Henri Adrien Naber

Who was Henri Adrien Naber?

In 1922, the chemist and science historian, Prof. FM Jaeger, published a book "Cornelis Drebbel and his contemporaries", in which Drebbel was portrayed as just a common dilettante and certainly not the natural sciencist who would have opened new horizons. Naber responded in various periodicals on this "depreciation" of his hero. Simultaneously, he also undertook efforts to model and use replica "submarines" to show that Drebbel indeed had been able to sail for several hours under water. To this end he organised a fundraising with local dignitaries for the construction of submarines. In 1925 this led to the Drebbelgenootschap, which was intended to rehabilitate Drebbel and to promote national recognition of his merits. In the following years regular trips were made in the Port of Hoorn made to test the single-person submarine Naber had commissioned.