The thought that all these disasters would be overcome was a hard thought for all the people who built submarines. But then came the 1870 story 20,000 Leagues under the Sea about Captain Nemo going along the bottom of the sea in his submarine. This livened people up. It was the latest novel by Jules Verne. It was the determination of a young scholar who had followed his father in to the church to be a clergyman who had wanted to do different things. After an education which sent him to a college, his passion for mechanical science overpowered him. When he was 26 he had the plans for a bullet shaped submarine which came into reality when he raised £1500 for the construction of his submarine which was built on the bank of the Mersey River.
Garrett decided to sail his submarine around the coast to Portsmouth. He then had a ceremony before setting off. He set off on the 10th December 1879 with his submarine under tow. His submarine had a crew of two. Garrett was in charge of operations but was not on the submarine because it was so dangerous. The submarine was powered by a one cylinder steam engine. The engine had to be turned off before a dive because of the carbon dioxide it released. They presumed that the heat from the engine could keep the submarine under way for an hour before it had to surface. The submarine was a dangerous and overpowering machine. The carbon monoxide fumes were so strong it would kill all the crew if they stayed underwater for more than an hour. Garrett then designed the first underwater breathing apparatus so the crew would not suffocate. This submarine was not perfect but it was a lot closer than any other ever built so far.
On February 25th 1880, after a break on the journey the submarine stopped on the way to the Rhyl. The submarine set off again under tow. The weather then broke from bad to extremely bad. The submarine’s cord had snapped and the submarine was lost in the bottom of the river and their efforts to find her were unsuccessful. The submarine was undiscovered for more than a century. Garrets design was not proven to the navy but he then designed a new one that did get attention.
Named the Nordenfelt, two of them were built. Turkey bought the first one and awarded Garrett with a title of Lord. The second one was an amazing 36.5 meters long. It displaced 230 tonnes of water and it sank when being delivered to Russia.
Garret then was fed up with failure so he went to America and became a farmer and then became bankrupt nearly in a year. He then went in to the U.S army for the rest of his life.
In 1995 a tradesman’s net snagged on a thing in the sea and then from the sea was raised out of the water the sunk submarine. It has been in a museum since then.
In America nearly at the end of the 19th century Simon Lake had started developing a submarine for the U.S government.
Lake was born in Pleasantville, near Jersey in 1866, the son of Christopher J. Lake who was the founder of Atlantic City.
These two people were also the founders of one of the workshops which founded the first American made submarine which was successful. They also constructed a wooden submarine and they designed the prototype Argonaut Junior submarine. They then founded the Lake Submarine Company of Jersey in 1895.
The Argonaut was also the first submarine able to operate better in open water than on still water. This submarine also was so successful it had a diary made about its voyages by Jules Ferny.
Even so Russia gave Simon Lake the first contract to build submarines. The U.S.A. made a competition to build the best submarine. Simon Lake came second and was overtaken by the Tsar’s Royal Navy which was given a contract to build submarines. They started production at St. Petersburg temporarily.
The Americans, soon followed by the British, chose to award Lake’s closest rival by giving him a contract to build submarines for them and he did. His name is J.P Holland. He was an Irish-American inventor. He became the main person for the production of submarines for the next stage of their amazing effect on changing the world for all countries.
This above picture is the Argonaut senior. It had a bit of improvement to the Argonaut junior.
Underway in the Holland’s
When the American pioneer John Phillips won the American competition for the building of submarines, the British Navy got interested in submarines. It was about time because Germany, Russia, France and Italy were all in competition to win the water and they had started to enter the seas.
It was Holland’s design which was the base for the English and American submarines. Holland was born in County Clare, Ireland. At the age of 17 he joined the religious orders of Cork. But other ideas pulled him away from religion and he drew sketches of submersible boats. The American Navy rejected his resulting sketches. Then some Irish patriots gave him £6000 to build the submarine for them. They planned to use the submarine against the British Navy.
Holland’s first submarine came with mixed results. It was tried in the Passaic River in 1878. The submarine sank on its first outing because of its unfitting plugs. She was then towed out of the water and was rebuilt on dry land. Then Holland took the controls on its second run and it was a success although it was still leaky.
His second submarine was 9.5 meters long and was powered by one of the earliest combustion engines. This second submarine went through a series of very successful trials in the Hudson River.
This submarine then became the suspect in a whole new case to the British spies. Meanwhile Holland’s contractors were becoming impatient.
When the submarine was still in trials the contractors stole the submarine and said it was theirs anyway. They then started massacring the British ships. After lots of attempts at the controls they started to give up and in the end they did.
Holland came under the command of a businessman called Isaac Rice. He also worked in publishing magazines. Rice then gave Holland the money to make his own torpedo company and so he did. Rice also made sure that Holland came up with a plan which would win. The boat was 17m long. It was powered by a petrol engine on the surface and electricity under water.
The United States government in April 1900 began to buy a prototype for $165,000 from the newly renamed electric boat company.
Rice then travelled to London, armed with the knowledge. Rice went to the admiral and gave very good news of the trials of Holland’s submarine. The admiral then joined the submarine age when Holland’s submarine sank a battle cruiser in the middle of the sea.
The British then proudly agreed to buy five of Holland’s submarines for 40 thousand pounds each. This was a lot in 1900. In the deal Rice had sold all of Holland’s plans to build submarines so in the end Holland retired.
Holland died and as his electric boat company went on to be the biggest producers of submarines in England.
After this the British were to get their first submarine fleet. This persuaded the admiral to think the submarines were only experimental and they were for needed purposes only. The first lord of the admiralty then began to hate submarines and this negative view changed everyone’s views overnight.
In 1901 a dummy torpedo hit a French ship and this was a huge hit in the newspapers. The torpedo was fired from a brand new French submarine.
For England the dash was on to build submarines when they heard the news because they knew submarines could do some damage if in the right hands.
Towards the world war: Dash to build.
At the beginning of the 20th century too many people believed that it was simply unthinkable to have dark vessels under the water ready to sink any magnificent sea worthy ships. Sir Arthur Wilson said this was ‘damned un-English… certainly no occupation for a gentleman submarine crew, if captured should be hung as pirates’. As you can see he was certainly against submarines.
The Germans, simply felt no great pleasure in having such a good navy. The German admiral could not waste money on the testing of submarines. It cost too much.
The Americans were having the same problem and they did not want to waste money on equipping any submarines as it also was too expensive. In spite of the Americans success in making submarines they should have carried on but they stopped to save money.
However the French did not stop building the submarines. They carried on. They launched lots of submarine competitions to get the best submarine makers to help them develop the best submarines to win the seas with submarines. Their best competitions were to build the 200 ton submarine which had a 100 mile range on the surface. Laubeur’s submarine used steam power on the surface and used battery power under the water.
In 1900 the American navy were buying all of Holland’s prototypes and they immediately started to build more of them.
The British then introduced their own type which were the A boats. The first one of these was the A1. This submarine was put to the test with five of Holland’s submarines.
Although the submarine was mostly based on Holland’s submarine it was 12 meters longer than Holland’s. Holland’s submarine did not survive the expedition - it sank. George Prince of Wales who was a sailor himself was called on board for a demonstration but he was evacuated before it sank. He was actually called home when it sank because of the death of a close relative.
The next day a cruise vessel reported on sighting something under the surface. Then divers were sent out and they found the A1 under water, in fact 13 metres under the water. All of the people on board were killed.
All of the A1 drivers and crew thought this was a mistake and they carried on producing A1s for the rest of their soon to become short lives. On the A1 there were no toilets so they had to go over board which in our days is illegal.
Britain as a nation could improve the A class as they found it was a success. Now the rush to build submarines was to start hugely. England then started building the B, C, D and E class submarines.
D4
All of these submarines were the main ones in World War 1. The senior officials in the British Navy were still thinking that submarines were not a very good fighting weapon. My explanation of this is they could not build them well enough.
All of the petrol driven submarines were coming to an end. For the British navy this was time for the D class to rule. The D class were diesel powered submarines. The new submarines of those days now started to evolve into the most successful submarines of all time - the U boat.
At the start of World War 1 the D8’s were the best boats of the time, till the U boats came along. At the beginning England had 55 submarines. France was well ahead with 65 submarines. At this stage it may sound stupid but the Germans were behind compared to the British. The Germans had the best technology by far.
Holland’s submarines sinking another one.
Birth of the U-Boat
Germany was now at the top of the game. The Germans first amazing discovery in the making of submarines changed the world for ever. Then the Germans made the famous U boat. The submarine had a 400HP engine which was very impressive for the time it was at. The submarine also ran on thick oil which was cheap at the time. The only problem was the sparks that came out of the top when it was on the surface. These submarines were first produced in 1910.
Even with the small leaks and cracks in the steelwork the U boat did very well in the trials. The U boat was recognised by other nations as a threat that the Germans were a very powerful nation and they were ready for war.
The U2 was a lot bigger than its older brother and it was a lot more powerful with 4 torpedo tubes.
The U1 and the U2 showed that the Germans were very good at making submarines, and it showed.
This is the engine room of the U1.
At the outbreak of the 1st world war the Germans could have had 20 U boats in action. When the Russians found out about the U boats they were furious. The Russians were furious when they found out about this because they thought they were at the top of the submarine age. In the middle of the 1st World War the Germans sent 10 U boats to meet the grand British fleet and they made a bold impression. There was a draw when they met and the British fleet destroyed 8 of the U boats. The British Navy were shocked by all of the amazing fully submersible submarines and they tried to build better submarines than the Germans.
The British were very concerned by the amazing surprise of the U boat. This was also a concern to the entire world about the U boats. The U boats sank a whole cruiser in 4 minutes.
The U 9 took down a whole 1,400 men in a mere 40 minutes. The U9 was the most successful German submarine taking down 11 vessels before it was sunk.
Through the rest of the 1st and the 2nd world wars submarines did not develop because of the engines. The submarines only started to evolve when the nuclear submarines come into action.
Submarines came into their own when the wars started but I do not think it is worth mentioning the wars in much detail because they were just a huge graveyard for old submarines.
In the 1st World War at the start the Germans had 26 U boats and they nearly destroyed all 76 of the British submarines in a mortal contest. By the end of the war the Germans had lost more than 250 submarines which I think is an impressive number for the British to kill.
Nautilus, the First Real Submarine.
This submarine was named after the one in the story 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. This fictional submarine at first was then put into action when the submarine was actually built. Nautilus took 2 years to build while they were thinking of how to power it.
When they found out how to power it they discovered nuclear power. These nuclear submarines could run without refilling round the whole world. These submarines could run at high speeds completely under the sea. The modern submarines which are diesel can only run at 3 knots under water at flat out.
Nautilus was 97 meters long which was big in the 1950s. It also was 3,539 tonnes. This submarine is about the size of a modern cruise vessel.
The submarine had 116 men on board. The Nautilus then started to break all of the records for speed and distances. Nautilus was the biggest step for the world of submarines. The modern submarines can do a lot more than Nautilus but not in its time.
This picture above is the engine room for the Nautilus. The modern submarines are a lot different to these old submarines and it is amazing to think that modern submarines are a lot bigger and are operated on a single joystick which can be moved with your little finger. The old submarines needed three people to move a huge wheel.
The development of nuclear power has helped the world a lot but not as much as it helped the submarines.
The world’s biggest ballistic boomers.
The world’s ballistic boomers are the biggest and most powerful submarines on the planet. One of these submarines has as much fire power as all of the bombs that were set off in World War 2. It can go round the world 40 times before refilling. These submarines would survive a 40 meter tidal wave. These submarines are the world’s meanest machines.
The Soviet Union hoped to outnumber the U.S by having 300 of these submarines. The Soviet Union’s submarines had enough explosives to keep a diamond mine going for 100 years. The submarines could go round the world for 8 years without refuelling.
A little rocket in their standards.
Each of the submarines could carry 24 ballistic missiles which could reach their target. These missiles can travel for an unknown distance, and because they are still in use I could not find out.
The world’s biggest ballistic boomer is the Typhoon. This submarine is the biggest submarine in history. It is 1.76 meters long. This submarine carries 200 nuclear warheads. It carries 150 crew and enough food to last 4 months. This submarine is still in service.
Shaping the future.
The U.S.S Virginia is an example of the future. It was built in 2003. This submarine was developed for the Iraq war. It cost 1.4 billion pounds to make. This submarine is one of a type. It was a new type of engineering. It was a massive impact on the submarines from the age after it. It carried 154 Tomahawk missiles. It was used for the British secret service. This submarine carried some under water machines. These underwater cars are very useful in the modern age. They are remote control and take pictures of the underwater side of the submarine and can never return because they run out of fuel and are collected.
This submarine has a fire power of 23-24 torpedo tubes. These tubes can reload every 20 seconds. They are the quickest submarine to reload. It cannot be told how many torpedoes it has because it is still in use. All of the new submarines have a recorded sound of their propeller so if they are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean they can still be tracked. The Americans planted lots of receivers on the bottom of the sea so if there is a submarine in that sea it will be found.
Submarines were in use in Iraq when we thought Saddam Hussein had a massive weapon. The submarines did not have to fire. They had to scare Saddam.
These modern submarines have mini tubes to scare the enemy with a dummy missile so they retreat and do not attract too much attention to themselves. The new submarines have to have the minimum sound level and the maximum speed under the water.
To bring an end to the main body I have to show you what one of the 200 missiles in a modern submarine can do on its own.
Below is the biggest missile going off which has ever been set off.
Submarines have changed the world in the biggest way ever. They can stay under water for 4 months without surfacing. If another country ever launched a bomb to be set off, America which is the biggest power in the world would launch a submarine there so it would stop.
These submarines are a deterrent to war. They stop war where it could break out. Submarines won England the First and Second World War. Submarines are the best invention in the world I think.
I chose submarines because they are the most important invention in the world. I think they are stopping a Third World War which is a big thing to say I think.
Bibliography
Websites:
www.wikipedia
www.Googleimages
Reference Books
The illustrated world Guide to Submarines-John parker
Submarines of the World-Robert Jackson
Inventions of the World-Unknown
With thanks to John McCarthy ex. Royal Navy
