One and a half century of steel coffins
The first proven combat deployment of the submarine took place in 1776 during the American Revolution. Sergeant Lee of the Washington Army was locked in an egg-like miniature single-seat Turtle submarine by US inventor Bushnell and tried to manually "drill" (using a crank a primitive propeller) underwater under the hull of Lord Howe's English flagship, anchored in front of New York. Surprisingly, he succeeded, but as he tried to attach a primitive mine to the enemy's hull somewhere at the helm, a hand-powered drill hit the iron reinforcement again, and the breathless sergeant, who had higher air consumption, began to choke.