Resurgam (ship, 1879)
.jpg) Replica of the Resurgam in Birkenhead
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Resurgam ( Latin resurgam = I will (again) resurrect ) was Great Britain's first submarine in the Victorian era . It was designed by the Reverend George William Littler Garrett.
Resurgam I
On May 8, 1878 George Garrett filed a patent on a submarine for mounting torpedoes etc. ( Engl. Submarine boat for placing torpedoes, etc. ) to. He founded the Garrett Sub-Marine Navigation and Pneumataphore Company and raised money. First he had a prototype of his submarine built, which was only about a third of the actual size. It was 4.27 m long and weighed 4.5 t . A hand crank with which the propeller was operated served as the drive . There was only room for one person, who was left to rely on themselves for propulsion and navigation. The attachment of spar torpedoes to enemy ships should be done by hand via a greased leather cuff . In 1878 the submarine was launched . It quickly became apparent that the Resurgam I was prone to leakage.
Resurgam II
The Resurgam II was launched on November 26, 1879 . She was 13.72 m long, 3.05 m in diameter, weighed 30 tons and cost £ 1,538. Inside there was space for three crew members. The propeller at the stern was powered by a steam engine with a closed circuit and steam accumulator from the American inventor Emile Lamm . When the surface appeared, the steam boiler was heated and the superheated steam was stored in the steam accumulator. To go underground, the fire had to be extinguished and the chimney folded down. With the stored steam, the submarine should be able to move for up to four hours at a speed of 2 knots .
First attempts were made at East Float near Wallasey . Garrett's later partner Thorsten Nordenfelt was among the audience . Mechanical problems arose during the transfer to the naval base in Birkenhead , about 2 km away , which the submarine was supposed to complete on its own against the current of the River Mersey . The submarine was drifted away and they had to moor in Foryd Harbor near Rhyl . After the repairs, the manned submarine was towed to Birkenhead on February 25, 1880 in strong winds with the steam yacht Elphin . However, the Elphin suffered engine problems en route and the crew of the Resurgam II went on the yacht to help solve the problem. However, the hatch of the submarine could not be closed from the outside and so water penetrated into the submarine due to the rough sea. Under the increasing mass of the submarine, the rope to which it was attached broke and the boat sank about 9 km north of Rhyl.
Discovery of the wreck
In 1995 a Colwyn Bay fisherman's net caught on the seabed. Keith Hurley, a diver from Chester who was tasked with detaching the net, discovered that it had caught on the wreck of the Resurgam II at a depth of 18 meters . On July 4, 1996, it was declared Protected Wreck No. 42. The well-preserved wreck is only slightly damaged, but is threatened by illegal diving and trawling . In 1997 the wreck was archaeologically examined as part of the SUBMAP project. To protect the Resurgam II from further corrosion , it was provided with sacrificial anodes . Zinc sacrificial anodes were installed in 2007 and replaced with new ones in 2012. The lifting of the wreck has so far failed due to the high costs of conservation.
Replica
From 1996 to 1997 a replica of the Resurgam II was built by trainees from the AMARC Training College at Cammell, Laird & Company . This has been on public display at the Woodside Ferry Terminal in Birkenhead since March 1997 . In 2009 the replica was restored by students at the North West Maritime and Engineering College .
literature
- Submarines. The history of the submarines. , Garant Verlag, Renningen 2017, ISBN 978-3-7359-1338-8 , p. 20
- Stuart Hylton: The Little Book of Manchester , 2013, ISBN 978-0752479477 , pp. 8-10
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ resurgam at www.frag-caesar.de
- ^ John Swinfield: Sea Devils: Pioneer Submariners , 2014, ISBN 978-0750953566
- ↑ Carol V. Ruppe, Jane F. Barstad (Eds.): International Handbook of Underwater Archeology , New York 2002, pp. 369-371
Coordinates: 53 ° 23 ′ 47 " N , 3 ° 33 ′ 11" W.