British carpenter and gunner William Bourne produced the first recorded design of a practical submersible in 1578. His sketches detailed a small oar-powered wooden vessel that could be submerged, though it was never built. Bourne's concepts laid the theoretical groundwork for later submarine pioneers like Cornelius Drebbel.

Bourne's design, a paper vessel of the imagination, contributed to the early modern fascination with underwater travel and the possibility of exploring the 'inner space' of the ocean. This vision of a hidden world beneath the waves would later inspire the utopian and satirical voyages of writers like Jonathan Swift and the deep-sea fantasies of Jules Verne.