''Seeteufel ( Sea Devil)'' was a hand-powered submarine designed by

Wilhelm Bauer Wilhelm Bauer (23 December 1822 – 20 June 1875) was a German inventor and engineer who built several hand-powered submarines. Biography Wilhelm Bauer was born in Dillingen in the Kingdom of Bavaria. His father was a sergeant of a Bavaria ...

in 1856. Run by a crew of 15, the ship was made of iron and was long, wide and deep. After his last submarine, ''

Brandtaucher ''Brandtaucher'' ( German for ''Fire-diver'') was a submersible designed by the Bavarian inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer and built by Schweffel & Howaldt in Kiel for Schleswig-Holstein's Flotilla (part of the '' Reichsflotte'') in 1850 ...

'' had sunk, Bauer included a diver's chamber in the design. Through this chamber, which worked like an

airlock An airlock, air-lock or air lock, often abbreviated to just lock, is a compartment with doors which can be sealed against pressure which permits the passage of people and objects between environments of differing pressure or atmospheric compo ...

, divers could leave and enter the submerged vessel. He had tried to obtain support for his invention in several countries, including the

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. Finally, in 1855, Bauer made a contract with Russia. He built his submarine at the Leutemberg Works, and it was completed on 1 November. In May 1856 it was taken to Kronstadt and testing began. The submarine made 133 successful diving runs. One such dive was undertaken in honor of the coronation of Alexander II of Russia, Alexander II on 6 September 1856, the national anthem of Russia was performed while the submarine was underwater. During the 134th dive, the submarine got stuck on the ocean floor. The crew survived, and the ship was later retrieved by a salvage crew. Despite being cleaned up after this, nothing further happened with the submarine.

References

{{Reflist Submarines of the Imperial Russian Navy 19th-century submarines