Barrow shipyard built and launched its first two submarines in 1886 and 1887. They were steam powered, built for a Swedish businessman, based on a design by a Liverpool clergyman, and sold to Turkey and Russia. The submarine for Turkey was built, dismantled, delivered by ship, rebuilt in Istanbul and named Abdul Hamid. She had the distinction of being the world's first submarine to fire a torpedo underwater. The submarine for Russia was wrecked on the Danish (Jutland) coast on its delivery voyage.
