Mr. Seymour Allan citizen of Sydney, Australia invented a new submerged torpedo boat which could dive to every desired depth and which had an incredible submerged speed. The trials with the new killing machine were excellent. The
Goessche Courant dated 3 November supplied the same name and that every desired depth was possible and that torpedoes could be launched. Trials on a small scale were all succeeded with success. The inventor claimed that his boat could stay for 3 days below the surface. If so according to this newspaper was this invention a complete revolution in naval war fare. Again in the
Middelburgsche Courant was 5 November a new item published. A model of the boat was recently with success tested in the public swimming school at Melbourne in he presence of the governor of the colony and some military authorities. The boat was electric driven and able to turn, raise, dive, steam backwards or stay still on a position without sinking. She was to be armed with torpedo guns placed fore and aft. After shooting the torpedoes they automatically were attracted to the keel of a hostile ship due to an special magnetic equipment of the same inventor. A British admiral who was present during the trials at Sydney said that if the boat performed as well as the model the naval tactics were to be renewed.
The newspaper
Ashburton Guardian dated 22 November 1894 page 3 also published a news item and which she called the invention of Mr. C. Seymour Allan a submarine torpedo boat. The admiral mentioned in the Dutch news item during the trials at Sydney was Bowden Smith. The torpedoes were in the bow and stern carried. If realized was her length to be around 80’ and her displacement 127 ton. The fact that she was driven by electricity was on advice of Mr. Edward Manville. Seymour Allan worked for almost 13 years on this project with at least 7,000 pound sterling costs and building her would cost around 10,000 pound sterling. In the future planned Seymour Allan to go through the Heads and sunk a hulk with a torpedo to show her capability. See for the whole next of this item the following link:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AG18941122.2.20&dliv=&e=10--1----0--
The Australian newspaper
The Sydney Morning Herald dated Saturday 18 July 1896 mentioned that a model of his invention was displayed on 16 July at London in the presence of a large number of British naval experts and foreign naval attachés.
