44 Fun Facts About Submarine

How do nuclear submarines get drinking water for their crews on long patrols?

By making it from seawater: the reactor's electricity powers the life-support systems that turn seawater into drinking water and keep the air breathable.

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

Cornelis Drebbel: his oar-driven boats were tested in the Thames, and the last and largest was shown to King James I and thousands of Londoners.

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

Turtle: by American accounts, its pilot tried in 1776 to screw a mine onto HMS Eagle but couldn't bore into the hull.

Which American inventor built a submarine for France and tested it in the Seine in 1800?

Robert Fulton: he later switched sides, taking his underwater weapons to Britain and its prime minister, William Pitt.

The 'Fire Diver', a submarine launched in 1850 that sank on trials weeks later, came from which country?

Germany: when Wilhelm Bauer's Brandtaucher sank in Kiel harbour, he and two crewmen let water in until they could open the hatch and escape.

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

H. L. Hunley: it sank USS Housatonic off Charleston, but was lost with its whole crew before it could return to base.

The French Plongeur of 1863, the first submarine driven by machinery rather than muscle, ran on what?

Compressed air: Jules Verne studied a model of Plongeur at the 1867 Paris exhibition and drew on it for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

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

Narcís Monturiol: soon after its steam trials his company ran out of money, and the submarine was seized and broken up for scrap.

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

Robert Whitehead: working in Fiume, he developed it from a prototype by Giovanni Luppis, a retired Austrian naval captain.

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

John Philip Holland: the boat passed the Navy's tests, and more submarines of its type were soon ordered from his company.

During its 1904–05 war with Japan, Russia sent submarines by rail to which port?

Vladivostok: after the long rail journey, Delfin and other submarines began war patrols from the port early in 1905.

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

RMS Lusitania: 128 Americans died when it was torpedoed in 1915, yet the US didn't declare war on Germany until April 1917.

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

Undersea boat: in German a U-Boot can be any submarine, but in English 'U-boat' means a German one.

Which German term names the U-boat mass attacks known in English as wolfpacks?

Rudeltaktik: packs guided by radio gathered around a convoy and struck on the surface at night.

Which wartime leader later wrote that the U-boat peril was the only thing that really frightened him?

Winston Churchill: island Britain depended on shipped-in supplies to survive, and the U-boats were out to cut that Atlantic lifeline.

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

Japan: each giant I-400 carried three Seiran floatplane bombers, meant for a surprise strike on the Panama Canal's locks.

HMS Venturer sank U-864 in 1945, the only recorded case of what?

Sinking a sub while both were submerged: U-864 was carrying mercury to Japan, and the toxic metal has since leaked from the wreck.

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?

USS Skate: its crew scattered the ashes of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins there, who had tried and failed to reach the Pole by submarine in 1931.

As of 2025, which Soviet-designed submarine class was the largest ever built?

Typhoon: displacing up to 48,000 tonnes submerged, these subs could even launch their long-range missiles while tied up at the dock.

Which ship did the CIA use in 1974 to secretly raise part of Soviet submarine K-129?

Glomar Explorer: when a journalist later asked for records, the CIA said it could 'neither confirm nor deny' its links, coining the 'Glomar response'.

USS Thresher sank in April 1963 while doing what?

Deep-diving tests: its last garbled messages to the escort ship Skylark reported 'minor difficulties' and a 'positive up angle'.

Which Argentine warship did the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sink in 1982?

General Belgrano: it was outside Britain's declared exclusion zone when hit, so its sinking stirred bitter controversy.

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

Barents Sea: investigators blamed hydrogen peroxide fuel leaking from a torpedo, which set off the blasts that sank the submarine.

The OceanGate submersible that imploded in 2023 was diving to which famous wreck?

Titanic: Titan was OceanGate's only sub able to reach that depth, and all five aboard, including CEO Stockton Rush, were killed.

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

Trieste: the Navy had bought the Swiss-designed bathyscaphe in 1958, and Walsh's co-pilot, Jacques Piccard, was its designer's son.

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

Ballast tanks: to surface, the crew shuts the vents and blows compressed air into the tanks, forcing the water back out.

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

The sail: it was once called the conning tower, but modern subs keep their controls down in the hull, so the tower became the sail.

On a double-hulled submarine, what is the inner, watertight hull called?

The pressure hull: the outer light hull around it floods freely, so only the inner shell has to hold back the sea.

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

USS Albacore: built as a research submarine for underwater speed, its hull design went on to influence later US submarines.

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

A snorkel: Germany took the idea from captured Dutch boats, and early versions could shut in heavy seas, sucking air out of the boat and hurting crews' ears.

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.

Which nickname does the US Navy use for its fleet ballistic missile submarines?

Boomers: hard to find and able to survive a nuclear attack, these missile subs deter one by threatening retaliation.

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

ELF: its waves reach deeply submerged boats, but sending them takes enormous antennas, such as the Navy's tens of kilometres of wire in Michigan.

Why do crews rarely use active 'pinging' sonar?

It reveals the boat's own position: a ping is a sound any listening enemy can hear, so submarines mostly listen with passive sonar instead.

About how many sailors make up the crew of a typical US Navy submarine?

About 140: a nuclear sub makes its own air, so it is food, not oxygen, that limits how long the crew can stay submerged.

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.

Which future US president served as a Navy submarine officer before going into politics?

Jimmy Carter: Admiral Hyman Rickover picked him for the Navy's nuclear submarine program, and he studied reactor technology for it.

The US ballistic missile submarines that entered service in 1959–60 belonged to which class?

George Washington: to save time, the just-begun attack sub Scorpion was reordered as a missile submarine, with a missile section added.

What insignia do US Navy sailors earn the right to wear once they qualify in submarines?

Dolphins: to earn them, a submariner must learn how every system aboard works and how to respond in emergencies.

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

Sean Connery: in the story, from Tom Clancy's 1984 novel, his Soviet captain secretly plans to defect with a near-silent missile sub.

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

Captain Nemo: the title's 20,000 leagues are the distance travelled under the seas, not the depth reached.

Which Beatle sang lead vocals on 'Yellow Submarine'?

Ringo Starr: it was written as a song for children, and it became his vocal spot on the album Revolver.