A merchant submarine is a type of
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
intended for
trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
, and being without armaments, it is not considered a warship like most other types of submarines. The intended use would be
blockade running
A blockade runner is a merchant vessel used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait. It is usually light and fast, using stealth and speed rather than confronting the blockaders in order to break the blockade. Blockade runners usuall ...
, or to dive under
Arctic ice
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
.
Strictly speaking, only two submarines have so far been purpose-built for non-military
merchant shipping
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throug ...
use, outside of criminal enterprises, though standard or partly converted military submarines have been used to transport smaller amounts of important cargo, especially during wartime, and large-scale proposals for modern merchant submarines have been produced by manufacturers. Criminal enterprises have also built transport submarines to avoid authorities, such as
narcosubs.
Germany
Only two merchant submarines were built, both in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
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 ...
. They were constructed to slip through the naval blockade of the
Entente Powers
The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
, mainly enforced by the efforts of the United Kingdom's
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 ...
. The British blockade had led to great difficulties for German companies in acquiring those raw materials which were not found in quantity within the German
sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal al ...
, and thus was hindering the German war efforts substantially.
The submarines were built in 1916 by a private
shipping company
A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships.
Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo:
# Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...
created for the enterprise, the ''Deutsche Ozean-Reederei'', a subsidiary company of the
North German Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...
shipping company (now Hapag-Lloyd) and
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
.
They were intended to travel the route from Germany to the neutral
US, bringing back required raw materials. As the US would not profit enough from receiving German currency, the ships were to carry trade goods both ways.
Britain soon protested with the US against the use of submarines as merchant ships, arguing that they could not be stopped and inspected for munitions in the same manner as other vessels. The US, under
diplomatic
Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
pressure for supposedly showing favoritism while having declared itself
neutral
Neutral or neutrality may refer to:
Mathematics and natural science Biology
* Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity
Chemistry and physics
* Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
, rejected the argument. Even submarines, as long as they were unarmed, were to be regarded as merchant vessels and accordingly would be permitted to trade.
[German Submarine Deutschland's Atlantic Crossing](_blank)
(information & speech transcript via the 'FirstWorldWar.com' private website)
''Deutschland''
''Deutschland'' had a carrying capacity of 700 tons (much of it outside the
pressure hull
A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...
), and could travel at on the surface and while submerged. It had a crew of 29 men and was commanded by
Paul König
Paul Liebrecht König (March 20, 1867 – September 9, 1933) was a sailor and business executive. The son of a clergyman, married to an English wife from whom he separated for the duration of the war, he is most known for two visits he made to the ...
, a former surface merchantman
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
.
On its first journey to the US, departing on the 23 June 1916, ''Deutschland'' carried 163 tons of highly sought-after chemical
dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...
s, as well as
medical drug
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to medical diagnosis, diagnose, cure, treat, or preventive medicine, prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an imp ...
s and mail.
Passing undetected through the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
she arrived in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
on 8 July 1916 and soon re-embarked with 348 tons of
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
, 341 tons of
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
, and 93 tons of
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
, arriving back in
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
on 25 August 1916. She had traveled , though only of these submerged.
The American submarine pioneer
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 ...
had unsuccessfully negotiated to construct cargo submarines for ''
Kaiserliche Marine
{{italic title
The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control.
The term wa ...
'' prior to the war, and attempted to block ''Deutschlands'' return to Germany by raising patent infringement allegations. Lake was placated when a ''
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
'' representative and a ''
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...
'' agent suggested Lake built 5,000-ton merchant submarines for them in the United States.
The profit from the journey was 17.5 million
Reichsmark
The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...
s, more than four times the construction cost,
[See German version of this article at Handels-U-Boot (]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
). Some references not yet available in English. mainly because of the high prices of the patented, highly concentrated dyes, which would have cost US dollars per pound adjusted for inflation.
[ (from the 'ColorantsHistory.org' website. Accessed 2008-08-20.)] In return, the raw materials brought back covered the needs of the German war industry for several months.
A second journey in October-December of the same year was also successful, again trading chemicals, medicines and gems for rubber, nickel,
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
s and tin. However, ''Deutschland'' was lightly damaged during a collision with a
tug
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
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
* ...
.
Following his return, captain Paul König wrote a book (or possibly had it
ghostwritten
''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel published by English author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, B ...
) about the journeys of ''Deutschland''. The book was heavily publicized, as it was intended to
sway public opinion in both Germany and the US.
A third journey, planned for January 1917, was aborted after the US entered the war against Germany. The declaration of war had been partly due to US anger over the actions of German submarines sinking shipping bound for Great Britain, sometimes just outside American territorial waters (See ). ''Deutschland'' was taken over by the
German Imperial 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. Kaiser ...
and converted into the
submarine cruiser
A cruiser submarine was a very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from base facilities. Their role was analogous to surface cruisers, cruising distant waters, commerce raiding, and scouting for the batt ...
(''U-Kreuzer'') (a type of submarine with added artillery to fight when surfaced). It was successful in three war cruises, sinking 43 ships. After the war it was taken to England as a war trophy in December 1918. Scrapped in 1921, the boat's history ended with five workers dying due to an explosion ripping apart the sub during dismantling.
''Bremen''
A second merchant submarine, the
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
of ''Deutschland'', launched its first journey in August 1916 under Karl Schwartzkopf, but never arrived in the US. Its fate was never decisively uncovered, though she may have collided with the British
armed merchant cruiser
An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...
south of
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, as was theorized after the war. There was also the theory that she might have hit a
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
off the
Orkney Islands
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
.
Other boats
Six further merchant submarines were in the process of being built by the ''Deutsche Ozean-Reederei'' when the US entered the war in early 1917. The construction of the merchant submarines was subsequently halted or changed into submarine cruisers, similar to the fate of ''Deutschland''. When hostilities between Germany and the United States halted Simon Lake's attempts to build merchant submarines for Germany, Lake approached the
United States Shipping Board
The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...
with a proposal to build one-hundred merchant submarines to alleviate shipping losses being suffered from
unrestricted submarine warfare
Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules") that call for warships to sea ...
.
[
In World War II, Germany used '' Milk Cow'' submarines to refuel its hunter ]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 ...
s in the Atlantic. As these boats were part of ''Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'' (Nazi Germany's navy), did carry light armaments (anti-aircraft guns), and never engaged in trade as such, they do not qualify as merchant submarines. However, they shared the large amounts of cargo space compared to normal submarines of their day.
After large Italian submarines successfully transported supplies to North Africa avoiding British Mediterranean Fleet
The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...
patrols, some of these submarines had their torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s and offensive 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 ...
armament removed to increase cargo capacity. Five of these converted submarines were seized in Axis ports for operation by German crews after the Italian armistice in September 1943.[''Axis Blockade Runners of World War II'' - Brice, Martin; ]Naval Institute Press
The United States Naval Institute (USNI) is a private non-profit military association that offers independent, nonpartisan forums for debate of national security issues. In addition to publishing magazines and books, the Naval Institute holds se ...
, , 1981.
Germany enlarged the ocean-going type IX U-boat
The Type IX U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern Unit ...
design to an extended range type IXD1 variant with torpedo tubes removed and battery capacity reduced to increase cargo capacity for transport of strategic materials between German and Japanese ports. After the Italian submarines were converted for this cargo role, most of the extended range design were completed as an armed type IXD2 variant.
Italy
A 12-boat R class of 2,100-ton submarines had been designed in Italy to carry approximately 600 tons of cargo with a surface speed of and submerged speed of . A 63-man crew would operate defensive armaments of three 20 mm guns. ''Romolo'' and ''Remo'' were laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
in July 1942 at the Tosi Yard in Taranto
Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...
with launch scheduled for March 1943. Ten large submarines built for combat service were also scheduled for conversion to merchant service after their designs had been found unsuitable for use against Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
s. These were the 880-ton , the 940-ton '' Barbarigo'', the 951-ton '' Comandante Cappellini'', the 1,030-ton and , the 1,036-ton and , the 1,331-ton and , and the 1,504-ton .[''Warships of the World'' — Kafka, Roger & Pepperburg, Roy L.; ]Cornell Maritime Press
Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (also known for its imprints Schiffer, Schiffer Craft, Schiffer Military History, Schiffer Kids, REDFeather MBS, Cornell Maritime Press, Tidewater Publishers, Thrums Books, Geared Up Publications ) is a family-owned publi ...
, 1946.
Conversions were to be accomplished at Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, with armament limited to defensive machine guns, while the conversion cargo capacity of 160 tons also reduced reserve buoyancy from 20–25 percent to 3.5–6 percent. Several French submarines captured at Bizerta
Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical antiquity, classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the List of northernmost items, northernmost city in Afri ...
—the 974-ton ''Phoque'', ''Requin'', ''Espadon'', and ''Dauphin''—were also scheduled for conversion.
The ships were used on an eastbound route from Bordeaux to Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
(then in Japanese, thus Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
, hands) with cargoes of mercury, steel and aluminum bars, welding steel, bomb prototypes, 20 mm guns, blueprints for tanks and bombsights, and up to a dozen passengers. Return trip loadings were 110-155 tons of rubber, 44-70 tons of zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
, five tons of tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
, two tons of quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg cr ...
, two tons of opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
, bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...
, rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...
, and passengers. ''Comandante Cappellini'', ''Reginaldo Giuliani'', and ''Enrico Tazzoli'' departed Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
in May 1943. The first two completed their voyages in July and August, but ''Enrico Tazzoli'' was destroyed by Allied bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
s in the Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
. ''Barbarigo'' was similarly destroyed during a June departure, but ''Luigi Torrelli'' reached Singapore in August.
Following the Italian armistice in September, ''Giuseppe Finzi'' and ''Alpino Bagnolini'' were seized by Germany while undergoing conversion at Bordeaux, and designated ''UIT-21'' and ''UIT-22'', respectively. ''Reginaldo Giuliani'', ''Commandante Cappellini'', and ''Luigi Torelli'' were seized by the Japanese in the East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...
, given to Germany, and designated ''UIT-23'', ''UIT-24'' and ''UIT-25'', respectively. ''UIT-22'' departed Bordeaux for Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
in January 1944 and was destroyed by RAF 262 Squadron Catalina
Catalina may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show
* ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham
* Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), character from the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl''
...
bombers off South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in March. ''UIT-23'' was sunk by the British submarine in February. ''UIT-24'' departed Sumatra for Bordeaux in February, but returned to Sumatra in March after its refuelling ship was sunk.
Of the other ships, ''Ammiraglio Cagni'' surrendered at South Africa following the Italian Armistice, ''Archimede'' and ''Leonardo da Vinci'' were sunk before conversion to merchant service while ''Romolo'', ''Remo'', and the French ''Phoque'' were sunk prior to loading. The remaining R-class submarines were not completed and conversion work ceased on the remaining three French submarines.
Japan
During World War II, 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 ...
′s s and s and the Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
′s Type 3 submergence transport vehicle
The was a class of transport submarines built for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The IJA called them .
Design and construction
The six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign came to an end in early February 1943, when the last ...
s were constructed for transportation and supply.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
had plans to construct cargo submarines both during World War II and in 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 ...
, but these plans were never carried out. These would not strictly count as merchant submarines, as they would have been at least lightly armed and used mainly for directly war-related duties, such as supplying troops or delivering military forces to their targets. However, in the post-Cold War period, Soviet designers also proposed purely peaceful applications.
World War II
In World War II, the Soviet Union used submarines (as well as other ships) to supply the besieged Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
n port of Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
. The largest could transfer up to 95 tons of cargo, loading even the torpedo tubes with supplies. Around 4,000 tons were delivered by about 80 runs of 27 submarines, though Sevastopol still eventually fell.
The First Soviet Giants
'' - Polmar, Norman; book excerpts adapted for ''Undersea Warfare'', Fall 2001, Issue 4, Volume 1
Based on this experience, the Soviet naval high command initiated a transport submarine program. A first project (Project 605
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
) envisaged a sub that would function as a barge, towed by a standard sub. The idea was discarded due to towing difficulties. Later, a small cargo submarine design (Project 607) with a capacity of 250-300 tons of solid cargo and two folding cargo cranes was proposed. No weapons beyond two deck guns were envisaged, and the design borrowed many existing parts from the earlier VI and VI-bis submarine series to simplify construction. However, by 1943 the strategic situation had changed, and the plans were not executed.
Cold War
The Soviet Union envisaged and almost realized various concepts for large cargo submarines during the 1950s and 1960s, though these would not have been counted as merchant ships, being envisaged as navy landing ships to transport troops. They would have been amongst the largest submarines of their day, had they been built.
Post-Cold War
In the 1990s, the Malachite design bureau in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
proposed submarines capable of transporting petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
or freight containers
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
in or through Arctic regions. It was envisaged that these ships would dive under the polar ice cap
A polar ice cap or polar cap is a high-latitude region of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite that is covered in ice.
There are no requirements with respect to size or composition for a body of ice to be termed a polar ice cap, nor a ...
to travel directly between European and Asian ports, and possibly northern Canada, with the designers noting that:
The tanker and container variants would follow the same design as standard military nuclear submarines, with the tanker variant carrying almost 30,000 tons of petroleum, to be loaded and discharged from surface or underwater terminals. The container carrier was to transport 912 standard (20-foot) freight containers, loaded within 30 hours through hatches, assisted by internal conveyance systems. However, these plans came to nothing in the hard financial straits following the Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
.
A similar design has been proposed by the Rubin Design Bureau
Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering (Russian: Центральное конструкторское бюро "Рубин", shortened to ЦКБ "Рубин") in Saint Petersburg is one of three main Russian centers of submarine desig ...
with the 'Submarine Cargo Vessel
The Submarine Cargo Vessel (russian: Подводное транспортное судно) is a proposed idea from the Russian Rubin Design Bureau. The idea is to use decommissioned SSBNs (''nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine'') from ...
', a civilian redesign of the famous of the Cold War. A submarine freight transportation system (SFTS) was suggested in 1997 by Vladimir Postnikov and is considered as a sea-going component of a global intelligent transportation system.
Russia
In March 2020, Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau
Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau (russian: морское бюро машиностроения «Малахит») is a company based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is a subsidiary of the United Shipbuilding Corporation.
Malakhit has designed ...
in St. Petersburg, designers of attack submarine
An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants and merchant vessels. In the Soviet and Russian navies they were and are called "mul ...
s such as the and es, proposed a submersible LNG
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
tanker named ''Pilgrim'' that would be the largest submarine in history should the project come to fruition. Powered by three nuclear reactors
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
, the boat would be in length with a beam of , capable of transporting up to 180,000 tons, and would primarily sail under the Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
ice.
United States
Simon Lake's merchant submarine proposal was shelved as the World War I convoy system reduced merchant shipping losses.[ In July and August 1942, Lake's proposals were again mentioned in Senate Subcommittee hearing]
regarding cargo submarines
as well as cargo aircraft. Mostly it was regarding to the vital supply of aluminum from South and Central America via submarines to avoid being sunk by enemy U-boats.
In 1931, with financial support from William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
, Lake and Sir Hubert Wilkins
Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (31 October 188830 November 1958), commonly referred to as Captain Wilkins, was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer. He was awarded the Military Cross afte ...
attempted to demonstrate potential use of merchant submarines to navigate under polar ice with a leased US Navy submarine, ex- (renamed ''Nautilus''). Financial limitations of the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
made this early attempt less successful than the post-war accomplishments of a nuclear-powered submarine of the same name; .[
In 1958, during a presidential address announcing the first journey of a submarine under the North pole by USS ''Nautilus'', called ]Operation Sunshine
Operation Sunshine was an anti-demolition operation in occupied Norway from October 1944 to May 1945. It was planned by Norwegian military personnel in the United Kingdom in cooperation with British forces, and part of an effort to protect essent ...
, President Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
mentioned that one day nuclear cargo submarines might use that route for trade.
Similar to the post-Cold War ideas of the Soviet Union, there have been some concept plans to use atomic-powered submarine oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
s to exploit Arctic oilfields in Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
. General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
had apparently approached German shipbuilders during the early 1980s about the possible construction of either a US$725 million nuclear-powered or a US$700 million methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
-powered version of a liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
(LNG) submarine tanker to carry LNG from the Arctic to North America and Europe. This was an expansion of an earlier 1974 United States Merchant Marine Academy
The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Kings Point) is a United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) to serve as officers in the United States Merchant ...
scholar project by Patrick Moloney.
Other uses
Another (albeit black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
) type of "trade" usage is the known use of narco-submarine
A narco-submarine (also called a drug sub or narco sub) is a type of custom ocean-going self-propelled typically semi-submersible (sometimes fully- submersible) vessel built for smugglers.
Newer submarines are 'nearly-fully' submersible to be ...
s or "drug subs" by drug smugglers
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs throug ...
. In one case, a Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n drug cartel
A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the ...
was interrupted before finishing the construction of a professional-grade, 30 m long, 200 ton carrying-capacity submarine apparently intended for the cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
trade with the US. At the time of the police raid, the submarine was being constructed in segmented parts in a warehouse high in the Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
near Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
.Submarine found in Colombian Andes
- CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, 7 September 2000 However, most drug subs so far are not as sophisticated as legal merchant submarines would be, being mainly intended to run just under the surface, rather than deeply submerged.
See also
*Amphibious assault submarine
An amphibious assault submarine is a theoretical submarine equivalent of an amphibious assault ship. While such ships have been proposed in the past by both the United States and the Soviet Union, none has ever been built (though at least one of th ...
*Submarine Cargo Vessel
The Submarine Cargo Vessel (russian: Подводное транспортное судно) is a proposed idea from the Russian Rubin Design Bureau. The idea is to use decommissioned SSBNs (''nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine'') from ...
*Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships
Defensively equipped merchant ship (DEMS) was an Admiralty Trade Division programme established in June 1939, to arm 5,500 British merchant ships with an adequate defence against enemy submarines and aircraft. The acronym DEMS was used to descri ...
References
External links
*
{{ModernMerchantShipTypes