Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/231

. 16, 1862.] when the hold had given way that “now they could do nothing but wait until the water had risen around them so high that the compressed air should, by its own force, lift up the hatch;” he entreated them not to waste their strength in useless efforts, and wrapped his cloak round him, and taking his seat as high above the slowly rising water as possible, calmly awaited the four or five hours that had still to pass before the air could be sufficiently compressed to open the trap. His companions not knowing how well-founded was his advice, again and again laboured at the hopeless endeavour to pump out the water.

At 2.30 p.m., they were startled by an anchor being lowered upon them, and then another, threatening to break the iron window-frame. Happily this danger passed by. So the three waited and waited, the water still slowly mounting up, and the air becoming more and more dense and exhausted. The water had reached their shoulders, when Bauer directed the stronger of his two men to attempt the hatchway, the weight on which, balanced by the pressure of the compressed atmosphere, he knew to be now reduced to 80 lbs. Witt tried it, and it yielded at once, startling him by letting in a splash of water. He closed it directly, calling on his fellow captives to escape with him. Bauer begged the men “not to hinder or cling to each other, or they would all be lost.” Another moment and Witt was rising safely to terra firma. Bauer clutched at the hatchway by his right hand, trying to support his remaining companion by the left, who had become so exhausted and confused, that he grasped at anything for support, not knowing what he did; and Bauer, fearing he might not be able to get through the hatchway, then endeavoured to secure him by the hair, but the cold water had so benumbed his hand it was impossible to hold fast with it. Happily the sea-water rushing in on them, restored the poor fellow’s senses, and, in a few moments, they followed their companion to the surface, borne without any effort of their own by the rush of escaping air. They were greeted by cheers of rejoicing from the boats, which, for six long hours, had been watching, as they feared, over a grave.

Petersen and Witt had suffered so much from the cold water and compressed air, that they were consigned for some days to hospital. Bauer, supported by the inexhaustible spirit of the inventor, was restored to his usual health in a few hours. But the diving ship lay immovable forty feet under water, and, I believe, is there still.

Bauer wrote shortly after to a friend: “The whole thing was wretchedly built; the most necessary precautions in the construction of the machinery neglected through insufficient funds.” The Marine Commission, however, gave him a most flattering testimonial, in which they praise his “conscientious conduct in the management of the enterprise, and their full conviction he had established the practicability of sub-marine navigation.”

But, perhaps, the last words spoken by Witt, before they abandoned the Hyponaut, were the truest witness to this, founded as they were on no theoretical fancy, but through a very unflattering experience: “If we get up again, and another such ship is built, I’ll go in her. The principle is all right; we can’t help the pumps breaking.”

Much talk then ensued in the papers on Bauer and his achievements and difficulties, with no result to him, however, and he was thrown upon his own resources. He returned to Munich, constructed a model of the lost Hyponaut, again proved its locomotive power, and further, the practicability of supplying fresh air to the interior. The Bavarian government declined the invention; indeed, could not apply it, in the geographical position of the country. Bauer then offered it to Prussia, but unhappily had addressed one of the royal family before applying to the minister, so the latter never deigned to make any reply at all. Austria and the United States were equally incredulous. The Emperor Napoleon treated the idea with no more respect than his great namesake had shown to Fulton’s for building steam-vessels. At length, by the influence of a lady of high rank, the Austrian government were induced to investigate it, and he was summoned to Trieste. His last model had exhausted his remaining gulden, and he was only enabled to leave Munich through the assistance of a friend, a distinguished painter, who furnished the necessary funds.

March, 1852.—The model was submitted to the admiralty; it was declared satisfactory. The Emperor gave imperial sanction to the idea, a committee of scientific men expressed a conviction it was founded on correct physical principles, and then a marine commission advised a new hyponaut should be built at the estimated cost of 50,000 florins, offering 15,000 florins towards it; the Austrian Lloyds promised 10,000 florins, the Trieste Bourse another 10,000, and the Minister of Trade in Vienna was begged to furnish the remaining 15,000 florins. But his Excellency declared he would not consent to a kreutzer being so disposed of, as he considered Bauer’s notions totally opposed to the laws of Nature. This refusal was followed by withdrawal of the first 15,000 florins by the Minister of War, and as Lloyd’s and the Exchange could not undertake the whole expense, this second chance flitted into the limbo of dreams.

Bauer then went to Coburg, and proceeded thence with a letter of introduction to Osborne. He there exhibited his model before the Queen and her late Consort. It had behaved very satisfactorily, swimming and sinking as he directed, when, unhappily at the moment he was raising it to the surface, a vessel passed over the guiding rope, cut it through, and the model sank for ever to the bottom of the Channel. Again the hope vanished at the moment of realisation, but the good Prince gave some comfort to the much-tried inventor, supplying his purse sufficiently to go back to Munich and complete another model, with which he shortly returned to England in 1853, and for nearly three years was in constant correspondence with our Admiralty: made drawings, furnished plans and models, and when all these at last promised a successful issue, he was informed: “The English Government could not adopt submarine navigation whilst her present naval force met every possible requirement (!); could not encourage it for commercial purposes, as it would certainly be used