however, with a reprimand, and emphatic order to look in future to his proper business, of which tinkering certainly formed no part.
At the conclusion of the war, he returned to Bavaria with his regiment; but shortly left the service, finding his hopes and purposes just drifting to a dead-lock again under the blue and white flag.
He carried out successfully some experiments in Munich, and had become convinced that his “Hyponaut” (diver), must be “hermetically closed so that the air within should be free from any pressure of the superincumbent water, and retain the proper density for human lungs;” a want so notorious in the cartesian diving bell, and which subjects those who adventure beyond a certain depth to great inconvenience, or even death. He found, too, that the grenades for offensive operations must be so attached to the outside of his vessel, that they could from within be fixed fast to the enemy’s, and exploded from a safe distance by a galvanic battery and wire.
Seeing no opening for his views in his own country, his small purse, saved out of his pay, almost exhausted, he took his hopes, and the worsted striped collar of a non-commissioned officer into the Holstein army; of course, with the permission of his government.
A Marine Commission at Kiel shortly investigated his plans, declared them practicable, and allowed him thirty thalers, about four guineas, to construct a model one twenty-fourth of the size of his proposed “Hyponaut.” The model was made, and very satisfactorily proved its locomotive power under water.
General Willisen here came to the assistance of our inventor, opened a subscription in the Holstein army, to enable him, with some further help given by the Admiralty at Kiel and the public, to build and launch the wonderful vessel he had so long dreamed of. She was at length completed, but unhappily the gulden fell much short of the required sum; then came the army of intervention, making money still scarcer; and so, with nearly every part inadequate to its necessary resistive, or motive power, Bauer had to entrust her to her fate beneath the water, and would have lost his own life in her, had not his presence of mind been as great as his inventive genius.
Feb. 1st, 1851.—A great crowd was gathered round the harbour at Stafel to witness the submersion of the iron diver. It was, in its general form, not unlike an ordinary yacht, though much narrower. The shape of the seal had suggested the greater strength to be obtained by inclining the line of her head upwards to the centre of her deck. The deck was furnished with several windows of thick glass, and a hatchway to admit to the interior. The motive power for sinking or raising the vessel was secured by a pump admitting the requisite water to carry her down, which being expelled, she would necessarily rise again to the surface. A screw furnished the propelling action. A pair of gutta-percha gloves affixed to the head, enabled the exploding apparatus to be fastened to an antagonist’s vessel. We will not, however, linger over a particular description of the doomed craft.
As soon as Bauer was well under water, he found she was still weaker than he had feared, and though her trial swim was satisfactory to the greatest depth, he then ventured on 32 ft., yet he felt convinced any greater weight of water could scarcely fail to crush her in. So the immediate object with which she had been built, that of blowing up the Danish men of war lying in the harbour, had to be renounced, as she could not approach them from beneath.
Notwithstanding his better judgment, annoyed by the sneers and taunts of those who rejoice when another man’s work gives some realisation to their own ill prophecies on it, he consented to still further test the capability of his vessel, and at nine, a.m., on the 1st of February again she descended with him beneath the water. The boats which had seen him go down, waited and waited, at last with painful impatience, for signs of his return, but in vain. Two gun-boats came to assist, and attempted to discover where the lost explorers were hidden, by casting the lead. At length, faint cries for help were heard piercing the water, and the position of the sunken ark ascertained. Every means was now attempted to raise it, but to no purpose; ron cables were lowered down. Bauer succeeded in making them fast; but the vessel of 70,000 lbs. weight, was too heavy to be so moved; and he and the two courageous fellows, Witt and Petersen, who had volunteered to accompany him, were believed beyond any help on earth.
We will now descend to their prison-house.
Bauer’s former convictions were only too well-founded. He had scarcely sunk thirty feet when the pump began to fail, and it became apparent that it would be completely destroyed, or become leaky, if the vessel went deeper. He did not long wait the realisation of his forebodings, a few minutes and a dull crashing sound was heard,—the strong iron wall bent in a full foot on the right side; another crash, and the left threatened also to open to the waters. The pump could scarcely be worked. The brave captain still bade his companions “not to fear; so long as the iron walls were still true, they could escape, at the worst, by the hatchway.” They tell him they will not think of abandoning the vessel whilst there is still a chance of saving her, and work manfully at the leaking pump, though there is little possibility that, isolated from the upper air, there can remain enough to support life within the vessel till they thus slowly raise her to the surface.
Soon another crash came; this time her bottom had given way: the moments succeeding were the most fearful of the six hours of their imprisonment. Happily, however, the water had found but a very narrow inlet in the hold, and the sides and deck still held good. Any hope of escape, by assistance from above, had been renounced, though the cables and chains, lowered by their friends, gave them terrible anxiety, as they sometimes threatened to break the glass windows, and sometimes seemed likely to effectually hold down the hatch, the only chance now of safety. Petersen and Witt endeavoured to raise it, but 5544 lbs. of water still held it fast. Bauer had told his com-
