In 1886 a young Spanish naval officer, Isaac Peral, designed a submarine for the Spanish Navy, driven by two 30hp electric motors using current from a 420-cell accumulator battery.
Isaac Peral (Cartagena, July 1, 1851 – May 22, 1895, Berlin), was a Spanish scientist, sailor and inventor of the Peral Submarine (built 1884, launched 1888). Intended for military use, this submarine pioneered new designs in the hull, control systems and air systems, proving a success in two years of trials. Its proven ability to fire torpedoes under water; “Peral” successfully fired three Whitehead torpedoes while on trials; and maintain full propulsive power and control underwater has led it to being described by some as the first U-boat.
Although the boat was built, and named Peral in honour of her designer, the Spanish Navy was in no position to develop such advanced technology and early electricity generators and accumulator batteries were very heavy.
In 1898 most of the few extant submarines were rather experimental craft than weapons of war. However Spain did possess a submarine (Peral) and the USS navy had one (Holland) under construction. Both submarines were proper war machines equipped with torpedoes (the Peral was classified as “torpedero submarino”, which would rougly translate as “submarine torpedoer” or “submarine torpedo boat”), both were of roughly the same small dimensions, slow and fit mainly for harbor defense. Interestingly, both were named after the names of their inventors, though the Spanish name never became official. However, they were of different conception, the Peral, which, admittedly, was 10 years earlier, had only electric propulsion, while the Holland had a petrol engine for surface sailing. For depth control the Peral had vertical screws connected to an automatic hydrostatic device, while the Holland had something similar to the horizontal rudders that would be standard later.
The Peral proved her worth during day and night maneuvers in 1889 and 1900 when she supposedly prevented a port from being bombarded. Unfortunately, the government changed and the projects of commissioning the Peral into the navy and of building an improved model were abandoned. By 1898 she had partly been scrapped. As seen from the table, the Peral’s performance would be unimpressive nowadays, but similar figures were only attained about a decade later in other countries. The speed and endurance submerged would still hold to second world war standards.
Vital statistics: -History: laid down 1887; launched: 1888; completed: 1889; commissioned (only for trials): 1889; still preserved as a memorial in Cartagena.
-Dimensions: length: 22m; beam: 2,8 m; displacement: 77 tons surfaced, 85 tons submerged
-Armament: 1×357mm. (14 in.) torpedo tube, three torpedoes.
-Armor: none
-Engines: 2 shaft electric motors; 60 hp; 10 knots both surfaced and submerged (trials). Endurance about 200 nm both surfaced and submerged.
-Complement: 12
The model was scratch built. The hull was made from a pencil cut to 6,2 cm. long, sharpened at both ends and sanded to round up the joint between the central part and the ends. This gave about the right shape and dimensions for 1/350 scale. All other items were built by sculpting resin spare parts, plus some brass rod and spare photo etch here and there.
I did not have any detailed plans so that the whole construction is made on a “looks about right” basis. The major sources I used were photographs, drawings and factual information in:
-Coello Lillo, Juan Luis (2001): Buques de la Armada española a través de la fotografía (1849-1900).
-Aguilera, Alfredo & Vicente Elias. (1972): Buques de Guerra Españoles (1885-1971). 2nd Edition.
-Gardiner, Robert & Andrew Lambert (1992): Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship, 1815-1905 (Conway’s History of the Ship).
-Peral Caballero, Isaac (2003): La memoria del submarino Peral.
The torpedos had a range of 400 meters @ 24knots.
