However, Bauer was determined to realize his plan and left the Bavarian Army to join the forces of Schleswig-Holstein.

He finally succeeded with the help of Werner von Siemens and others, being granted a small sum to build a model of his proposed u-boat.

Had the Brandtaucher been built according to Bauer’s original designs, it would have achieved submersion by filling several tanks with sea water.

Although Bauer wanted to make several improvements of the submarine, the military ordered a public show on 1 February 1851.

The water pressure proved too much for the weak pumps and the propeller wheel was damaged when the vessel began to keel over.

This increased the air pressure inside the submarine and finally allowed the men to open the blocked hatchway.

After the sinking of the Brandtaucher, Bauer instantly began to make plans for an improved, larger submarine.

Having learned from his first boat’s disaster, Bauer provided the Sea Devil with a newly invented rescue device: the diver’s chamber.

By emptying the water cylinders with the pumps, the crew managed to raise the submarine high enough so that the hatchway was above the waterline.

It would be wrong to claim the German submarine fleet of the World wars was directly descended from Wilhelm Bauer’s prototypes, but he nevertheless influenced them.

[citation needed] In 1960 the German Bundesmarine renamed a Type XXI submarine Wilhelm Bauer after him.

The plot was based on the novel Der Eiserne Seehund (The iron seal) from Hans Arthur Thies, published in 1941.

Bauer's life and work, as well as the design principles of his “Incendiary diver”, are described in the documentary film Submarine Ingenieur by Kiel-based filmmaker Zoran Simic.