ul
in living up to its wonderful name, _The Intelligent Whale_. Its
first trial almost resulted in loss of life and was never repeated.
In spite of this, however, the boat was preserved and may still be
seen at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

In the meantime, an invention had been made by an Austrian artillery
officer which before long was to exert a powerful influence on
submarine development, though it was in no sense a submarine boat.
The manner in which the submarines had attacked their opponents
during the Civil War suggested to him the need of improvements in
this direction. As a result he conceived a small launch which was to
carry the explosive without any navigators. Before he could carry
his plans very far he died. A brother officer in the navy continued
his work and finally interested the manager of an English
engineering firm located at Fiume, Mr. Whitehead. The result of the
collaboration of these two men was the Whitehead torpedo. A series
of experiments led to the construction of what was first called a
"Submarine Locomotive" torpedo, which not only contained a
sufficient quantity of explosives to destroy large boats, but was
also enabled by mechanical means to propel itself and keep on its
course after having been fired. The Austrian Government was the
first one to adopt this new weapon. Whitehead, however, refused to
grant a monopoly to the Austrians and in 1870 he sold his
manufacturing rights and secret processes to the British Government
for a consideration of $45,000.

Before very long, special boats were built for the purpose of
carrying and firing these torpedoes and gradually every great power
developed a separate torpedo flotilla. Hand in hand with this
development a large number of improvements were made on the original
torpedo and some of these devices proved of great usefulness in the
development of submarine boats.

The public interest in submarines grew rapidly at this time. Every
man who was a boy in 1873, or who had the spirit of boyhood in him
then,--or perhaps now,--will remember the extraordinary piece of
literary and imaginative prophecy achieved by Jules Verne in his
novel _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. Little about the
_Nautilus_ that held all readers entranced throughout his story is
lacking in the submarines of to-day except indeed its extreme
comfort, even luxury. With those qualities our submarine navigators
have to dispense. But the electric light, as we know it, was un