[ Gentleman's Magazine ]
The Gentleman's Magazine was an important and influential monthly magazine in the 18th and 19th Centuries; it began in 1731, ceased regular publication in 1907, and shut down completely in 1922.
The August, 1887, issue featured an article entitled "An Aquatic Theatre," a history of the famous Sadler's Wells Theatre in London; that theater, founded in 1684, continues in operation to this day. In the later 18th Century the theater added a huge water tank just below the stage that allowed the staging of naval battles and other sorts of water-related spectacles, inaugurating that new feature with a drama loaded with action:
It was not until 1804 . . . . that Sadler's Wells began that series of nautical dramas, with sensational effects and real water, that obtained it the name of the "Aquatic Theatre," and formed its principal attraction during the next forty years. For these effects a gigantic tank, fed from the New River, was constructed beneath the stage, and a drama entitled "The Siege of Gibraltar" was produced; in this piece real vessels floated on real water for the bombardment of the fortress; the heroine fell from the rocks into the sea, and her lover plunged after her; there were a naval battle and a ship on fire, from which the sailors sprang into the waves to escape the flames, and in another scene a child was cast into the water and rescued by a Newfoundland dog: here is sensation enough for an autumn season at Drury Lane or a two years' run at the Adelphi.
The reference to "Drury Lane" is to the Drury Lane Theatre where Frederick Reynolds' 1803 play The Caravan was first performed, with "Carlo" the Newfoundland jumping into the water to rescue a 'drowning' child. I have not been able to locate a copy of the play referred to above, The Siege of Gibraltar, though it sounds as though it adapted some ideas from Reynolds' very popular play.