Q 01/05

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

A) From large onboard tanks

B) By making it from seawater

C) From supply ships at sea

D) By catching rainwater

Answer · why

B) By making it from seawater

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Cornelis Drebbel

B) Christiaan Huygens

C) Simon Stevin

D) Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Answer · why

A) Cornelis Drebbel

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.

Q 03/05

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

A) Turtle

B) Plongeur

C) Hunley

D) Nautilus

Answer · why

A) Turtle

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Eli Whitney

B) Robert Fulton

C) Samuel Morse

D) Oliver Evans

Answer · why

B) Robert Fulton

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

Q 05/05

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

A) United States

B) Britain

C) France

D) Germany

Answer · why

D) Germany

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.