The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History - Book Review

Naval War College Review, Summer, 2002 by C.D.H. Cooper

Harris, Brayton. The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History. New York: Berkley Books, 1997. 398pp. $15

This historical book is a compilation of thousands of facts surrounding the evolutionary development of today's modern submarine. In an effort to separate fiction from fact, Captain Harris (U.S. Navy, Ret.) debunks many commonly held myths that have been perpetuated in submarine lore.

With twenty-four years of active duty service, Harris is well suited to speak on these matters. The huge number of facts interlaced throughout this work is evidence in itself of the thoroughness of his research. Harris has also written The Age of the Battleship, 1890-1922, and a study of the role of the newspaper during the American Civil War that appeared in the magazine of the Civil War Society, Civil War. He has written for the Saturday Review and the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.

This book begins with the late sixteenth century. Little-known names like William Bourne, Frederico Gianibelli, and Cornelius Drebbel are joined by that of Robert Boyle (formulator of Boyle's Law) in the development of submarine craft. While Gianibelli carried out the first successful wartime assault using submerged explosives, Drebbel is credited with the first craft capable of transporting men and equipment underwater. Here begins Harris's correction of folklore. Drebbel's craft, rowed by twelve strong men, did not actually operate submerged, but awash. The boat's submerged operations became such a fish story that a hundred years after the event, it was claimed that King James I himself had ventured underwater in Drebbel's craft. Harris puts the matter right.

Harris points out two issues that plague military inventors. First, wars create necessity; without the threat of war, there is no drive to create new technology. Second, bureaucratic inertia is extremely difficult to overcome. Interest in these "infernal machines" would wax and wane depending upon the state of political and military unrest. Inventors and capitalists had to become politicians to find support within their governments; it required the patience of Job to wait for a bureaucrat to provide the necessary financial backing.

This work is more than a history of the mechanical evolution of submarines; it also discusses the legal matters surrounding naval warfare. Harris tells how Confederate president Jefferson Davis invited ordinary citizens to become privateers, including (and especially) submarine privateers. This was by the 1860s considered illegal by most countries in the West: the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1856, had outlawed privateering. However, since neither the United States, nor, by extension, the Confederate States of America were signatories to the treaty, the treaty was nonbinding. But that did not stop President Abraham Lincoln from issuing an edict declaring all privateers "pirates," subject to death if caught.

Harris is not without fault. While his facts are presented in a logical and well-thought-out sequence, he does not provide notes to document his sources. In addition, his attempts at sarcasm do not always hit the mark; some come off as confusing and inappropriate. For example, he writes, "Johnstone [an Englishman allegedly hired to build a submarine to rescue Napoleon Bonaparte] may--or may not--have had some involvement with Fulton's expeditions against the French at Brest; he may--or may not--have built a submarine in 1815 with tepid support from the government. He may--or may not--have been offered [pound sterling]40,000 for the effort on behalf of the Bonapartists."

Those who wish to learn more about the political, social, and military history behind submarine development should read this book. It is probably the greatest compilation of submarine facts ever published in one volume.