If it was good enough for 1775, what can over two centuries of submarine design add?

When I saw on the news the curious pomegranate of a submariner vessel that had the temerity to approach the Queen Mary II in New York's harbour, a curious bell rang. Hadn't I seen just such a boat before while reading books to my son before bed the night before last. A quick consult of my son's bedside table and the bell authenticated itself. Sure enough, the basic design of this week's unterseafruitboat was taken from a hand operated (and by this I mean also hand propelled) vessel that had last been used in the United State's so-called War of Independence!

Just compare exhibit A from CNN and exhibit B from the very good Wikipedia entry on the history of submarines.

Although the US undoubtedly won their divorce from the surly Brits in 1776, their success had very little to do with this imbecilic submersible. And it is still more than a bit unclear what in fact the three morons arrested for approaching the QM in a ship that had more to do with the family Punicaceae than that of Nimitz had in mind before donning their swim trunks. They were certainly not of the same class of those behind the attack on the USS Cole.

Among my strange obsessions, we can also add the sea. Indeed, if I had the chance to go to University all over again, I'd like to have become a marine biologist.