heard the sound of the approaching rubber dinghy that
had come to take him back to his cruise ship, he quickly took a few
shots with his camera -- hardly able to believe his luck at having
decided to pass on the dull bird-watching outing the other passengers
had taken. His few hours on this remote island had truly been worth it.
Historic find
That was five years ago, and by now it's become clear that Delgado
made a sensational historic find. He discovered the lost "Sub Marine
Explorer," one of the world's first functioning underwater boats,
designed by a brilliant German engineer whose invention eventually
brought him an agonizing death.
DER SPIEGEL
A look at the workings of the submarine.
The well-preserved wreck off the shores of San Telmo offers an
unprecedented glimpse into the maritime past. Even though the beginnings
of manned underwater vessels aren't so distant, the pioneer days of
submarines remain filled with unanswered questions. Old construction
plans often diverge from the actual designs, and many boats were either
lost or destroyed. In some cases it remains unclear as to exactly how --
and whether -- the vehicles actually worked.
The San Telmo discovery could provide answers to many questions about
the first submarines. Some of Delgado's colleagues believe that the
wreck in the Pacific is a unique example of a handful of submarine
prototypes that have remained preserved. They are craft in which daring
men -- essentially the Space Shuttle pilots of their age -- ventured
into the unknown world beneath the ocean's surface in the 19th century.
Only five diving machines from the years before 1870 have survived the
ravages of time:
- The "Brandtaucher" designed by German inventor Wilhelm Bauer, now in a museum in Dresden.
- A nameless submarine used by the Confederates in 1862, during the American Civil War, now on display in New Orleans.
- The "H.L. Hunley," built in 1863 and currently being restored in Charleston, South Carolina.
- The "Intelligent Whale," a submarine built in 1866 and now in a New Jersey museum.
- And the "Sub Marine Explorer" off the coast of San Telmo in the Pacific, built in 1865.
The "Explorer" marks a high point in maritime engineering, but also a
tragic one. Equipped with a cleverly designed system of ballast
chambers and a compressed air tank that allowed for pressure
compensation, it also had two hatches beneath the hull enabling divers
to exit the craft underwater. But about 130 years ago, when the vessel
was being used to collect oysters and pearls from the ocean floor off
the coast of Panama, the condition known as "the bends," or
decompression sickness, was largely unknown. The condition can cause an
agonizing death when divers rise to the surface from deep water too
quickly. Technical progress had fatally outpaced medical science,
costing the inventor and team of the "Explorer" their health and their
lives.
But on the evening following his discovery, as he sat excitedly in
the dining room of his cruise ship, Delgado had no idea of the tragedies
that must have transpired in this iron coffin in the Pacific's pearl
beds. Instead, he couldn't stop describing the details of the strange
wreck to his wife Ann.
Back home in Vancouver, the scientist had the pictures he took on San
Telmo developed and promptly e-mailed the images -- together with a
description and a request for further information -- to colleagues
around the world.
One man, Richard Wills, an expert on American Civil War submarines,
wrote back to inform Delgado that his data were a perfect match to a
description Wills had discovered in a scientific article from 1902. The
piece even included a precise drawing of the largely unknown diving
device. This couldn't possibly be a coincidence -- the vessel had to be
the "Sub Marine Explorer."
Little known inventor
Sven Röbel
Inside Kroehl's craft.
Little was known at the time about the man who designed the craft, a
German inventor named Julius H. Kroehl who had emigrated to the United
States. He built an iron fire watchtower in Harlem in 1865 and was then
hired by the New York magistrate to demolish -- unsuccessfully, as it
turned out -- a reef that obstructed shipping in the East River. But how
did the mysterious German hit upon the idea of designing such a
progressive diving ship? Delgado decided to get to the bottom of the
story. A search through historical archives revealed that the "Sub
Marine Explorer" last belonged to an outfit called the Pacific Pearl
Company, which planned to dig for oysters off the coast of Panama in the
1860s.
As far back as the days of the Conquistadors, divers had been digging
up treasures from the depths of the "Archipiélago de las Perlas." Black
slaves had once fished the famed "La Peregrina" pearl -- a magnificent,
softly shimmering 50-carat jewel -- from the waters of the archipelago.
The shells also held the promise of fortune, offering wealth in the form
of mother-of-pearl, a highly sought-after luxury material used in the
fashion of the day.
According to old business records, one of the partners in the company
with offices near New York's Wall Street was a certain W.H. Tiffany,
apparently a member of the eponymous jewelry and lamp dynasty.
The story was becoming more and more fascinating, and after making
two more trips to San Telmo in 2002 and 2004, Delgado had finally
collected enough material to justify launching an expedition to delve
into the final secrets of the "Explorer" and its inventor.
