Friday 14 March 1661/62

At the office all the morning. At noon Sir W. Pen and I making a bargain with the workmen about his house, at which I did see things not so well contracted for as I would have, and I was vexed and made him so too to see me so critical in the agreement. Home to dinner. In the afternoon came the German Dr. Kuffler,¹ to discourse with us about his engine to blow up ships. We doubted not the matter of fact, it being tried in Cromwell’s time, but the safety of carrying them in ships; but he do tell us, that when he comes to tell the King his secret (for none but the Kings, successively, and their heirs must know it), it will appear to be of no danger at all. We concluded nothing; but shall discourse with the Duke of York to-morrow about it. In the afternoon, after we had done with him, I went to speak with my uncle Wight and found my aunt to have been ill a good while of a miscarriage, I staid and talked with her a good while. Thence home, where I found that Sarah the maid had been very ill all day, and my wife fears that she will have an ague, which I am much troubled for. Thence to my lute, upon which I have not played a week or two, and trying over the two songs of “Nulla, nulla,” &c., and “Gaze not on Swans,” which Mr. Berkenshaw set for me a little while ago, I find them most incomparable songs as he has set them, of which I am not a little proud, because I am sure none in the world has them but myself, not so much as he himself that set them. So to bed.

This is the secret of Cornelius van Drebbel (1572-1634), which is referred to again by Pepys on November 11th, 1663. Johannes Siberius Kuffler was originally a dyer at Leyden, who married Drebbel’s daughter. In the “Calendar of State Papers, Domestic,” 1661-62 (p. 327), is the following entry: “Request of Johannes Siberius Kuffler and Jacob Drebble for a trial of their father Cornelius Drebble’s secret of sinking or destroying ships in a moment; and if it succeed, for a reward of 10,000l.. The secret was left them by will, to preserve for the English crown before any other state.” Cornelius van Drebbel settled in London, where he died. James I. took some interest in him, and is said to have interfered when he was in prison in Austria and in danger of execution.

Saturday 15 March 1661/62Thursday 13 March 1661/62

Also on this day

Temperature: 6°C / 43°F

(Average for March 1662)

In Parliament

House of Commons
House of Lords

In Earls Colne, Essex

(About this data)

Annotations

N Glynn on Mon 14 Mar 2005, 11:21pm

Some information on Cornelius Drebbel

http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/specials/special_drebbel.htm
N David Ross McIrvine on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 01:35am

OSCAR MARINER
http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/specials/special_drebbel.htm

It looks like one of those wieners that plump when you cook them!
N Australian Susan on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 02:05am

“engine to blow up ships”
This sounds more like a torpedo than the submarine described in the links given above, especially given Sam’s quite understandable fear of the thing blowing up the ship it was being transported on !But there is no mention of such an invention in the links provided.
Krebbel seems to have been a man ahead of his time with his inventions - like The Difference Engine of Victorian times: prototype computer, which relied on engineering not electronics (not invented at that time) and thus failed. There is a lovely scence in the film, The Four Musketeers (yes, I did get that right) showing the submarine being tried out at the time of the seige of La Rochelle.
N Australian Susan on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 02:07am

Ague
Old term for malaria or any recurrent fever.
N dirk on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 02:09am

Drebbel & Kuffler

See also Background Info:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/3963.php#c28686
N Eric Walla on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 03:00am

OK, so Mr. Berkenshaw has been redeemed in Sam’s eyes? Or rather is it that Sam has always valued him, but simply set that value at less than 5l. a month?
N Bill Braithwaite on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 04:18am

I hope Pepy’s will be hoistin a few pints for St. Paddy’s Day! I love it when this guy is drinkin & carousin! this guy is hilarious (in a brilliant way!!)

Rock On Sam Pepy’s!!

Cheers, Billy ;))
N Mary on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 08:02am

Dr. Kuffler’s inventions.

According to an L&M footnote, the weapon alluded to here is a form of mine. The design for a submarine was a different project altogether.

Kuffler was seeking approval for a trial of the mine and for a reward of
N bradw on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 06:57pm

Torpedo

I was reminded that in the 19th Century, sea-mines were called torpedoes (e.g. Admiral Porter’s order during the attack on Mobile Bay, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”) I wonder if van Drebbel coined this name?

The dictionary isn’t much help—I looked up the etymology of “torpedo,” and my Random House Unabridged says it’s from the Latin for numb or stiff (“torpe[re]”) + to be (“do”).

Can any Latin scholars shed light on how this device merited this name?
N JWB on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 09:14pm

Torpedo
You don’t want a Latin scholar but an ichthyologist.
Named for the Torpedo fish that uses electric jolt to stun(numb)its prey.
N Katherine on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 09:18pm

More on Torpedo

From the OED: 1. a. A flat fish of the genus Torpedo or family Torpedinid
N A. De Araujo on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 09:18pm

“we concluded nothing”
seems like the inventor does not want to tell the whole story; could he have patented the invention at the time? was he afraid the weapon would fall on the wrong hands?
N Australian Susan on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 10:51pm

“engine to blow up ships”
So if L&M say this is a mine, do they give any other information? Did the Navy take K up on this? This advance in technology is just the sort of thing Sam is fascinated by, and he is frustrated by the secretive nature of Mr K. Do we get any more on this “engine” or is this it for the diary? I wonder how they worked and how large they were.
N dirk on Wed 16 Mar 2005, 03:22am

torpedo

Cfr.:
http://www.hansonclan.co.uk/Royal%20Navy/tor_his.htm
and
http://www.weymouthdiving.co.uk/non_whitehead.htm

It appears that in those early days “torpedo” could refer to any kind of explosive underwater weapon - in this case probably a mine of some sort.
N Paul H on Wed 16 Mar 2005, 04:24am

Torpedoes of the 19th century were sometimes called ‘spar-torpedoes’ because a semi-submerged explosive charge was attached to the end of a long piece of timber (i.e. a spar) and the other end of the spar was attached to a ship, which propelled it towards an enemy ship (and hoped to detonate it against the side of that target).
A very unreliable weapon… hence those torpedoes could ‘be damned’ and avoided.
N Mary on Wed 16 Mar 2005, 02:41pm

ague.

The term was most often applied to episodic fevers, such as malaria (tertian ague, etc.) but could also be used to designate any unexplained high fever, especially if rigors ensued. Ague is therefore often descriptive of the symptoms of an illness rather than defining the cause of the symptoms.
N Sjoerd on Wed 16 Mar 2005, 04:41pm

A weapon so dreadful….(for none but the Kings, successively, and their heirs must know it).

It is a good illustration of peoples respect and belief in the holy office of an absolute monarch.

And what is it all about ? A bomb in a bucket !

Compare Albert Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt about the atomic bomb.

http://www.dannen.com/ae-fdr.html
N mike gresk on Thu 17 Mar 2005, 04:36am

many thanks for all the comments. it is a true joy to read the insightful comments. much thanks to all contirbutors.
N Robert Gertz on Fri 18 Mar 2005, 08:31pm

Shame it wasn’t Drebbel’s remarkable undersea rowboat, it would’ve been neat if Sam, like James I, Charlie’s grand-dad, had got to try it out. If I remember correctly Drebbel invented a form of snorkel and even employed a chemical reaction to remove CO2 from the air which allowed his boat to stay under water for some few hours.
N vicenzo on Fri 18 Mar 2005, 10:18pm

After James died and Charles I became King, Drebbel was employed by the Office of Ordnance, making secret weapons for the King, including an unsuccessful floating petard (bomb), and in 1631, he merited a mention in a Jonson play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/drebbel_cornelis.shtml