50 Fun Facts About Submarine

By naval tradition, what are submarines called regardless of their size?

US submarines still carry the 'USS' prefix, and in the Royal Navy HMS can mean His Majesty's Submarine.

Which Dutchman built the first submersible for which reliable construction records exist, in 1620?

He was in the service of James I of England, and his craft was propelled by oars.

What was the name of the first military submersible, a one-man hand-powered craft built in 1775?

David Bushnell's acorn-shaped device was the first submarine to use screws for propulsion.

Robert Fulton's 1800 human-powered submarine shared its name with which later famous vessels?

France gave up on the experiment in 1804, and the British also passed on Fulton's design.

The oldest surviving submarine in the world, Brandtaucher, was built in 1850 in which country?

It was designed by Wilhelm Bauer.

Which submarine became the first to sink an enemy ship, during the American Civil War in 1864?

It sank the Union sloop USS Housatonic with a powder keg on a spar, then sank itself.

The first submarine not to rely on human power, the French Plongeur of 1863, was propelled by what?

Jules Verne saw a model of the Plongeur at the 1867 Exposition Universelle and was inspired to write about the Nautilus.

Who designed Ictíneo II, the first combustion-powered submarine, launched in Barcelona in 1864?

It burned a chemical mix that generated heat for a steam engine while also giving off oxygen for the crew.

Which British engineer designed the first practical self-propelled torpedo, in 1866?

His invention turned the submarine from a novelty into a weapon of war.

The US Navy's first commissioned submarine, bought in 1900, was named after which Irish inventor?

Holland VI ran on an internal combustion engine on the surface and batteries underwater.

The Nordenfelt I steam submarine of 1885 came from a Swedish industrialist's partnership with what kind of Englishman?

George Garrett's earlier boat, the Resurgam of 1879, had been lost at sea.

Where was the world's first 'operational submarine fleet' assembled, in early 1905?

Russia sent seven boats there during the Russo-Japanese War after the blockade of Port Arthur.

The U-boat sinking of which liner is often cited among the reasons the US entered World War I?

Germany began the war with only about twenty submarines available for combat.

What does the German word 'Unterseeboot', shortened to U-Boot, literally mean?

Dutch, Swedish and Russian all keep the same 'submarine boat' construction.

What was the German name for the World War II mass-attack tactic known in English as the 'wolfpack'?

It relied on Enigma-encrypted radio, and stopped working once the U-boat Enigma was cracked.

Roughly what proportion of the Kriegsmarine's U-boat crews were killed in World War II?

Some 28,000 of 41,000 died and 793 U-boats were lost.

Which navy operated World War II submarines that could carry multiple aircraft?

The I-400 class were aircraft carriers in miniature; Japan also fielded the Kaiten crewed torpedo.

US submarines, 2 percent of the WWII Navy, destroyed roughly what share of Japan's merchant fleet?

Allied submarines sank more Japanese shipping than all other weapons combined.

HMS Venturer's 1945 attack on U-864 is the only documented instance of what?

The crew computed a firing solution by hand against a target moving in three dimensions.

Which was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine?

Launched in January 1954 and sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower, she is now a museum ship in Groton, Connecticut.

Which submarine was the first to surface through the ice at the North Pole, in March 1959?

Nautilus had passed beneath the Pole the previous August using inertial navigation.

Which class of Russian submarine is the largest ever built?

With a submerged displacement of 48,000 tonnes, they can stay under for six months and even fictionally starred in The Hunt for Red October.

The CIA used which Howard Hughes-designed ship to secretly raise part of Soviet submarine K-129?

K-129 was lost in 1968; the recovery gave the world the phrase 'Glomar response' for neither confirming nor denying.

What was the test depth of the titanium-hulled Soviet K-278 Komsomolets, the deepest combat sub?

Titanium is also non-magnetic, but its cost ended titanium sub construction with the Cold War.

USS Thresher was lost with all 129 aboard in 1963 while doing what?

The disaster led the US Navy to create the SUBSAFE safety programme.

Which Argentine warship did HMS Conqueror sink in 1982, the first sinking by a nuclear sub?

The Argentine surface fleet withdrew to port for the rest of the Falklands War.

The Russian submarine Kursk sank in which sea in August 2000, killing all 118 aboard?

Investigators blamed a leak of high-test peroxide from a faulty torpedo, which set off a catalytic explosion.

The submersible Titan imploded in 2023 while descending to view which wreck?

All five aboard, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, died instantly.

Which vessel carried Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in 1960?

Its instruments read 11,521 metres, later corrected to about 10,916 metres.

What do submarines fill with water or air to dive and surface?

Nathaniel Symons patented the first working version in 1747 using leather bags that filled with water.

What is the tall structure on top of a modern submarine called in American usage?

Europeans call it the fin; on older boats the separate 'conning tower' housed the control room.

What is the innermost shell of a large submarine, the one that resists the sea, called?

Its outer counterpart, the light hull or casing, gives the boat its shape but does not need to resist sea pressure.

Which experimental US submarine pioneered the modern teardrop hull in the 1950s?

It also tested the X-shaped stern first used operationally by Sweden's Sjöormen class.

What is the retractable pipe that lets a submerged diesel submarine run its engines called?

Germans copied the idea from captured Dutch boats; early versions caused painful ear injuries when the valve slammed shut.

Sweden's Gotland-class submarines get their air-independent propulsion from which technology?

It burns diesel with liquid oxygen from cryogenic tanks; German Type 212 boats use hydrogen fuel cells instead.

How do most modern military submarines make their breathing oxygen?

In an emergency, crews can burn sodium chlorate candles instead.

What is 'Gertrude', in submarine parlance?

Voice is sent through the water by low-power speakers and picked up by the other boat's passive sonar.

Which type of radio can reach a deeply submerged submarine but carries very little information?

Extremely low frequency signals are mostly used to call a boat up to a shallower depth where VLF can reach it.

Why do crews rarely use active 'pinging' sonar?

Modern boats rely on passive sonar, including a towed array trailing hundreds of feet behind.

What is the approximate crew of a typical nuclear submarine?

Conventional diesel-electric boats usually carry fewer than 40.

Which navy was the first to allow women to serve on submarines, in 1985?

Solveig Krey of Norway became the first woman to command a military submarine in 1995.

Roughly how much does each US Virginia-class attack submarine cost?

Even a one-inch deviation from a perfectly round hull can cut its safe dive depth by more than 30 percent.

The first cruise missile launched from a submarine, in 1953, came from which converted World War II boat?

Tunny and Barbero, carrying nuclear-tipped Regulus missiles, were America's first deterrent patrol subs.

The first US ballistic missile submarines, entering service in 1959-60, belonged to which class?

The Soviet Union's Golf class arrived at the same time; the missiles were Polaris, later Poseidon and Trident.

So-called narco-submarines used by South American smugglers are mostly what kind of craft?

Colombian authorities seized a 16-metre FARC vessel in 2011 that could carry at least seven tonnes of drugs.

Which real German U-boat is the setting of the 1981 film Das Boot?

The film earned six Oscar nominations, a German record until All Quiet on the Western Front in 2022.

Who plays Soviet captain Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October?

The film adapts Tom Clancy's 1984 novel; Red October is a Typhoon-class boat with a near-silent 'caterpillar drive'.

Who captains the submarine in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas?

The title's 20,000 leagues is the distance travelled, roughly twice around the Earth, not the depth.

Which Beatle sang lead vocals on 'Yellow Submarine'?

It was written as a children's song and released in 1966 as a double A-side with 'Eleanor Rigby'.

Disneyland's Submarine Voyage opened in 1959, but the first real tourist submarine began service when?

It was named Auguste Piccard and debuted at Expo64; by 1997 there were 45 tourist subs worldwide.