ry tests made with this craft were uniformly successful.
After a skilled operator had been obtained, the boat perfectly
discharged the duties required of her. But, as is so often the case,
when the time for action came she proved inadequate to the emergency.
Let her inventor tell the story in his own words:--

"After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one,
who appeared to be more expert than the rest, from New York, to a
fifty-gun ship, lying not far from Governor's Island. He went under
the ship, and attempted to fix the wooden screw to her bottom, but
struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron, which passes from the rudder
hinge, and is spiked under the ship's quarter. Had he moved a few
inches, which he might have done without rowing, I have no doubt he
would have found wood where he might have fixed the screw; or, if the
ship were sheathed with copper, he might easily have pierced it. But
not being well skilled in the management of the vessel, in attempting
to move to another place, he lost the ship. After seeking her in vain
for some time, he rowed some distance, and rose to the surface of the
water, but found daylight had advanced so far that he durst not renew
the attempt. He says that he could easily have fastened the magazine
under the stern of the ship above water, as he rowed up to the stern
and touched it before he descended. Had he fastened it there, the
explosion of a hundred and fifty pounds of powder (the quantity
contained in the magazine) must have been fatal to the ship. In his
return from the ship to New York, he passed near Governor's Island,
and thought he was discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in
haste to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the magazine, as he
imagined it retarded him in the swell, which was very considerable.
After the magazine had been cast off one hour the time the internal
apparatus was set to run, it blew up with great violence.

"Afterwards there were two attempts made in Hudson's River, above the
city; but they effected nothing. One of them was by the aforementioned
person. In going toward the ship, he lost sight of her, and went a
great distance beyond her. When he at length found her, the tide ran
so strong, that, as he descended under water, for the ship's bottom,
it swept him away. Soon after this, the enemy went up the river, and
pursued the boat which had the submarine vessel on board, and sunk it
with their shot."

So it appears, that