The crew of the Royal Australian Navy’s submarine AE2 photographed at Fort Blockhouse, Portsmouth, England, in February 1914 just before they left to take the warship to Australia. Lieutenant Henry Stoker, the ship’s captain, is in the middle of the front row. The crew had recently sailed the submarine from Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, where they had spent some time doing sea trials before Vickers officially handed over the ship. In Barrow, they had attended a display by the famous British escapologist Harry Houdini. They had issued him with the following challenge:

Challenge
from the Petty Officers and men
of the
Australian Submarines

We, the undersigned Petty Officers and men of the Australian Submarines (AE1 and 2) now building at Barrow, happening to have in our possession an old Straight-jacket which used to be used for the Criminally Insane, challenge Houdini to escape from the same. The only conditions we wish to enforce are that we should personally strap Houdini in the Jacket, and that he should remain on the stage in full view of the audience during the whole time he is endeavouring to escape.
[Commander H G Stoker, Straws in the Wind, London, 1925, pp.46-49]

After half and hour of writhing about on stage Houdini broke free of the straightjacket, whereupon the crew promptly destroyed it as clearly useless for its task!

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