The history of the submarine spans the entire history of
human endeavour as mankind has since early civilisation sought to explore and travel
under the sea
"Under the Sea" is a song from The Walt Disney Company, Disney's 1989 animation, animated film ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Little Mermaid'', composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman. It is influenced by the Calypso music, c ...
. Humanity has employed a variety of methods to travel underwater for exploration, recreation, research and significantly
warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...
. While early attempts, such as those by
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
, were rudimentary, the advent of new propulsion systems, fuels, and
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
, propelled an increase in submarine technology. The introduction of the
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
, then the
nuclear submarine
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...
, saw great expansion in submarine use - and specifically military use - during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. The Second World War use of the
U-Boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
by the
German Navy
The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...
against the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
and commercial shipping, and the Cold War's use of submarines by the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and Russia, helped solidify the submarine's place in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
. The latter conflicts also saw an increasing role for the military submarine as a tool of subterfuge, hidden warfare, and
nuclear deterrent
Nuclear strategy involves the development of doctrines and strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons.
As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means to political ends. In additi ...
. The military use of submarines continues to this day, predominantly by
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, the United States and Russia.
Beyond their use in warfare, submarines continue to have recreational and scientific uses. They are heavily employed in the exploration of the sea bed, and the deepest places of the ocean floor. They are used extensively in search and rescue operations for other submarines, surface vessels, and air craft, and offer a means to descend vast depths beyond the reach of
scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
for both exploration and recreation. They remains a focus of popular culture and the subject of numerous books and films.
Early
![Submerge2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Submerge2.JPG)
The concept of underwater combat has roots deep in antiquity. There are images of men using hollow sticks to breathe underwater for hunting at the temples at Thebes, but the first known military use occurred during the
siege of Syracuse (415–413 BC), where divers cleared obstructions, according to the ''History of the Peloponnesian War''. At the
siege of Tyre (332 BC)
The Siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Persians. The Macedonian army was unable to capture the city, which was a strategic coastal base on the Mediterranean Sea, through convention ...
,
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
used divers, according to
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
. Later legends suggested that Alexander descended into the sea using a primitive
submersible
A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...
in the form of a
diving bell
A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers from the surface to depth and back in open water, usually for the purpose of performing underwater work. The most common types are the open-bottomed wet bell and the closed bell, which c ...
, as depicted in a 16th-century illustration in the works of the
Mughal poet
Amir Khusrau
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural his ...
.
According to a report attributed to Tahbir al-Tayseer in ''Opusculum Taisnieri'' published in 1562:
![William Bourne Inventions or devices 1578](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/William_Bourne_Inventions_or_devices_1578.jpg)
Although there were various plans for submersibles or submarines during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the Englishman
William Bourne designed one of the prototype submarines in 1578. This was to be a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. Comprising a completely enclosed wooden vessel sheathed in waterproofed leather, it was to be submerged by using hand-operated wooden
screw thread
A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a ...
adjustable
plunger
A plunger, force cup, plumber's friend or plumber's helper is a tool used to clear blockages in drains and pipes. It consists of a rubber suction cup attached to a stick (''shaft'') usually made of wood or plastic. A different bellows-like desi ...
s pressing against flexible leather bags located at the sides to increase or decrease the volume of water to adjust the buoyancy of the craft. The sketch (left) suggests that the depth adjustment was utilizing a
crankset
The crankset (in the US) or chainset (in the UK), is the component of a bicycle drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain or belt, which in turn drives the rear wheel. ...
projecting above the surface. There is no obvious accommodation for crew.
In 1596 the Scottish mathematician and theologian
John Napier
John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...
wrote in his ''Secret Inventions'' the following: "These inventions besides devises of sayling under water with divers, other devises and strategems for harming of the enemyes by the Grace of God and worke of expert Craftsmen I hope to perform."
It is unclear whether or not Napier ever carried out his plans.
Henry Briggs Henry Briggs may refer to:
*Henry Briggs (mathematician) (1561–1630), English mathematician
*Henry Perronet Briggs (1793–1844), English painter
*Henry George Briggs (1824–1872), English merchant, traveller, and orientalist
*Henry Shaw Briggs ...
, who was professor of mathematics at Gresham College, London, and later at Oxford, was a friend of Napier, whom he visited in 1615 and 1616, and was also an acquaintance of
Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of
James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the Union of the Crowns, union of the Scottish and Eng ...
, who designed and built the first successful submarine in 1620. Hence, it is not impossible that it was because of the interest taken by Napier in the submarine that Briggs came in touch with Drebbel.
![Van Drebbel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Van_Drebbel.jpg)
Drebbel's submarine was propelled by oars. The precise nature of this submarine is unclear, it may be possible that it resembled a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
between 1620 and 1624. Of one of these tests
Constantijn Huygens
Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...
reports in his autobiography of 1651 the following:
On 18 October 1690, his son
Constantijn Huygens, Jr.
Constantijn Huygens Jr., Lord of Zuilichem (10 March 1628 – October 1697), was a Dutch statesman and poet, mostly known for his work on scientific instruments (sometimes together with his younger brother Christiaan Huygens). But, he was also a ...
commented in his diary on how Drebbel was able to measure the depth to which his boat had descended (which was necessary to prevent the boat from sinking) utilizing a quicksilver barometer:
In order to solve the problem of the absence of oxygen, Drebbel was able to create oxygen out of
saltpetre
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitra ...
to refresh the air in his submarine. An indication of this can be found in Drebbel's own work: ''On the Nature of the Elements'' (1604), in the fifth chapter:
The introduction of Drebbel's submarine concept seemed beyond conventional expectations of what science was thought to have been capable of at the time. Commenting on the scientific basis of Drebbel's claims, renowned German astronomer
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...
was said to have remarked in 1607: "If
rebbelcan create a new spirit, by means of which he can move and keep in motion his instrument without weights or propelling power, he will be Apollo in my opinion."
Although the first submersible vehicles were tools for exploring underwater, it did not take long for inventors to recognize their military potential. The strategic advantages of submarines were first set out by Bishop
John Wilkins
John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the fe ...
of
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
in ''
Mathematical Magick
''Mathematical Magick'' (complete title: ''Mathematical Magick, or, The wonders that may by performed by mechanical geometry''.) is a treatise by the English clergyman, natural philosopher, polymath and author John Wilkins (1614 – 1672). It wa ...
'' in 1648:
![Sous-marin deuxiememodele](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Sous-marin_deuxiememodele.jpg)
Between 1690 and 1692, the French physicist
Denis Papin
Denis Papin FRS (; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713) was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker and of the steam engine.
Early lif ...
designed and built two submarines. The first design (1690) was a strong and heavy metallic square box, equipped with an efficient
pump
A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...
that pumped air into the hull to raise the inner pressure. When the air pressure reached the required level, holes were opened to let in some water. This first machine was destroyed by accident. The second design (1692) had an oval shape and worked on similar principles. A water pump controlled the buoyancy of the machine. According to some sources, a spy of German mathematician
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
called Haes reported that Papin had met with some success with his second design on the
River Lahn
The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the States of Germany, federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km).
It ...
.
By the mid 18th century, over a dozen patents for submarines/submersible boats had been granted in England. In 1747, Nathaniel Symons patented and built the first known working example of the use of a ballast tank for submersion. His design used leather bags that could fill with water to submerge the craft. A mechanism was used to twist the water out of the bags and cause the boat to resurface. In 1749, the
Gentlemen's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...
reported that a similar design had been proposed by
Giovanni Borelli
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (; 28 January 1608 – 31 December 1679) was a Renaissance Italian physiologist, physicist, and mathematician. He contributed to the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo's practice of testi ...
in 1680. By this point of development, further improvement in design stagnated for over a century, until new industrial technologies for propulsion and stability could be applied.
Early modern
The carpenter Yefim Nikonov built the first military submarine in 1720 by order of Tsar
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
in Russia. Nikonov armed his submarine with "fire tubes", weapons akin to flame-throwers. The submarine was designed to approach an enemy vessel, put the ends of the "tubes" out of the water, and blow up the ship with a combustible mixture. In addition, Nikonov designed an airlock for aquanauts to come out of the submarine and to destroy the bilge of the ship. With the death of Peter I in January 1725, Nikonov lost his principal patron and the Admiralty withdrew support for the project.
![TurtleSubmarine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/TurtleSubmarine.jpg)
The first American military submarine was in 1776, a hand-powered egg-shaped (or acorn-shaped) device designed by the American
David Bushnell
David Bushnell (August 30, 1740 – 1824 or 1826), of Westbrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor, a patriot, one of the first American combat engineers, a teacher, and a medical doctor.
Bushnell invented the first submarine to be used in ...
, to accommodate a single man. It was the first submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use
screws
A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...
for propulsion. However, according to British naval historian Richard Compton-Hall, the problems of achieving neutral buoyancy would have rendered the vertical propeller of the ''Turtle'' useless. The route that ''Turtle'' had to take to attack its intended target, , was slightly across the tidal stream which would, in all probability, have resulted in Ezra Lee becoming exhausted.
[Compton-Hall, pp. 32–40] There are also no British records of an attack by a submarine during the war. In the face of these and other problems, Compton-Hall suggests that the entire story around the ''Turtle'' was fabricated as disinformation and morale-boosting propaganda, and that if Ezra Lee did carry out an attack, it was in a covered rowing boat rather than in ''Turtle''. Replicas of ''Turtle'' have been built to test the design. One replica (''Acorn''), constructed by
Duke Riley
Duke Riley is an American artist. Riley earned a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a MFA in Sculpture from the Pratt Institute. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is noted for a body of work incorporating the seafarer ...
and Jesse Bushnell (claiming to be a descendant of
David Bushnell
David Bushnell (August 30, 1740 – 1824 or 1826), of Westbrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor, a patriot, one of the first American combat engineers, a teacher, and a medical doctor.
Bushnell invented the first submarine to be used in ...
), used the tide to get within of the in New York City (a police boat stopped ''Acorn'' for violating a security zone).
Displays of replicas of ''Turtle'' which acknowledge its place in history appear in the
Connecticut River Museum
The Connecticut River Museum is a U.S. educational and cultural institution based at Steamboat Dock in Essex, Connecticut that focuses on the marine environment and maritime heritage of the Connecticut River Valley.
The three-story Connecticut R ...
, the U.S. Navy's
Submarine Force Library and Museum
The United States Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum is located on the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut. It is the only submarine museum managed exclusively by the Naval History & Heritage Command division of the Navy, and this makes it a ...
, Britain's
Royal Navy Submarine Museum
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport is a maritime museum tracing the international history of submarine development from the age of Alexander the Great to the present day, and particularly the history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service ...
and Monaco's
Oceanographic Museum
The Oceanographic Museum (''Musée océanographique'') is a museum of marine sciences in Monaco-Ville, Monaco.
This building is part of the Institut océanographique, which is committed to sharing its knowledge of the oceans.
History
The ...
.
![Fultondesign7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Fultondesign7.jpg)
In 1800, the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
built a human-powered submarine designed by
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...
, the . It also had a sail for use on the surface and so exhibited the first known use of dual propulsion on a submarine. It proved capable of using mines to destroy two warships during demonstrations. The French eventually gave up on the experiment in 1804, as did the British, when Fulton later offered them the submarine design.
In 1834 the Russian Army General demonstrated the
first rocket-equipped submarine to Emperor
Nicholas I.
The ''Submarino Hipopótamo'', the first submarine built in South America, underwent testing in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
on September 18, 1837. Its designer, Jose Rodriguez Lavandera, successfully crossed the
Guayas River
The Guayas River also called Rio Guayas is a major river in western Ecuador. It gives name to Guayas Province and is the most important river in South America that does not flow into the Atlantic Ocean or any of its marginal seas. Its total lengt ...
in
Guayaquil
, motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America
, pushpin_re ...
accompanied by Jose Quevedo. Rodriguez Lavandera had enrolled in the Ecuadorian Navy in 1823, becoming a Lieutenant by 1830. The ''Hipopotamo'' crossed the Guayas on two more occasions, but it was abandoned because of lack of funding and interest from the government.
In 1851 a Bavarian artillery corporal,
Wilhelm Bauer
Wilhelm Bauer (23 December 1822 – 20 June 1875) was a German inventor and engineer who built several hand-powered submarines.
Biography
Wilhelm Bauer was born in Dillingen an der Donau, Dillingen in the Kingdom of Bavaria. His father was a ...
, took a submarine designed by him called the ''
Brandtaucher
''Brandtaucher'' (German for ''Fire-diver'') was a submersible designed by the Bavarian inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer and built by Schweffel & Howaldt in Kiel for Schleswig-Holstein's Flotilla (part of the ''Reichsflotte'') in 1850. Th ...
'' (fire-diver) to sea in Kiel Harbour. Built by
August Howaldt
August Ferdinand Howaldt (23 October 1809 – 4 August 1883) was a German engineer and ship builder. The German sculptor Georg Ferdinand Howaldt was his brother.
Biography
Born in Braunschweig, the son of the silversmith David Ferdinand Howal ...
and powered by a
treadwheel
A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing ...
, ''Brandtaucher'' sank, but the crew of three managed to escape.
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
both sides made use of submarines. Examples were the , for the Union, and the
''Hunley'', for the Confederacy. The ''Hunley'' was the first submarine to successfully attack and sink an opposing warship. (see
below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
*Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
*Bottom (disambiguation)
Bottom may refer to:
Anatomy and sex
* Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...
)
![Sub Marine Explorer Wreck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Sub_Marine_Explorer_Wreck.jpg)
In 1863 the was built by the
German American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
Julius H. Kroehl
Julius Hermann Kroehl (in German, ''Kröhl'') (1820 – September 9, 1867) was a German American inventor and engineer. He invented and built the first submarine able to dive and resurface on its own, the Sub Marine Explorer, technically adv ...
, and featured a pressurized work chamber for the crew to exit and enter underwater. This pre-figured modern diving arrangements such as the
lock-out dive chamber, though the problems of
decompression sickness
Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...
were not well understood at the time. After its public maiden dive in 1866, the ''Sub Marine Explorer'' was used for pearl diving off the coast of
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
. It was capable of diving deeper than , deeper than any other submarine built before.
The Chilean government commissioned the in 1865, during the
Chincha Islands War
The Chincha Islands War, also known as Spanish–South American War ( es, Guerra hispano-sudamericana), was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia from 1865 to 1879. The ...
(1864–1866) when
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
fought against
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Built by the German engineer
Karl Flach
Karl Flach (Villmar, 15 August 1821 - Bay of Valparaiso, 3 May 1866 ) was a German mechanic and engineer who designed and built the Flach (submarine), Flach; the first Chilean submarine.
Biography
Born Johann Anton Flach, he was the son of watc ...
, the submarine sank during tests in
Valparaiso Bay on May 3, 1866, with the entire eleven-man crew.
During the
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
in 1879, the Peruvian government commissioned and built a submarine, the ''
Toro Submarino
''Toro Submarino'' (lit. "Submarine Bull") was a Peruvian submarine developed during the War of the Pacific in 1879. It is considered the first operational submarine or submersible in Latin America. Being fully operational, waiting for its oppo ...
'' design by the Peruvian engineer
Federico Blume and built in
Paita
Paita is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Paita Province which is in the Piura Region. It is a leading seaport in the region. Paita is located 1,089 km northwest of the country's capital Lima, and 57 km northwest of ...
,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. It is considered the first operational submarine or submersible in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. With 48 feet long (15 meters) and manually operate by a crew of 11 persons, it could sumerge to a depth of 12 ft (3.7 m) with a ventilation system a speed of 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) and a maximum dive of 72 feet (22 meters). Being fully operational, waiting for its opportunity to attack with
naval mines
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any v ...
during the
Blockade of Callao
The Blockade of Callao was a military operation that occurred during the War of the Pacific or the Salitre War and that consisted of the Chilean squadron preventing the entry of ships to the port of Callao and the neighboring coves between 10 A ...
, it was scuttled to avoid its capture by Chilean troops on January 17, 1881, before the imminent occupation of Lima.
Mechanical power
![Plongeur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Plongeur.jpg)
The first submarine that did not rely on human power for propulsion was the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
submarine ''
Plongeur
Plongeur, the French word for '' diver'' may refer to the following
*The French submarine ''Plongeur''
*An employee charged with washing dishes
Dishwashing, washing the dishes, doing the dishes, or washing up in Great Britain, is the proces ...
'', launched in 1863, and equipped with a reciprocating engine using compressed air from 23 tanks at .
In practice, the submarine was virtually unmanageable underwater, with very poor speed and maneouverability.
![Ictineo II](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Ictineo_II.jpg)
The first
air independent and
combustion
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...
powered submarine was the ''
Ictineo II'', designed by the Catalan engineer
Narcís Monturiol
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (; Narciso Monturiol Estarriol, in Spanish, 28 September 1819 – 6 September 1885) was a Spanish inventor, artist and engineer born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He was the inventor of the first air-independent an ...
.
[ Originally launched in 1864 as a human-powered vessel, propelled by 16 men, it was converted to peroxide propulsion and steam in 1867. The craft was designed for a crew of two, could dive to , and demonstrated dives of two hours. On the surface, it ran on a steam engine, but underwater such an engine would quickly consume the submarine's oxygen. To solve this problem, Monturiol invented an ]air-independent propulsion
Air-independent propulsion (AIP), or air-independent power, is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the ...
system. As the air-independent power system drove the screw, the chemical process driving it also released oxygen into the hull for the crew and an auxiliary steam engine. Apart from being mechanically powered, Monturiol's pioneering double-hulled vessels also solved pressure, buoyancy, stability, diving and ascending problems that earlier designs had encountered.
The submarine became a potentially viable weapon with the development of the first practical self-propelled torpedoes. The Whitehead torpedo
The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a th ...
was the first such weapon, and was designed in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead (3 January 1823 – 14 November 1905) was an English engineer who was most famous for developing the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo.
Early life
He was born in Bolton, England, the son of James Whitehead, ...
. His 'mine ship' was an long, diameter torpedo propelled by compressed air
Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...
and carried an explosive warhead
A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
* Explosiv ...
. The device had a speed of and could hit a target away. Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s and it first proved itself in combat during the Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...
when, on 16 January 1878, the Turkish ship ''Intibah'' was sunk by Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s carrying Whiteheads.
During the 1870s and 1880s, the basic contours of the modern submarine began to emerge, through the inventions of the English inventor and curate, George Garrett, and his industrialist financier Thorsten Nordenfelt
Thorsten Nordenfelt (1 March 1842 – 8 February 1920), was a Swedish inventor and industrialist.
Career
Nordenfelt was born in Örby outside Kinna, Sweden, the son of a colonel. The surname was and is often spelled Nordenfeldt, though Thorsten ...
, and the Irish inventor John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland ( ga, Seán Pilib Ó hUallacháin/Ó Maolchalann) (24 February 184112 August 1914) was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the US Navy, and the first Royal Navy submarine, ''Hol ...
.
In 1878, Garrett built a long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the ''Resurgam
''Resurgam'' (Latin: ''"I shall rise again"'') is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. She was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed ...
''. This was followed by the second (and more famous) ''Resurgam
''Resurgam'' (Latin: ''"I shall rise again"'') is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. She was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed ...
'' of 1879, built by Cochran & Co. at Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The construction was of iron plates fastened to iron frames, with the central section of the vessel clad with wood secured by iron straps. As built, it was long by in diameter, weighed , and had a crew of 3. ''Resurgam
''Resurgam'' (Latin: ''"I shall rise again"'') is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. She was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed ...
'' was powered by a closed cycle steam engine, which provided enough steam to turn the single propeller for up to 4 hours. It was designed to have positive buoyancy, and diving was controlled by a pair of hydroplanes amidships. At the time it cost £1,538.
Although his design was not very practical – the steam boiler generated intense heat in the cramped confines of the vessel, and it lacked longitudinal stability – it caught the attention of the Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt
Thorsten Nordenfelt (1 March 1842 – 8 February 1920), was a Swedish inventor and industrialist.
Career
Nordenfelt was born in Örby outside Kinna, Sweden, the son of a colonel. The surname was and is often spelled Nordenfeldt, though Thorsten ...
. Discussions between the two led to the first practical steam-powered submarines, armed with torpedoes and ready for military use.
The first such boat was the ''Nordenfelt I'', a 56 tonne, vessel similar to Garret's ill-fated ''Resurgam
''Resurgam'' (Latin: ''"I shall rise again"'') is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. She was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed ...
'', with a range of , armed with a single torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
, in 1885. Like ''Resurgam'', ''Nordenfelt I'' operated on the surface by steam, then shut down its engine to dive. While submerged, the submarine released pressure generated when the engine was running on the surface to provide propulsion for some distance underwater. Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, fearful of the return of the Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
, purchased it. Nordenfelt commissioned the Barrow Shipyard in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1886 to build ''Nordenfelt II'' () and ''Nordenfelt III'' (''Abdül Mecid'') in 1887. They were powered by a coal-fired Lamm steam engine turning a single screw, and carried two 356mm torpedo tubes and two 35mm machine guns. They were loaded with a total of 8 tons of coal as fuel and could dive to a depth of . It was 30.5m long and 6m wide, and weighed 100 tons. It carried a normal crew of 7. It had a maximum surface speed of , and a maximum speed of while submerged. ''Abdülhamid'' became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo submerged.
Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with ''Nordenfelt IV'', which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but soon ran aground and was scrapped. Garrett and Nordenfelt made significant advances in constructing the first modern, militarily capable submarines and fired up military and popular interest around the world for this new technology. However, the solution to fundamental technical problems, such as propulsion, quick submergence, and the maintenance of balance underwater was still lacking, and would only be solved in the 1890s.
Electric power
A reliable means of propulsion for submerged vessels was only made possible in the 1880s with the advent of the necessary electric battery technology. The first electrically powered submarines were built by the Polish engineer Stefan Drzewiecki
Stefan Drzewiecki (russian: Джеве́цкий Степа́н Ка́рлович (Казими́рович); 26 July 1844, Kunka, Podolia, Russian Empire (today Ukraine) – 23 April 1938, Paris) was a Polish scientist, journalist, engineer, con ...
in 1881, he designed and constructed the world’s first submarine in Russia, and later other engineers used his design in their constructions, they were James Franklin Waddington and the team of James Ash and Andrew Campbell in England, Dupuy de Lôme and Gustave Zédé in France and Isaac Peral
Isaac Peral y Caballero (1 June 1851, in Cartagena – 22 May 1895, in Berlin), was a Spanish engineer, naval officer and designer of the Peral Submarine. He joined the Spanish navy in 1866, and developed the first electric-powered submarine whi ...
in Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
In 1884, Drzewiecki converted 2 mechanical submarines, installing in each a engine with a new, at the time, source of energy – batteries. In tests, the submarines travelled under the water against the flow of the Neva River at a rate of . They were the first submarines in the world with electric propulsion. Ash and Campbell constructed their craft, the ''Nautilus'', in 1886. It was long with a engine powered by 52 batteries. It was an advanced design for the time, but became stuck in the mud during trials and was discontinued. Waddington's ''Porpoise'' vessel showed more promise. Waddington had formerly worked in the shipyard in which Garrett had been active. Waddington's vessel was similar in size to the ''Resurgam
''Resurgam'' (Latin: ''"I shall rise again"'') is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. She was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed ...
'' and its propulsion system used 45 accumulator cells with a capacity of 660 ampere hours each. These were coupled in series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used i ...
to a motor
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
driving a propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
at about 750 rpm, giving the ship a sustained speed of for at least 8 hours. The boat was armed with two externally mounted torpedoes as well as a mine torpedo that could be detonated electronically. Although the boat performed well in trials, Waddington was unable to attract further contracts and went bankrupt.
In France, the early electric submarines ''Goubet I'' and ''Goubet II'' were built by the civil engineer, Claude Goubet. These boats were also unsuccessful, but they inspired the renowned naval architect Dupuy de Lôme to begin work on his submarine – an advanced electric-powered submarine almost 20 metres long. He didn't live to see his design constructed, but the craft was completed by Gustave Zédé in 1888 and named the . It was one of the first truly successful electrically powered submarines, and was equipped with an early periscope and an electric gyrocompass for navigation. It completed over 2,000 successful dives using a 204-cell battery. Although the ''Gymnote'' was scrapped for its limited range, its side hydroplanes became the standard for future submarine designs.
The Peral Submarine
''Peral'' was the first successful full electric battery-powered submarine, built by the Spanish engineer and sailor Isaac Peral for the Spanish Navy, in Arsenal de la Carraca (today's Navantia). The first fully capable military submarine, she ...
, constructed by Isaac Peral, was launched by the Spanish Navy in the same year, 1888. It had three Schwartzkopff torpedo
The Schwartzkopff torpedo was a torpedo manufactured in the late 19th century by the German firm ''Eisengießerei und Maschinen-Fabrik von L. Schwartzkopff'', later known as Berliner Maschinenbau, based on the Whitehead design. Unlike the Whiteh ...
es 14 in (360 mm) and one torpedo tube in the bow, new air systems, hull shape, propeller, and cruciform external controls anticipating much later designs. ''Peral'' was an all-electrical powered submarine with an underwater speed of 3 kn (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph). After two years of trials the project was scrapped by naval officialdom who cited, among other reasons, concerns over the range permitted by its batteries.
Many more designs were built at this time by various inventors, but submarines were not put into service by navies until the turn of the 20th century.
Modern
The turn of the 20th century marked a pivotal time in the development of submarines, with a number of important technologies making their debut, as well as the widespread adoption and fielding of submarines by a number of nations. Diesel electric
Diesel may refer to:
* Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression
* Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines
* Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
propulsion would become the dominant power system and instruments such as the periscope would become standardized. Batteries were used for running underwater and gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
(petrol) or diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
s were used on the surface and to recharge the batteries. Early boats used gasoline, but quickly gave way to kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
, then diesel, because of reduced flammability. Effective tactics and weaponry were refined in the early part of the century, and the submarine would have a large impact on 20th century warfare.
The Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
inventor John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland ( ga, Seán Pilib Ó hUallacháin/Ó Maolchalann) (24 February 184112 August 1914) was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the US Navy, and the first Royal Navy submarine, ''Hol ...
built a model submarine in 1876 and a full scale one in 1878, followed by a number of unsuccessful ones. In 1896, he designed the Holland Type VI submarine. This vessel made use of internal combustion engine power on the surface and electric battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
power for submerged operations. Launched on 17 May 1897 at Navy Lt. Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard
Crescent Shipyard, located on Newark Bay in Elizabeth, New Jersey, built a number of ships for the United States Navy and allied nations as well during their production run, which lasted about ten years while under the Crescent name and banner ...
in Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
, New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, the Holland VI was purchased by the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
on 11 April 1900, becoming the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine and renamed USS Holland.
A prototype version of the A-class submarine (''Fulton'') was developed at Crescent Shipyard under the supervision of naval architect and shipbuilder from the United Kingdom, Arthur Leopold Busch
Arthur Leopold Busch or Du Busc (5 March 1866 – 9 March 1956) was a British-born American naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines.
Biography
Early life
Busch was born in Middlesbrough, North ...
, for the newly reorganized Electric Boat Company
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
in 1900. The ''Fulton'' was never commissioned by the United States Navy and was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...
in 1905. The submarines were built at two different shipyards on both coasts of the United States. In 1902, Holland received for his relentless pursuit to perfect the modern submarine craft. Many countries became interested in Holland's (weapons) product and purchased the rights to build them during this time.
The Royal Navy commissioned the Holland-class submarine from Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
, Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...
, under licence from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company
General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corporation. It has been the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for more than 100 years. The company's main facilities are a shipyard in Groton, C ...
during the years 1901 to 1903. Construction of the boats took longer than anticipated, with the first only ready for a diving trial at sea on 6 April 1902. Although the design had been purchased entirely from the US company, the actual design used was an untested improved version of the original Holland design using a new petrol engine.
Meanwhile, the French steam and electric '' Narval'' was commissioned in June 1900 and introduced the classic double-hull design, with a pressure hull inside the outer shell. These 200-ton ships had a range of over underwater. The French submarine ''Aigrette'' in 1904 further improved the concept by using a diesel rather than a gasoline engine for surface power. Large numbers of these submarines were built, with seventy-six completed before 1914.
By 1914, all the main powers had submarine fleets, though the development of a strategy for their use lay in the future.
At the start of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Royal Navy had the world's largest submarine service by a considerable margin, with 74 boats of the B, C and D classes, of which 15 were oceangoing, with the rest capable of coastal patrols. The D-class, built 1907–1910, were designed to be propelled by diesel motors on the surface to avoid the problems with petrol engines experienced with the A class. These boats were designed for foreign service with an endurance of at on the surface and much-improved living conditions for a larger crew. They were fitted with twin screws for greater maneuverability and with innovative saddle tanks. They were also the first submarines to be equipped with deck guns forward of the conning tower. Armament also included three torpedo tubes (two vertically in the bow and one in the stern). D-class was also the first class of submarine to be equipped with standard wireless transmitters. The aerial was attached to the mast of the conning tower that was lowered before diving. With their enlarged bridge structure, the boat profile was recognisably that of the modern submarine. The D-class submarines were considered to be so innovative that the prototype ''D1'' was built in utmost secrecy in a securely guarded building shed.
The British also experimented with other power sources. Oil-fired steam turbines powered the British "K" class submarines built during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and in following years, but these were not very successful.
The aim was to give them the necessary surface speed to keep up with the British battle fleet.
The Germans were slower to recognize the importance of this new weapon. A submersible was initially ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...
from the Kiel shipyard in 1904, but cancelled after the Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
ended. One example was modified and improved, then commissioned into the Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
in 1906 as its first U-boat, ''U-1''. It had a double hull, was powered by a Körting kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
engine and was armed with a single torpedo tube. The fifty percent larger ''SM U-2'' had two torpedo tubes. A diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
was not installed in a German navy boat until the class of 1912–13. At the start of World War I, Germany had 20 submarines of 13 classes in service with more under construction.
Interwar
Diesel submarines needed air to run their engines, and so carried very large batteries
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
for submerged travel. These limited the speed and range of the submarines while submerged.
An early submarine snorkel was designed by James Richardson, an assistant manager at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships.
History
John Scott fou ...
, Greenock, Scotland, as early as 1916. The snorkel allowed the submarine to avoid detection for long periods by travelling under the water using non-electric powered propulsion. Although the company received a British Patent for the design, no further use was made of it—the British Admiralty did not accept it for use in Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
submarines.
The first German U-boat to be fitted with a snorkel was , which experimented with the equipment in the Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
during the summer of 1943. The technology was based on pre-war Dutch experiments with a device named a ''snuiver'' (''sniffer''). As early as 1938, a simple pipe system was installed on the submarines and that enabled them to travel at periscope depth operating on its diesels with almost unlimited underwater range while charging the propulsion batteries. U-boats began to use it operationally in early 1944. By June 1944, about half of the boats stationed in the French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
bases were fitted with snorkels.
Various new submarine designs were developed during the interwar years. Among the most notable were submarine aircraft carrier
A submarine aircraft carrier is a submarine equipped with aircraft for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained rather small. The most fam ...
s, equipped with a waterproof hangar and steam catapult to launch and recover one or more small seaplanes. The submarine and its plane could then act as a reconnaissance unit ahead of the fleet, an essential role at a time when radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
was not available. The first example was the British , followed by the French , and numerous aircraft-carrying submarines in the Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
.
Early submarine designs put the diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
and the electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
on the same shaft, which also drove a propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
with clutches between each of them. This allowed the engine to drive the electric motor as a generator to recharge the batteries and also propel the submarine as required. The clutch between the motor and the engine would be disengaged when the boat dived so that the motor could be used to turn the propeller. The motor could have more than one armature on the shaft – these would be electrically coupled in series for slow speed and parallel for high speed (known as "group down" and "group up" respectively).
In the 1930s, the principle was modified for some submarine designs, particularly those of the U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
and the British U class. The engine was no longer attached to the motor/propeller drive shaft, but drove a separate generator, which would drive the motors on the surface and/or recharge the batteries. This diesel-electric propulsion allowed much more flexibility. For example, the submarine could travel slowly whilst the engines were running at full power to recharge the batteries as quickly as possible, reducing time on the surface, or use of its snorkel. Also, it was now possible to insulate the noisy diesel engines from the pressure hull, making the submarine quieter.
An early form of anaerobic propulsion had already been employed by the in 1864. The engine used a chemical mix containing a peroxide
In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where R = any element. The group in a peroxide is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. The nomenclature is somewhat variable.
The most common peroxide is hydrogen p ...
compound, which generated heat for steam propulsion while at the same time solved the problem of oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
renovation in an hermetic
Hermetic or related forms may refer to:
* of or related to the ancient Greek Olympian god Hermes
* of or related to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary Hellenistic figure based on the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth
** , the ancient and m ...
container for breathing purposes. This system was not employed again until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles, the Walter
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
, on the experimental submarine and later on the naval .
At the end of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the British and Russians experimented with hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3% ...
/kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
(paraffin) engines, which could be used both above and below the surface. The results were not encouraging enough for this technique to be adopted at the time, although the Russians deployed a class of submarines with this engine type code named Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
by NATO. They were considered a failure. Today, several navies, notably Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, use air-independent propulsion
Air-independent propulsion (AIP), or air-independent power, is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the ...
boats, which substitute liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...
for hydrogen peroxide.
Nuclear propulsion and missile platforms
''For further information on nuclear powered submarines, see'' Nuclear submarine
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...
.
The first launch of a cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
(SSM-N-8 Regulus
The SSM-N-8A Regulus or the Regulus I was a United States Navy-developed ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second generation cruise missile, deployed from 1955 to 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of U.S. Navy ...
) from a submarine occurred in July 1953 from the deck of , a World War II fleet boat modified to carry this missile with a nuclear warhead
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
. ''Tunny'' and her sister boat were the United States' first nuclear deterrent patrol submarines. They were joined in 1958 by two purpose-built Regulus submarines, , , and, later, by the nuclear-powered
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
. So that no target would be left uncovered, four Regulus missiles had to be at sea at any given time. Thus, ''Barbero'' and ''Tunny'', each of which carried two Regulus missiles, patrolled simultaneously. ''Growler'' and ''Grayback'', with four missiles, or ''Halibut'', with five, could patrol alone. These five submarines made 40 Regulus strategic deterrent patrols between October 1959 and July 1964. They were replaced by the introduction of a greatly superior system beginning in 1961: the Polaris missile
The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980.
In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missile ...
launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine
A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN – t ...
s (SSBNs). The Soviet Navy developed submarine-launched ballistic missile
A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a nuclear warhead ...
s launched from conventional submarines a few years before the US, and paralleled subsequent US development in this area.
In the 1950s, nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. The sailing of the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USN in 1955 was soon followed by similar British, French and Russian boats. Equipment was also developed to extract oxygen from sea water
Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...
. These two innovations, together with inertial navigation systems, gave submarines the ability to remain submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages such as the crossing of the North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...
beneath the Arctic ice cap
The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall a ...
by the USS ''Nautilus'' in 1958. Most of the naval submarines built since that time in the United States and the Soviet Union and its successor state
Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...
the Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
have been powered by nuclear reactors. The limiting factors in submerged endurance for these vessels are food supply and crew morale in the space-limited submarine.
The Soviet Navy attempted to use a very advanced lead cooled fast reactor
The lead-cooled fast reactor is a nuclear reactor design that features a fast neutron spectrum and molten lead or lead-bismuth eutectic coolant.
Molten lead or lead-bismuth eutectic can be used as the primary coolant because especially lead, and ...
on Project 705 "Lira" (NATO Alfa class) beginning in the 1970s, but its maintenance was considered too expensive, and only six submarines of this class were completed. By removing the requirement for atmospheric oxygen all nuclear-powered submarines can stay submerged indefinitely so long as food supplies remain (air is recycled and fresh water distilled
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heating ...
from seawater). These vessels always have a small battery and diesel generator
A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression- ...
installation for emergency use when the reactors have to be shut down.
While the greater endurance and performance of nuclear reactors mean that nuclear submarines are better for long distance missions or the protection of a carrier battle-force, both countries that do and countries that do not use nuclear power continue to produce conventional diesel-electric submarines, because they can be made stealthier, except when required to run the diesel engine to recharge the ship's battery. Technological advances in sound dampening, noise isolation and cancellation have substantially eroded this advantage. Though far less capable regarding speed and weapons payload, conventional submarines are also cheaper to build. The introduction of air-independent propulsion
Air-independent propulsion (AIP), or air-independent power, is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the ...
boats led to increased sales numbers of such types of submarines.
In 1958 the USN carried out a series of trials with the . Various hull and control configurations were tested to reduce drag and so allow greater underwater speed and maneuverability. The results of these trials were incorporated into the and later submarines. From the same era is the first SSBN, the .
Recent
The German Type 212 submarine
The German Type 212 class (German: U-Boot-Klasse 212 A), also Italian ''Todaro'' class, is a diesel-electric submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian navies. It features diesel propulsion and an a ...
was the first series production submarine to use fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
s for air-independent propulsion. It is powered by nine 34-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
s.
Most small modern commercial submarines that are not expected to operate independently use batteries that can be recharged by a mother-ship after every dive.
Towards the end of the 20th century, some submarines were fitted with pump-jet
A pump-jet, hydrojet, or water jet is a marine system that produces a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller (axial-flow pump), a centrifugal pump, or a mixed flow pump which is a combination of both ...
propulsors, instead of propellers. Although these are heavier, more expensive, and often less efficient than a propeller, they are significantly quieter, giving an important tactical advantage.
A possible propulsion system for submarines is the magnetohydrodynamic drive
A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD accelerator is a method for propelling vehicles using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, accelerating an electrically conductive propellant ( liquid or gas) with magnetohydrodynamics. The ...
, or "caterpillar drive", which has no moving parts. It was popularized in the movie version of ''The Hunt for Red October
''The Hunt for Red October'' is the debut novel by American author Tom Clancy, first published on October 1, 1984, by the Naval Institute Press. It depicts Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he seemingly goes rogue with his country's cutt ...
'', written by Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
, which portrayed it as a virtually silent system. (In the book, a form of propulsor was used rather than an MHD.) Although some experimental surface ships have been built with this propulsion system, speeds have not been as high as hoped. In addition, the noise created by bubbles, and the higher power settings a submarine's reactor would need, mean that it is unlikely to be considered for any military purpose.
Associated technology
Sensors
The first submarines had only a porthole to provide a view to aid navigation. An early periscope was patented by Simon Lake
Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines f ...
in 1893. The modern periscope was developed by the industrialist Sir Howard Grubb
Sir Howard Grubb (28 July 1844 – 16 September 1931) was an optical designer from Dublin, Ireland. He was head of a family firm that made large optical telescopes, telescope drive controls, and other optical instruments. He is also noted for h ...
in the early 20th century and was fitted onto most Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
designs.
Passive sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
was introduced in submarines during the First World War, but active sonar ASDIC
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on or ...
did not come into service until the inter-war period. Today, the submarine may have a wide variety of sonar arrays, from bow-mounted to trailing ones. There are often upward-looking under-ice sonars as well as depth sounders.
Early experiments with the use of sound to 'echo locate' underwater in the same way as bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...
s use sound for aerial navigation began in the late 19th century. The first patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
for an underwater echo ranging device was filed by English meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson
Lewis Fry Richardson, FRS (11 October 1881 – 30 September 1953) was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of weather forecasting, and the application of si ...
a month after the sinking of the Titanic. The First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
stimulated research in this area. The British made early use of underwater hydrophones, while the French physicist Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin (; ; 23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the ''Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes'', an ant ...
worked on the development of active sound devices for detecting submarines in 1915 using quartz. In 1916, under the British Board of Invention and Research
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a t ...
, Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle
Robert William Boyle (October 2, 1883 – April 18, 1955) was a physicist and one of the most important early pioneers in the development of sonar.
Boyle was born in 1883 at Carbonear in the Dominion of Newfoundland. Boyle left Newfoundland ...
took on the active sound detection project with A B Wood, producing a prototype for testing in mid-1917. This work, for the Anti-Submarine Division of the British Naval Staff, was undertaken in utmost secrecy, and used quartz piezoelectric crystals to produce the world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus.
By 1918, both France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
had built prototype active systems. The British tested their ASDIC on in 1920, and started production in 1922. The 6th Destroyer Flotilla had ASDIC-equipped vessels in 1923. An anti-submarine school, HMS ''Osprey'', and a training flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' (fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class ...
of four vessels were established on the English Isle of Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
in 1924. The US Sonar QB set arrived in 1931.
Weapons and countermeasures
Early submarines carried torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
es mounted externally to the craft. Later designs incorporated the weapons into the internal structure of the submarine. Originally, both bow-mounted and stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
-mounted tubes were used, but the latter eventually fell out of favour. Today, only bow-mounted installations are employed. The modern submarine is capable of firing many types of weapon from its launch tubes, including UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s. Special mine laying submarines were also built. Up until the end of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it was common to fit deck gun
A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret.
The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...
s to submarines to allow them to sink ships without wasting their limited numbers of torpedoes.
To aid in the weapons targeting mechanical calculator
A mechanical calculator, or calculating machine, is a mechanical device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic automatically, or (historically) a simulation such as an analog computer or a slide rule. Most mechanical calculators wer ...
s were employed to improve the fire control
Fire control is the practice of reducing the heat output of a fire, reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving it of fuel, oxygen, or heat (see fire triangle). Fire prevention and control ...
of the on-board weaponry. The firing calculus was determined by the targets' course and speed through measurements of the angle and its range
Range may refer to:
Geography
* Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra)
** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands
* Range, a term used to i ...
via the periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position.
In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
. Today, these calculations are achieved by digital computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These pro ...
s with display screens providing necessary information on the torpedo status and ship status.
German submarines in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
had rubber coatings and could launch chemical devices to provide a decoy
A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lu ...
when the boat came under attack. These proved to be ineffective, as sonar operators learned to distinguish between the decoy and the submarine. Modern submarines can launch a variety of devices for the same purpose.
Safety
After the sinking of the '' A1'' submarine in 1904, lifting eyes were fitted to British submarines, and in 1908 air-locks and escape helmets were provided. The Royal Navy experimented with various types of escape apparatus, but it was not until 1924 that the "Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus
The Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus (also referred to as DSEA), was an early type of oxygen rebreather invented in 1910 by Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman and Co. Ltd., inspired by the earlier Fleuss system, and adopted by the Royal Na ...
" was developed for crew members. The USN used the similar "Momsen Lung
The Momsen lung was a primitive underwater rebreather used before and during World War II by American submariners as emergency escape gear. It was invented by Charles Momsen (nicknamed "Swede"). Submariners trained with this apparatus in an dee ...
". The French used "Joubert's apparatus" and the Germans used "Draeger's apparatus".
Rescue submarines for evacuating a disabled submarine's crew were developed in the 1970s. A British unmanned vehicle was used for recovering an entangled Russian submarine crew in 2005. A new NATO Submarine Rescue System
The NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) is a tri-national project to develop an international submarine rescue system. The system provides a rescue capability primarily to the partner nations of France, Norway and the United Kingdom, but also to ...
entered service in 2007.
Communication and navigation
Wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
was used to provide communication to and from submarines in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The D-class submarine was the first submarine class to be fitted with wireless transmitters in 1907. With time, the type, range and bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
of the communications systems have increased. With the danger of interception
In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...
, transmissions by a submarine are minimised. Various periscope-mounted aerials have been developed to allow communication without surfacing.
The standard navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
system for early submarines was by eye, with use of a compass. The gyrocompass
A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...
was introduced in the early part of the 20th century and inertial navigation in the 1950s. The use of satellite navigation
A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...
is of limited use to submarines, except at periscope depth or when surfaced.
Military
The first military submarine was ''Turtle'' in 1776. During the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, ''Turtle'' (operated by Sgt. Ezra Lee, Continental Army) tried and failed to sink a British warship, HMS ''Eagle'' (flagship of the blockaders) in New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
harbor on September 7, 1776. There is no record of any attack in the ships' logs.
During the War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, in 1814 Silas Halsey
Silas Halsey (October 17, 1743 N.S. – November 19, 1832) was a United States representative from New York.
Born October 6, 1743 (Old Style) / October 17, 1743 (New Style) in Southampton, he attended the public schools and studied medic ...
lost his life while using a submarine in an unsuccessful attack on a British warship stationed in New London
New London may refer to:
Places United States
*New London, Alabama
*New London, Connecticut
*New London, Indiana
*New London, Iowa
* New London, Maryland
*New London, Minnesota
*New London, Missouri
*New London, New Hampshire, a New England town
* ...
harbour.
American Civil War
During the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the Union was the first to field a submarine. The French-designed ''Alligator'' was the first U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
sub and the first to feature compressed air (for air supply) and an air filtration system. It was the first submarine to carry a diver lock, which allowed a diver to plant electrically detonated mines on enemy ships. Initially hand-powered by oars, it was converted after 6 months to a screw propeller powered by a hand crank. With a crew of 20, it was larger than Confederate submarines. ''Alligator'' was long and about in diameter. It was lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras
Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina.
Long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and maritime forests create a unique environment where wind and waves shape ...
on 1 April 1863 while uncrewed and under tow to its first combat deployment at Charleston.
The '' Intelligent Whale'' was built by Oliver Halstead and tested by the U.S. Navy after the American Civil War and caused the deaths of 39 men during trials.
The Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
fielded several human-powered submarines, including CSS ''H. L. Hunley'' (named for its designer and chief financier, Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley (December 29, 1823 – October 15, 1863) was a Confederate States of America, Confederate Marine engineering, marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which ...
). The first Confederate submarine was the ''Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...
'', which sank a target schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
using a towed mine during tests on Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west ...
, but it was not used in combat. It was scuttled after New Orleans was captured and in 1868 was sold for scrap. The similar Bayou St. John submarine
The Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine is an early military submarine built for use by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
Description
The submarine is constructed of riveted iron, long, wide and deep, with a ha ...
is preserved in the Louisiana State Museum
The Louisiana State Museum (LSM), founded in New Orleans in 1906, is a statewide system of National Historic Landmarks and modern structures across Louisiana, housing thousands of artifacts and works of art reflecting Louisiana's legacy of historic ...
. CSS ''Hunley'' was intended for attacking Union ships that were blockading Confederate seaports. The submarine had a long pole with an explosive charge in the bow, called a spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
. The sub had to approach an enemy vessel, attach the explosive, move away, and then detonate it. It was extremely hazardous to operate, and had no air supply other than what was contained inside the main compartment. On two occasions, the sub sank; on the first occasion half the crew died, and on the second, the entire eight-man crew (including Hunley himself) drowned. On 17 February 1864, ''Hunley'' sank USS Housatonic (1861), USS ''Housatonic'' off the Charleston Harbor, the first time a submarine successfully sank another ship, though it sank in the same engagement shortly after signalling its success. Submarines did not have a major impact on the outcome of the war, but did portend their coming importance to naval warfare and increased interest in their use in naval warfare.
Russo-Japanese War
On 14 June 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) placed an order for five Holland ''Type VII submersibles'', which were built in Quincy, Massachusetts, at the ''Fore River Yard'', and shipped to Yokohama, Japan in sections. The five machines arrived on 12 December 1904.[Jentschura p. 160] Under the supervision of naval architect Arthur Leopold Busch, Arthur L. Busch, the imported ''Hollands'' were re-assembled, and the first submersibles were ready for combat operations by August 1905, but hostilities were nearing the end by that date, and no submarines saw action during the war.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...
(IRN) purchased German constructed submersibles built by the Germaniawerft shipyards out of Kiel. In 1903, Germany successfully completed its first fully functional engine-powered submarine, ''Forelle'' (Trout), It was sold to Russia in 1904 and shipped via the Trans-Siberian Railway to the combat zone during the Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
.[Showell p. 29]
Due to the naval blockade of Port Arthur naval base, Port Arthur, Russia sent their remaining submarines to Vladivostok, and by the end of 1904, seven subs were based there. On 1 January 1905, the IRN created the world's first operational submarine fleet around these seven submarines. The first combat patrol by the newly created IRN submarine fleet occurred on 14 February 1905, and was carried out by ''Delfin'' and ''Som'', with each patrol normally lasting about 24 hours. ''Som'' first made contact with the enemy on 29 April, when it was fired upon by IJN torpedo boats, which withdrew shortly after opening fire and resulting in no casualties or damage to either combatant. A second contact occurred on 1 July 1905 in the Tartar Strait when two IJN torpedo boats spotted the IRN sub ''Keta''. Unable to submerge quickly enough, ''Keta'' was unable to obtain a proper firing position, and both combatants broke contact.
World War I
The first time military submarines had significant impact on a war was in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Forces such as the U-boats of Germany operated against Allied commerce (''Handelskrieg''); the submarine's ability to function as a practical war machine relied on new tactics, their numbers, and submarine technologies such as combination Diesel engine, diesel/electric power system that had been developed in the preceding years. More like submersible ships than the submarines of today, submarines operated primarily on the surface using standard engines, submerging occasionally to attack under battery power. They were roughly triangular in cross-section, with a distinct keel, to control rolling while surfaced, and a distinct bow.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, submarines were employed by the Italian Regia Marina during the Italo-Turkish War without seeing any naval action, and by the Greek Navy during the Balkan Wars, where notably the French-built became the first such vessel to launch a torpedo against an enemy ship (albeit unsuccessfully).
At the start of the war, Germany had 48 submarines in service or under construction, with 29 operational. These included vessels of the diesel-engined ''U-19'' class with the range () and speed () to operate effectively around the entire British coast. Initially, Germany followed the international Rules of Prize Warfare, "Prize Rules", which required a ship's crew to be allowed to leave before sinking their ship. The U-boats saw action in the First Battle of the Atlantic.
After the British ordered transport ships to act as auxiliary cruisers, the German navy adopted unrestricted submarine warfare, generally giving no warning of an attack. During the war, 360 submarines were built, but 178 were lost. The rest were surrendered at the end of the war. A German U-boat sunk and is often cited among the reasons for the entry of the United States into the war.
In August 1914, a flotilla of ten U-boats sailed from their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea in the first submarine war patrol in history. Their aim was to sink capital ships of the British Grand Fleet, and so reduce the Grand Fleet's numerical superiority over the German High Seas Fleet. Depending more on luck than strategy, the first sortie was not a success. Only one attack was carried out, when ''U-15'' fired a torpedo (which missed) at , while two of the ten U-boats were lost. The had better luck. On 22 September 1914 while patrolling the Broad Fourteens, a region of the southern North Sea, ''U-9'' found three obsolescent British armored cruiser, armoured cruisers (, , and ), which were assigned to prevent German surface vessels from entering the eastern end of the English Channel. The ''U-9'' fired all six of its torpedoes, reloading while submerged, and sank the three cruisers in less than an hour.
The British had 77 operational submarines at the beginning of the war, with 15 under construction. The main type was the British E-class submarine, E class, but several experimental designs were built, including the British K-class submarine, K class, which had a reputation for bad luck, and the British M-class submarine, M class, which had a large deck-mounted gun. The British R-class submarine, R class was the first boat designed to attack other submarines. British submarines operated in the Baltic Sea, Baltic, North Sea and Atlantic, as well as in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Over 50 were lost from various causes during the war.
France had 62 submarines at the beginning of the war, in 14 different classes. They operated mainly in the Mediterranean; in the course of the war, 12 were lost. The Russians started the war with 58 submarines in service or under construction. The main class was the with 24 boats. Twenty-four submarines were lost during the war.
World War II
Germany
Although Germany was banned from having submarines in the Treaty of Versailles, construction started in secret during the 1930s. When this became known, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1936 allowed Germany to achieve parity in submarines with Britain.
Germany started the war with only 65 submarines, with 21 at sea when war broke out. Germany soon built the largest submarine fleet during World War II. Due to the Treaty of Versailles limiting the surface navy, the rebuilding of the German surface forces had only begun in earnest a year before the outbreak of World War II. Having no hope of defeating the vastly superior Royal Navy decisively in a surface battle, the German High Command planned on fighting a campaign of Commerce raiding, "Guerre de course" (Merchant warfare), and immediately stopped all construction on capital surface ships, save the nearly completed s and two cruisers, and switched the resources to submarines, which could be built more quickly. Though it took most of 1940 to expand production facilities and to start mass production, more than a thousand submarines were built by the end of the war.
Germany used submarines to devastating effect in World War II during the Battle of the Atlantic, attempting but ultimately failing to cut off Britain's supply routes by sinking more ships than Britain could replace. The supply lines were vital to Britain for food and industry, as well as armaments from Canada and the United States. Although the U-boats had been updated in the intervening years, the major innovation was improved communications, encrypted using the famous Enigma machine, Enigma cipher machine. This allowed for mass-attack military tactics, tactics or "Wolfpack (naval tactic), wolfpacks" (Rudel), but was also ultimately the U-boats' downfall.
After putting to sea, the U-boats operated mostly on their own trying to find convoys in areas assigned to them by the High Command. If a convoy was found, the submarine did not attack immediately, but shadowed the convoy and radioed to the German Command to allow other submarines in the area to find the convoy. The submarines were then grouped into a larger striking force and attacked the convoy simultaneously, preferably at night while surfaced to avoid the ASDIC
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on or ...
.
During the first few years of World War II, the ''Ubootwaffe'' ("U-boat force") scored unprecedented success with these tactics ("First Happy Time"), but were too few to have any decisive success. By the spring of 1943, German U-boat construction was at full capacity, but this was more than nullified by increased numbers of convoy escorts and aircraft, as well as technical advances like radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
and sonar. High Frequency Direction Finding (HF/DF, known as Huff-Duff) and Ultra (cryptography), Ultra allowed the Allies to route convoys around wolfpacks when they detected radio transmissions from trailing boats. The results were devastating: from March to July of that year, over 130 U-boats were lost, 41 in May alone. Concurrent Allied losses dropped dramatically, from 750,000 tons in March to 188,000 in July. Although the Battle of the Atlantic continued to the last day of the war, the U-boat arm was unable to stem the tide of personnel and supplies, paving the way for Operation Torch, Operation Husky, and ultimately, D-Day. Winston Churchill wrote the U-boat "peril" was the only thing to ever give him cause to doubt eventual Allied victory.
By the end of the war, almost 3,000 Allied ships (175 warships, 2,825 merchantmen) were sunk by U-boats. Of the 40,000 men in the U-boat service, 28,000 (70%) lost their lives.
The Germans built some novel submarine designs, including the German Type XVII submarine, Type XVII, which used hydrogen peroxide in a Walther turbine (named for its designer, Hellmuth Walter, Dr Hellmuth Walther) for propulsion. They also produced the German Type XXII submarine, Type XXII, which had a large battery and mechanical torpedo handling.
Italy
Italy had 116 submarines in service at the start of the war, with 24 different classes. These operated mainly in the Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres of World War II, Mediterranean theatre. Some were sent to a base at Bordeaux in Occupied France. A flotilla of several submarines also operated out of the Eritrean colonial port of Massawa.
Italian designs proved to be unsuitable for use in the Atlantic Ocean. Italian midget submarines were used in attacks against British shipping near the port of Gibraltar.
Britain
The Royal Navy Submarine Service had 70 operational submarines in 1939. Three classes were selected for mass production, the seagoing British S-class submarine (1931), S class and the oceangoing British T-class submarine, T class, as well as the coastal U class. All of these classes were built in large numbers during the war.
The French submarine fleet consisted of over 70 vessels (with some under construction) at the beginning of the war. After the Fall of France, the French-German Armistice required the return of all French submarines to German-controlled ports in France. Some of these submarines were forcibly seized by British forces.
The main operating theatres for British submarines were off the coast of Norway, in the Mediterranean, where a flotilla of submarines successfully disrupted the Axis powers, Axis replenishment route to North Africa from their base in Malta, as well as in the North Sea. As Germany was a Continental power, there was little opportunity for the British to sink German shipping in this theatre of the Atlantic.
From 1940, British U-class submarine, U-class submarines were stationed at Malta, to interdict enemy supplies bound for North Africa. Over a period of three years, this force sank over 1 million tons of shipping, and fatally undermined the attempts of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, German High Command to adequately support General Erwin Rommel. Rommel's Chief of Staff, Fritz Bayerlein conceded that "We would have taken Alexandria and reached the Suez Canal, if it had not been for the work of your submarines". 45 vessels were lost during this campaign, and five Victoria Crosses were awarded to submariners serving in this theatre.
In addition, British submarines attacked Japanese shipping in the Far East, during the Pacific War, Pacific campaign. The Eastern Fleet was responsible for submarine operations in the Bay of Bengal, Strait of Malacca as far as Singapore, and the western coast of Sumatra to the Equator. Few large Japanese cargo ships operated in this area, and the British submarines' main targets were small craft operating in inshore waters. The submarines were deployed to conduct reconnaissance, interdict Japanese supplies travelling to Burma, and attack U-boats operating from Penang. The Eastern Fleet's submarine force continued to expand during 1944, and by October 1944 had sunk a cruiser, three submarines, six small naval vessels, of merchant ships, and nearly 100 small vessels. In this theatre, the only documented instance of a submarine sinking another submarine while both were submerged occurred. Action of 9 February 1945, engaged the and the ''Venturer'' crew manually computed a successful firing solution against a three-dimensionally maneuvering target using techniques which became the basis of modern torpedo computer targeting systems.
By March 1945, British boats had gained control of the Strait of Malacca, preventing any supplies from reaching the Japanese forces in Burma by sea. By this time, there were few large Japanese ships in the region, and the submarines mainly operated against small ships which they attacked with their deck guns. The submarine torpedoed and sank the heavy cruiser in the Bangka Strait, taking down some 1,200 Japanese army troops. Three British submarines (, , and ) were sunk by the Japanese during the war.
Japan
Japan had the most varied fleet of submarines of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, including manned torpedoes (Kaiten), midget submarines (Ko-hyoteki class submarine, Ko-hyoteki, KairyBritish U class submarine, Kairyu), medium-range submarines, purpose-built supply submarines (many for use by the Army), long-range fleet submarines (many of which carried an aircraft), submarines with the highest submerged speeds of the conflict (I-200 class submarine, Sentaka ''I-200''), and submarines that could carry multiple aircraft (World War II's largest submarine, the I-400 class submarine, Sentoku ''I-400''). These submarines were also equipped with the most advanced torpedo of the conflict, the oxygen-propelled Long Lance, Type 95 (what U.S. historian Samuel E. Morison postwar called "Long Lance").
Overall, despite their technical prowess, Japanese submarines – having been incorporated into the Imperial Navy's war plan of "Guerre D' Escadre" (Fleet Warfare), in contrast to Germany's war plan of "Guerre De Course" – were relatively unsuccessful. Japanese submarines were primarily used in offensive roles against warships, which were fast, maneuverable and well-defended compared to merchant ships. In 1942, Japanese submarines sank two fleet aircraft carriers, one cruiser, and several destroyers and other warships, and damaged many others, including two battleships. They were not able to sustain these results afterward, as Allied fleets were reinforced and became better organized. By the end of the war, submarines were instead often used to transport supplies to island garrisons. During the war, Japan managed to sink about 1 million tons of merchant shipping (184 ships), compared to 1.5 million tons for Great Britain (493 ships), 4.65 million tons for the U.S. (1,079 ships) and 14.3 million tons for Germany (2,840 ships).
Early models were not very maneuverable underwater, could not dive very deep, and lacked radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
. Later in the war, units that were fitted with radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
were in some instances sunk due to the ability of U.S. radar sets to detect their emissions. For example, sank three such equipped submarines in the span of four days. After the war, several of Japan's most original submarines were sent to Hawaii for inspection in "Operation Road's End" (I-400 class submarine, ''I-400'', ''I-401'', I-200 class submarine, ''I-201'' and ''I-203'') before being scuttled by the U.S. Navy in 1946, when the Soviets demanded access to the submarines as well.
United States
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of the U.S. Navy's front-line Pacific Fleet surface ships were destroyed or severely damaged. The submarines survived the attack and carried the war to the enemy. Lacking support vessels, the submarines were asked to independently hunt and destroy Japanese ships and submarines. They did so very effectively.
During World War II, the submarine force was the most effective anti-ship and anti-submarine weapon in the entire American arsenal. Submarines, though only about 2 percent of the U.S. Navy, destroyed over 30 percent of the Japanese Navy, including 8 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship and 11 cruisers. U.S. submarines also destroyed over 60 percent of the Japanese merchant fleet, crippling Japan's ability to supply its military forces and industrial war effort. Allied submarines in the Pacific War destroyed more Japanese shipping than all other weapons combined. This feat was considerably aided by the Imperial Japanese Navy's failure to provide adequate escort forces for the nation's merchant fleet.
Whereas Japanese submarine torpedoes of the war are considered the best, those of U.S. Navy are considered the worst. For example, the U.S. Mark 14 torpedo typically ran too deep and was tipped with a Mark 6 exploder, Mk VI exploder, with both magnetic influence and contact features, neither reliable. The faulty depth control mechanism of the Mark 14 was corrected in August 1942, but field trials for the exploders were not ordered until mid-1943, when tests in Hawaii and Australia confirmed the flaws. In addition, the Mark 14 sometimes suffered circular runs, which sank at least one U.S. submarine, . Fully operational Mark 14 torpedoes were not put into service until September 1943. The Mark 15 torpedo used by U.S. surface combatants had the same Mk VI exploder and was not fixed until late 1943. One attempt to correct the problems resulted in a wakeless, electric torpedo (the Mark 18 torpedo, Mark 18) being placed in submarine service. was lost to a circular run by one of these torpedoes. Given the prevalence of circular runs, there were probably other losses among boats which simply disappeared.
During World War II, 314 submarines served in the United States Navy, of which nearly 260 were deployed to the Pacific.[O'Kane, p. 333.] On 7 December 1941, 111 boats were in commission and 203 submarines from the , , and es were commissioned during the war. During the war, 52 US submarines were lost to all causes, with 48 directly due to hostilities; 3,505[Less the crews of , , and possibly lost to accident, and ''Seawolf'', to friendly fire. and , lost to grounding, took no casualties. Blair, ''passim''.] sailors were lost, the highest percentage killed in action of any US service arm in World War II. U.S. submarines sank 1,560 enemy vessels, a total tonnage of 5.3 million tons (55% of the total sunk),[Blair, p.878.] including 8 aircraft carriers, a battleship, three heavy cruisers, and over 200 other warships, and damaged several other ships including the battleships (badly damaged by ) and (damaged by ). In addition, the Japanese Merchant Navy, merchant marine lost 16,200 sailors killed and 53,400 wounded, of some 122,000 at the start of the war, due to submarines.
Post-War
During the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and the Soviet Union maintained large submarine fleets that engaged in cat-and-mouse games. This continues today, on a much-reduced scale. The Soviet Union suffered the loss of at least four submarines during this period: was lost in 1968 (which the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA attempted to retrieve from the ocean floor with the Howard Hughes-designed ship named ''Hughes Glomar Explorer, Glomar Explorer''), in 1970, in 1986, and Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets, ''Komsomolets'' in 1989. Many other Soviet subs, such as were badly damaged by fire or radiation leaks. The United States lost two nuclear submarines during this time: and . The ''Thresher'' was lost due to equipment failure, and the exact cause of the loss of the ''Scorpion'' is not known.
The sinking of in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was the first submarine casualty in the South Asian region.
The United Kingdom employed nuclear-powered submarines against Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War. The sinking of the cruiser by was the first sinking by a nuclear-powered submarine in war. During this conflict, the conventional Argentinian submarine ARA Santa Fe (S-21), ARA ''Santa Fé'' was disabled by a Sea Skua missile, and the claimed to have made unsuccessful attacks on the British fleet.
Major incidents
There have been a number of accidental sinkings, but also some collisions between submarines.
Up to August 1914, there were 68 submarine accidents. There were 23 collisions, 7 battery gas explosions, 12 gasoline explosions, and 13 sinkings due to hull openings not being closed. was lost in the English Channel in 1951 due to the snort mast fracturing and in 1963 due to a pipe weld failure during a test dive. Many other scenarios have been proven to be probable causes of sinking, most notably a battery malfunction causing a torpedo to detonate internally, and Kursk submarine disaster, the loss of the Russian Russian submarine Kursk (K-141), ''Kursk'' on 12 August 2000 probably due to a torpedo explosion. An example of the latter was the incident between the Russian Russian submarine Kostroma (B-276), ''K-276'' and the in February 1992.
Since 2000, there have been 9 major naval incidents involving submarines. There were three Russian submarine incidents, in two of which the submarines in question were lost, along with three United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
submarine incidents, one China, Chinese incident, one Canada, Canadian, and one Australian incident. In August 2005, Russian deep submergence rescue vehicle AS-28, ''AS-28'', a Russian Priz-class deep-submergence rescue vehicle, Priz-class rescue submarine, was trapped by cables and/or nets off of Petropavlovsk, and saved when a British ROV cut them free in a massive international effort.
See also
* List of submarine actions
* List of submarine museums
* List of sunken nuclear submarines
* Depth charge and Depth charge (cocktail)
* Nuclear navy
* Nuclear submarine
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...
* Attack submarine
* List of countries with submarines
Vessels
* NR-1 Deep Submergence Craft, ''Nerwin'' (NR-1)
* Finnish submarine Vesikko, ''Vesikko'' (museum submarine)
* ORP Orzel, ORP Orzeł
* Ships named Nautilus
* List of submarines of the Royal Navy
* List of submarines of the United States Navy
* List of Russian or Soviet submarines, List of Soviet submarines
* List of U-boats of Germany
* Kaikō ROV (deepest submarine dive)
* Bathyscaphe Trieste (deepest manned dive)
Classes
*List of submarine classes
*List of submarine classes of the Royal Navy
*List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes
*List of United States submarine classes
References
Further reading
*Blair, Clay Jr., ''Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan'',
*Compton-Hall, Richard. ''Submarine Boats, the beginnings of underwater warfare'', Windward, 1983.
*Fontenoy, Paul. ''Submarines: An Illustrated History of Their Impact.'' ABC-CLIO, 2007.
*Harris, Brayton (Captain, USN ret.). "The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social, and Military History." Berkley Books, 1997
*Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel. ''Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945.'' United States Naval Institute, 1977. Annapolis, Maryland. .
*Lockwood, Charles A. (VAdm, USN ret.), ''Sink 'Em All: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific'', (1951)
*Norman Polmar, Polmar, Norman & Kenneth Moore. ''Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U. S. and Soviet Submarines.'' Brassey's, Washington DC, 2004.
*Preston, Anthony. ''The World's Greatest Submarines'' Greenwich Editions 2005.
*Showell, Jak. ''The U-Boat Century-German Submarine Warfare 1906–2006.'' Great Britain; Chatham Publishing, 2006. .
External links
John Holland
German Submarines of WWII
Submarine Simulations
- German Midget Submarine
- German Midget Submarine
Developed for the NOVA television series.
Role of the Modern Submarine
Submariners of WWII
— World War II Submarine Veterans History Project
German U-Boats 1935–1945
U.S. ship photo archive
The Sub Report
by Graham Hawkes
''Submarines, the Enemy Unseen'', History Today
* American Society of Safety Engineers. Journal of Professional Safety. ''Submarine Accidents: A 60-Year Statistical Assessment''. C. Tingle. September 2009. pp. 31–39. Ordering full article: https://www.asse.org/professionalsafety/indexes/2009.php; or Reproduction fewer graphics/tables: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-government/12939133-1.html.
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