The Submarine Pioneers

This witty and perceptive account of the early years of submarine development contains much new material and the lives of the forgotten pioneers of submarines. It includes many wonderful inventions and even more colourful inventors, but focuses primarily on John Philip Holland, the Irish-American genius who took submarine development out of the hands of lunatics and visionaries and turned it into a deadly weapon of war.

Richard Compton-Hall has combined meticulous research with his own experience as a submariner to provide an illuminating insight into the inventions and motivations of the early submarine pioneers.

Sea Devils is a compelling account of pioneer submariners and their astonishing underwater contraptions. Some made perilous voyages. Others sank like stones. Craft were propelled by muscle-power or had steam engines with chimneys. Some had wheels to trundle along the seabed. Others were used as underwater aircraft carriers.Here John Swinfield traces the history of early submarines and the personalities who built and sailed them. From a plethora of madcap inventors emerged a bizarre machine that navies of the world reluctantly acquired but viewed with distaste. It matured into a weapon that would usurp the mighty battleship, which had for centuries enjoyed an unchallenged command of the oceans. In its long and perilous history the submarine became subject to fierce business, military and political shenanigans. It won eventual acceptance amidst the chaos and carnage of the First World War, in which pathfinder submariners achieved an extraordinarily high tally of five Victoria Crosses, Britain’s highest military decoration.Sea Devils brims with daring characters and their unflinching determination to make hazardous underwater voyages: an immensely readable, entertaining and authoritative chronicle of low cunning, high politics, wondrous heroism and appalling tragedy.

In 2001, while vacationing on Panama’s Pacific coast, maritime archaeologist James P. Delgado came upon the hulk of a mysterious iron vessel, revealed by the ebbing tides in a small cove at Isla San Telmo. Local inquiries proved inconclusive: the wreck was described as everything from a sunken Japanese "suicide" submarine from World War II to a poison-laden "craft of death" that was responsible for the ruin of the pearl beds, decades before. His professional interest fully aroused, Delgado would go on to learn that the wreck was the remains of one of the first successful deep-diving submersibles, built in 1864 by Julius H. Kroehl, an innovator and entrepreneur who initially sought to develop his invention for military use during the Civil War. The craft’s completion coming too late for that conflict, Kroehl subsequently convinced investors that it could be used to harvest pearls from the Pacific beds off Panama, in waters too deep for native pearl divers to reach. In Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine, Delgado chronicles the confluence of technological advancement, entrepreneurial aspiration, American capitalist ambition, and ignorance of the physiological effects of deep diving. As he details the layers of knowledge uncovered by his work both in archival sources and in the field excavation of Kroehl’s ill-fated vessel, Delgado weaves the tangled threads of history into a compelling narrative. This finely crafted saga will fascinate and inform professional archaeologists and researchers, naval historians, students and aficionados of maritime exploration, and interested general readers.

This unique book presents a magnificent compilation of authoritative U.S. Navy documents on the past, present, and future of America's submarine fleet. Contents of this comprehensive digest of fascinating Navy submarine publications include: HISTORY: Early Years to Nuclear Power; Submarine Pioneers; Submarine Technology through the years from David Bushnell's Turtle, the first American submarine; Holland, K, L, O classes; Submarine Pioneers, Heritage of Simon Lake, pioneer; Silent Victory World War II - Salmon, Balao, Gato, Tench classes; Cold War - Skipjack, Permit, and Sturgeon classes; Submarine History Chronology and Timeline; Technology Innovations; Detailed History and Review of Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Weapons, and Tactics during the Cold War; Soviet Subs; thorough bibliography with non-fiction, fiction and juvenile titles; Cold War Curiosities, the Radar Picket Submarines; Museum Listings CURRENT AND FUTURE SUBMARINE PROGRAMS AND TECHNOLOGY: 21st Century fleet including the SSBN Ballistic Missile subs with Trident nuclear-armed missiles; Fast Attack subs including the Los Angeles and Seawolf classes; the newest Virginia-class attack subs represented by the lead ship, the USS Virginia (SSN-774) and the USS Texas; Submarine Training; sixty-one frequently asked questions; the Boise deployment; Virtual Reality under the Sea; Submarine Stealth; SSBN Security Program; Submarine Communications; Anti-submarine Warfare; Future Concepts for New Designs in the 21st Century; Ohio-class SSGN conversion program for cruise missile and covert force deployment - the new era for four subs: Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan; Special Operations Forces capability to accommodate up to 102 Special Operations Forces and their equipment; two missile tubes to serve as lock-in/lock-out chambers, can host either two Advanced SEAL Delivery Systems, two dry-deck shelters, or one of each; land attack with up to 154 TOMAHAWK missiles; 22 large diameter missile tubes; Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Communications; provides ability to serve as Joint Command Center; Universal Modular Mast allows rapid integration of new technologies; improved communications via the Common Submarine Radio Room; test bed for future payloads - Unmanned Undersea Vehicles, Submarine-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Undersea and Submarine-Launched Weapons Systems, Undersea Sensors. This is a privately authored news service and educational publication of Progressive Management. Our publications synthesize official government information with original material - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work to uniformly present authoritative knowledge that can be rapidly read, reviewed or searched. Vast archives of important data that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This e-book format makes a great reference work and educational tool. There is no other reference book that is as convenient, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and portable - everything you need to know, from renowned experts you trust. For over a quarter of a century, our news, educational, technical, scientific, and medical publications have made unique and valuable references accessible to all people. Our e-books put knowledge at your fingertips, and an expert in your pocket!

'Underhand and damned un-English' was the view of submarines in Edwardian Britain. Yet by the 1960s the new nuclear powered submarines were seen by the Royal Navy as being the 'hallmark of a first class navy'. In this book Duncan Redford, a retired Royal Navy submarine officer, explores how - and why - attitudes to the submarine changed in Britain between 1900 and 1977. Using a wide array of previously unpublished sources, Redford sheds light on what the British thought about submarines, both their own and those that were used against them. Rather than providing an operational history of Britain's submarines, this book looks at naval and civilian conceptions of what submarine warfare was imagined to be like in the context of unrestricted submarine warfare, the world wars and the development of nuclear weaponry. With chapters on the coronation and jubilee reviews at Spithead, the submarine in novels and films, as well as coverage of the Royal Navy's and civilian views of submarines and submarine warfare this book gives a comprehensive view of the British regard - or lack of it - for the submarine. Through the examination of the British relationship with submarines since 1900 it is possible to see changing patterns in acceptance and tensions between different sub-cultures, both civil and maritime. Since 1900 the meaning constructed around submarines has changed as the submarine has progressed along a road from perdition as the weapon of the weaker power (and morally weaker power too) to a form of redemption as a major capital unit. This book will be essential for naval historians, students and those interested in aspects of submarine development and use.