Conelius Van Drebble Built a Submarine?

Factual Questions
1

The 17th century Dutch inventor is supposed to have built a human powered 9rowed) submarine that he took on a trip down the Thames River. Has any evidence of this survived? I cannot imagine that a wood-hulled submarine could have gone very deep-and how would the oarsmen breath?
Google doesn’t have much on this-were there any witnesses accounts of this event? How would you trim such a submarine? It sounds completely bogus to me.

2

Yes, he did invent some sort of underwater craft.

wiki

The first submersible with reliable information on its construction was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England. … It was propelled by means of oars. The precise nature of the submarine type is a matter of some controversy; some claim that it was merely a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the Thames between 1620 and 1624. In 2002 a two-person version of Bourne’s design was built for the BBC TV programme Building the Impossible by Mark Edwards, and successfully rowed under water at Dorney Lake, Eton.

Note that Diving Bells were perhaps used as early as 300BC. It isn’t hard to imagine going from a diving bell to something that could move. William Bourne seems to have designed one in 1578, which may have led to Cornelius Drebbel’s invention.

for more info see:

3

It didn’t go very deep. He basically fitted a rowboat out with a greased leather covering that was reasonable watertight, with leather seals where the oars stuck out. It may have had snorkels attached to floats on the surface to allow the oarsmen to breathe. He operated at depths of 12 - 15 feet. He is supposed to have built 3 of them. From BBC - History - Cornelius Drebbel :

Other accounts say he had snorkels.