A recent article in the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese researchers are working on a military tank that could submerge for up to two hours.
They might have gotten that idea from me.
The Sea-Wagon of Yantai
Decades ago, when I first started writing fiction, I wrote some secret history stories involving the development of submarines. During my research, I came across an obscure and incomplete reference to someone in China inventing a working submarine around 200 BC.
The reference lacked specifics, leaving me free to make up my own details. Since inventors tend to adapt what’s been done before, I thought a Chinese mechanic of that time might take a common horse-drawn wagon, enclose it and waterproof it. Then he’d eliminate the need for a horse by means of gears and shafts so he could propel it himself from inside.
I hoped to do for submarines what Ray Bradbury did for aerial vehicles in his story “The Flying Machine.” In Bradbury’s story, a Chinese tinkerer invents a kite-like flying machine, but his emperor fears dire consequences of this development.
Here’s the description of my story: In 206 B.C., warring dynasties clash within China. A young warrior, Lau, receives orders to verify the legend of a magical wagon that can cross rivers unseen. He encounters Ning, the wagon-maker in the seaside village of Yantai. Ning has constructed a wagon that can submerge, travel along the bottom of the Bay of Bohai, and surface in safety—the world’s first practical submarine. Ning enjoys the peace and beauty of his undersea excursions and will not allow the military to seize his wagon or learn its secrets. Lau must bring the valuable weapon back to his superior. In the hands of these two men rests the future of the submarine, as an instrument of war or exploration.
Eternal Press published “The Sea-Wagon of Yantai,” but the book has since gone out of print.
A Connection?
Did someone read my story and ponder about the military potential of a wheeled vehicle traveling on the bottom of a deep lake or river? I hope not.
The article gave the impression that the Chinese underwater tank was in the concept stage and that a working prototype might be years away. Plenty of time for competitor nations to develop their own version.
Sheesh. I hope the entire future of armored vehicles hasn’t been set on a new course by lil ol’—
Poseidon’s Scribe
