Karl Flach

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (November 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Karl Flach and his son

Karl Flach (Villmar, 15 August 1821 - Bay of Valparaiso, 3 May 1866 ) was a German mechanic and engineer who designed and built the Flach; the first Chilean submarine.

Biography[]

Born Johann Anton Flach, he was the son of watchmaker Heinrich Flach and his wife Margaretha. According to another version, originated in the studies of one of his great-grandchildren, Guillermo Stegen Ahumada, his birth name was Gottfried Cornelius. He was forced to change his identity to Karl Flach, the name of a deceased man, after his failed participation in the 1848 revolution that tried to overthrow the Kaiser.

With his wife and son Heinrich (Enrique) Flach, he traveled on the sailboat Australia from Hamburg to Chile on April 3 , 1852 , where upon arrival he called himself Karl August Flach.

Between 1865 and 1866 Karl Flach designed and built the submarine, powered by the force of the crew members and equipped with two guns. The submarine was 12.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide, with a displacement of 2 to 3 knots . The crew was made up of Flach and his 16 year old son, two Chileans Adolfo Pulgar and Francisco Rodríguez, five Germans Valentín Baum, Gustavo Maas, Augusto Warmuth, German Schmidt and Luis Grinewinke and two French people, totalling 11 people. The submarine had been commissioned by the Chilean government of José Joaquín Pérez who wanted to oppose the Spanish in the Chincha Islands War following the Bombardment of Valparaíso. The submarine, with Karl Flach as captain, carried out several successful test and dive trips. On May 3 1866, the submarine made a dive without warning. The submarine sank in the Bay of Valparaíso with its eleven-member crew. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful.^[1]

In 2018, the wreck of the submarine was allegedly found.

References[]