Submarine
A submarine is a ship or ship capable of navigating on the surface of the water or under the water.
Civilian submarines and submersibles
Civilian submarines are usually much smaller than military ones, because space must be taken advantage of. The tours usually operate in tropical recreational areas or in other areas with clear waters and good visibility. Most of them have a capacity of between 25 and 50 passengers, reaching ten or more daily dives. Its design derives from that of research submarines, with large portholes for passengers to enjoy the views and placing important mechanical systems outside the hull to save interior space, despite which this is usually scarce. They are mostly powered by electric batteries and are very slow.
Commonly, a "submarine" means a vessel that functions on the surface and underwater by itself. Underwater vessels with limited mobility, intended to remain in the same place for the majority of their time of use, such as those used for rescue, research or salvage, are often referred to as submersibles. Submersibles are usually taken to their area of operation by common ships or large submarines and have a very small autonomy. Many submersibles operate connected by an "umbilical cord" to a mother ship (submarine, surface ship, or platform) that supplies them with air and electricity.
Bathyspheres are submersibles that have no propulsion system and are used for very deep dives. A predecessor of the bathysphere, the underwater bell, consisted of an open-bottomed chamber lowered into the water. Bathyscaphes are self-propelled submersibles for very deep dives that rely on a surface mother ship such as the "Alvin" used for the investigation of the famous sinking of the Titanic.
A fairly recent development is small remote-controlled submersibles, used for work in water that is too deep or dangerous for divers, for example, in repairs of any kind, proving better than other submarines.
Military submarines
There are many more military submarines in operation than civilian ones. Submarines are very useful from a military point of view because they are difficult to detect and destroy when they travel at great depths. Much attention is paid to the design of these submarines so that when they move they move silently and avoid detection: sound travels in water much more easily than in air, so the sound of a submarine is its most easily detectable characteristic. Some submarines hide their sound so well that they actually create a quiet zone around them, which can also be detected.
Immersion and navigation
All ships, as well as submarines on the surface, are in a positive buoyant state, weighing less than the equivalent volume of water displaced (according to Archimedes' principle). To dive purely hydrostatically (without mechanical assistance), a ship must gain neutral buoyancy (weight equals buoyancy), either by increasing its own weight or by decreasing water displacement (volume). To control their weight, submarines are equipped with ballast tanks, which can be filled with water taken from outside or with pressurized air.
To submerge or surface, submarines use bow and stern tanks, called main tanks, which are opened and completely filled with water to submerge or filled with pressurized air to surface. During the dive, the main tanks often remain flooded, which simplifies their design, so in many submarines these tanks are simply a section of the space between the hulls. For faster and more precise manual depth control, submarines have smaller depth control tanks capable of withstanding higher pressures. The amount of water in these reservoirs can be controlled, both to respond to changes in outdoor conditions, and to change the depth of immersion. These deposits can be located near the center of gravity of the submarine, or distributed throughout the ship to avoid affecting the list.
In immersion, the water pressure on the hull of the submarine can reach 3 MPa (about 300 meters deep) in steel submarines and up to 10 MPa (1000 m) in titanium ones, such as Komsomolets, internal pressure remaining constant. This difference causes compression of the hull, which decreases displacement. The density of the water also increases, as the salinity and pressure are higher, but this does not compensate for the compression of the hull, so the buoyancy decreases with depth. A submerged submarine is in unstable equilibrium, having a tendency to sink to the bottom or float to the surface. Maintaining a fixed depth requires continuous operation of the depth control tanks.
To maintain the desired heel, submarines use specialized heeling tanks fore and aft. The pumps move water between them, changing the weight distribution and thus creating a moment that turns the ship up or down. A similar system is sometimes used to maintain stability.
The hydrostatic effect of variable ballast tanks is not the only way to control the submarine underwater. Hydrodynamic maneuvering is achieved by various surfaces, which can be rotated to create corresponding hydrodynamic forces when the submarine is moving at sufficient speed. The stern planes, located close to the thruster and oriented generally horizontally, serve for the control of the longitudinal inclination of the submarine, and are in common use, unlike other control surfaces that some submarines may lack. The tilt planes on the turret and the aft ones on the main body, both also horizontal, are positioned closer to the center of gravity and are used to control depth with less effect on tilt.
When a submarine performs an emergency dive, all methods of heel and depth control are used simultaneously to propel the ship upwards. Said emersion is very fast, so the submarine can even partially jump out of the water.
Modern submarines have an inertial guidance system to navigate underwater, but drift error inevitably accumulates over time. To counter this, GPS is periodically used to obtain an exact position. The periscope (a retractable tube with prisms that allows one to see above the surface without emerging) is only used occasionally, due to its short range of visibility. Modern submarines have "optronic masts" instead of hull penetrating optical tube periscopes. These masts have to continue to climb to the surface, but they use electronic sensors for visible and infrared light, laser rangefinders, and electromagnetic monitoring devices.
Helmets
Modern submarines are often tapered in shape. This design, already used in the most primitive submarines, was designed in the shape of a whale's body and significantly reduces the hydrodynamic drag on the submarine underwater, but worsens its behavior against waves and increases drag on the surface. Since the limitations of the propulsion systems in the first military submarines forced them to operate on the surface most of the time, the design of their hulls was a compromise. Due to the low underwater speeds of these submarines, typically well below 10 kt (18 km/h), the higher underwater drag was considered acceptable. Only at the end of World War II, when technology allowed faster and longer submarine operations and increased enemy aerial surveillance forced submarines to remain submerged, did hull designs return to a tapered shape, reducing drag and noise.. In modern military submarines, the outer hull is lined with a thick layer of special rubber or anechoic plates to absorb sounds reaching the submarine and make it more difficult to detect by sonar.
A turret, called a sail, jutting out on top of the submarine houses the periscopes and electronic masts, which can include radio, radar, electronic weapons, and other systems. In many primitive classes of submarines, the control room was located in this turret, known as the "control tower". However, since then the control room has been located inside the hull of the submarine. This room should not be confused with the "bridge", which is a small open platform at the top of the sail and used for visual observations while operating on the surface. There may also be an additional enclosed platform below this with windows and windshield wipers for bad weather.
Double hull
All small modern submarines and submersibles, as well as older ones, have a single hull. Large submarines usually have an additional external hull, or parts of it. This external hull, which actually constitutes the shape of the submarine, is called the outer hull or light hull, since it does not have to withstand any pressure difference. Inside the outer hull is a stronger hull or pressure hull, which withstands the difference between the sea pressure and the normal atmospheric pressure in the interior.
Although the first time it was applied was in the Ictíneo I, by Monturiol, it was ignored for a long time. Then, around the time of World War I, it was realized that the optimal shape for withstanding pressure conflicted with the optimal shape for sailing and minimizing water resistance, further complicating manufacturing difficulties. This was resolved either by adopting a compromise form, or by using two differently shaped hulls: an internal one to withstand the pressure and an external one with the optimal shape for sailing. Until the end of World War II, most submarines had an additional partial deck on their top, bow and stern, made of thin metal, which would flood during submersion. Germany went further with the Type XXI, the predecessor of modern submarines, completely enclosing the pressure hull within the lightweight, yet optimizing the latter for underwater navigation in a way no previous design had done.
After World War II, strategies divided. The Soviet Union changed their designs, basing them on the latest German developments. All post-World War II Soviet and Russian heavy submarines were built with a double-hull structure. American and most other Western submarines retained their simple hull structure. They still had lightweight hull sections at the bow and stern, which housed main ballast tanks and provided a hydrodynamically optimal shape, but the main cylindrical hull section had a single layer of sheet metal.
Although no longer necessary due to the difference in shape, the double hull design still has a number of advantages. The annular and longitudinal reinforcements are located between the two hulls, and the light can also be used to mount equipment that does not require constant pressure to function, while attaching it directly to the pressure hull could cause dangerous local fatigue. These measures save a lot of space inside the pressure hull, which is much heavier and takes much longer to manufacture than the light one. In the event that the submarine is damaged, the pressure hull can absorb most of the damage, which does not compromise the integrity of the ship, as long as the strong hull remains intact. The lightweight hull can also be acoustically isolated from the pressure hull, significantly reducing noise from internal equipment, improving camouflage ability, or allowing the use of simpler internal layout and equipment mounting.
The major disadvantage of the double hull structure is the significantly greater amount of manual labor required to build it. The Soviet Union had developed welding technology earlier and had a cheap, skilled labor force available, but the high cost of manual labor in the United States made the less expensive simple hull design preferable. Another reason for the construction of double-hulled submarines by the Soviet Union was the operation under the Arctic Ocean, where the submarines had to break a layer of thick ice when emerging to fire the missiles, which could always damage the hull. However, the double hull design is currently being considered for future submarines in the United States as well, in order to increase cargo and camouflage capabilities and autonomy.
Pressure Helmet
The pressure hull is usually constructed of thick, high-strength steel with a complex structure and high strength reserve, and is divided with watertight bulkheads into several compartments. There are also examples of submarines with more than two hulls, such as the Typhoon class, which have two main pressure hulls and three smaller ones for the control room, the torpedoes and the steering mechanism, with the missile launch between the two main hulls.
The maximum immersion depth cannot be increased easily. Simply increasing the thickness of the hull causes an increase in weight and requires the reduction of the weight of the shipboard equipment, which ends up leading to a bathyscaphe. This can be done on civilian research submersibles but not on military submarines, so maximum immersion depth has always been limited by available technology.
The hulls of World War I submarines were constructed of carbon steel, and could not dive below 100m. High-strength alloy steel was introduced during World War II, allowing depths of up to 200m. High-strength alloy steel remains the main material for today's submarines, with a depth limit of 250-400m, which cannot be exceeded in military submarines without sacrificing other characteristics. To overcome this limit some submarines with titanium hulls were built. This metal is nearly as strong as steel, lighter, and non-magnetic, which is important for camouflage. The Soviets were supporters of titanium submarines, for which they developed high-strength alloys and built an industry to produce titanium at affordable costs, eventually having various types of titanium submarines. Titanium alloys allow for a large increase in maximum immersion depth, but other systems also need to be redesigned, so the tested depth was limited to 1,000m for the K-278 Komsomolets, the deepest immersion military submarine. An Alpha-class submarine may have operated successfully at a depth of 1,300 m, although continued operation at such depths would place undue fatigue on many systems on the submarine. Aside from its benefits, the high costs of building with titanium led to a decline in submarines made of this metal at the end of the Cold War.
The task of building a pressure hull is very complex, as it must be able to withstand a force of several million tons. When the hull is perfectly round in cross section, the pressure is evenly distributed, which only causes compression of the hull. If the shape is not perfect, the hull curves, suffering several points under very high pressure. The unavoidable minor deviations are supported by the reinforcement rings, but even a deviation of 25 mm from the circular shape causes a 30% decrease in the maximum hydrostatic head and consequently in the maximum immersion depth. The hull must therefore be built with the highest precision. All parts of it have to be welded without defects, and all joints have to be checked several times using different methods. This contributes to the very high manufacturing costs of modern submarines (for example, a Virginia-class attack submarine costs about $2.6 billion).
Propulsion
The first mechanically propelled submarine was the French Plongeur (1863), which used compressed air, being the anaerobic propulsion used for the first time in the Spanish Ictíneo II (1864) supported by popular subscription. The latter's engine used a chemical compound of magnesium, peroxide, zinc and potassium chlorate that generates steam with which to drive the propeller and oxygen for the crew. This system was not used again until 1940, when the German Navy tested the Walter turbine on the experimental submarine V-80 and later on the U-791.
Until the advent of marine nuclear propulsion, most submarines of the 20th century used electric batteries for underwater navigation and internal combustion engines for surface navigation and to recharge the batteries. The first models used gasoline but it was soon replaced by paraffin and later diesel thanks to its lower flammability. The diesel-electric combination would become the standard means of propulsion. Initially, the diesel or gasoline motor and the electric motor, separated by clutches, were on the same axis and drove the propeller. This allowed the former to use the latter as a generator to recharge the batteries and also drive the submarine if necessary. When the sub submerged, the diesel engine was disengaged so that the electric one was used to turn the propeller. The electric motor can have more than one armature on the shaft, being electrically coupled in series for low speeds and in parallel for high speeds.
In the 1930s, the earlier design was modified on some submarines, particularly the American and British U-class. The internal combustion engine was no longer attached to the propulsion shaft, but instead drove a separate generator, which sometimes in turn it was used to navigate on the surface and recharge the batteries. This diesel-electric propulsion allowed much greater flexibility: for example, the submarine could move slowly while the engines ran at full power to recharge the batteries as quickly as possible, thus reducing time on the surface or the use of snorkeling. It also made it possible to isolate the noisy diesel engines from the hull, making the submarine quieter.
Other sources of power were tried: oil-fired steam turbines powered the British K-class built during World War I and in the years that followed, but were not very successful. The turbines were chosen to give them the surface speed needed to keep up with the British war fleet. German Type XXI submarines tested the application of hydrogen peroxide for fast, air-independent propulsion in the long term, but were ultimately built with huge batteries instead.
Steam propulsion was revived in the 1950s with the advent of the nuclear-powered steam turbine that drove a generator. By eliminating the need for atmospheric oxygen, these submarines could remain submerged indefinitely as long as food reserves lasted (air for the crew is recycled and fresh water is obtained by distillation from the marina). These ships always have a small battery and a diesel engine-generator for emergency situations if the nuclear reactors have to be stopped.
Nuclear power is currently used in all large submarines, but due to its high cost and large size, smaller submarines continue to use diesel-electric propulsion. The relationship between large and small ships depends on strategic needs and, for example, the US Navy only has nuclear submarines, which is usually explained by the need to operate transoceanically. Other military powers rely on nuclear submarines for strategic purposes and diesel-electric ships for defense needs. Most fleets lack nuclear submarines due to the low availability of nuclear and submarine technology. Civilian submarines usually only have electric batteries if they are designed to operate connected to a mother ship.
At the end of World War II the British and Russians experimented with hydrogen peroxide and kerosene (paraffin) engines that could be used both on the surface and underwater. The results of this technique were not encouraging enough to adopt it at the time, and although the Russians did produce a class of submarines with this type of engine, called the Quebec by NATO, they were never considered successful. Currently several navies, notably the Swedish one, use ships with anaerobic propulsion that replace liquid oxygen with hydrogen peroxide. A recent advance in this type of propulsion is hydrogen fuel cells, applied for the first time in the German type 212 submarines, equipped with nine 34 kW cells.
Towards the end of the 20th century some submarines, for example the British Vanguard class, began to use waterjet propulsion instead of propellers. Although they are heavier, more expensive, and less efficient, they are also much quieter, providing a significant tactical advantage.
One possible propulsion system for submarines is magnetohydrodynamic propulsion, or "caterpillar propulsion," which has no moving parts. It was popularized by the film version of The Hunt for Red October, written by Tom Clancy, which featured it as a virtually silent system. (A conventional type of propellant was used in the novel.) Although some experimental surface ships have been built with this propulsion system, the speeds achieved have not been as high as expected. In addition, the noise created by the bubbles and the high energy consumption that the submarine's reactor would require make their use for military purposes unlikely.
Types of military submarines
Military submarines are often divided into attack submarines, designed to engage enemy ships, including other submarines, and strategic submarines equipped with ballistic missiles, designed to launch attacks against ground targets from a concealed position. The division into these types alludes to their role rather than their construction, both being similar (especially if the former are intended to attack distant fleets) in size, weaponry, and other characteristics.
Attack submarines can be divided into two general types: nuclear or diesel-electric. The former are faster and larger, and have more firepower and longer range than the latter. Depending on the typical mission they are intended for, diesel-electric submarines are sometimes better suited for shallow water or coastal missions. To bridge the gap between these two very different designs, several navies have begun development of anaerobically powered vessels, which can be used like diesel-electric but with a longer dive time.
Several specialized military submarines have also been developed. In World War II, the Japanese used submarines like their I-400 class as a platform to launch maritime attack aircraft. The Germans built their Type XIV submarines to serve as supply ships for other submarines. Mini-submarines have been used for sabotage and espionage, especially by the Japanese and British navies (for example, five of them were used by Japan in the attack on Pearl Harbor). During the early years of the Cold War, radar surveillance submarines like the Triton were developed at much longer ranges than other vessels.
Ballistic Missile Submarines
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Ballistic missile submarines, often referred to as SSBNs ("SS" for Silent Service, "B" for Ballistic missile, and "N » from Nuclear), they carry ballistic missiles that can be fired from the submarine (SLBM, Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile) with nuclear warheads to attack strategic targets such as cities or missile silos Anywhere in the world. Currently all of them are propelled by nuclear energy, to provide them with the greatest possible autonomy and camouflage capacity. (The first Soviet SSBNs were diesel-powered.) They played an important role in the Cold War strategy of mutual deterrence, as both the United States and the Soviet Union had the credible ability to carry out a counterattack against the other nation in the event of a stroke. This was an important part of the mutual assured destruction strategy.
Crew
A typical nuclear submarine has a crew of about 120 people, non-nuclear ships have less than half. Conditions inside a submarine can be difficult as crew members have to work in isolation for long periods of time, without contact with their families. Submarines typically maintain radio silence to avoid detection. Operating a submarine is dangerous, even in peacetime, and many ships have been sunk by accident.
Women on board
In 1995 the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first in the world to appoint a female submarine captain. In 1998, the Royal Australian Navy became the second to allow women to serve on combat submarines. Canada and Spain followed. Commonly given reasons for excluding women are lack of privacy and "hot bunks", a common practice on submarines, where three sailors take turns sharing two bunks to save space. The US Navy, which allows women to serve on almost every other ship in its fleet, only allows their presence on military submarines with few exceptions, arguing that the semi-segregation conditions it applies to female personnel on ships would cost some $300,000 per bunk.
Argentina became the first country in South America to incorporate a female submariner. This is Navy Lieutenant Eliana Krawczyk, who entered the Naval Military School in 2004, graduating as an Officer in 2009 and as a submariner in 2012. Lieutenant Krawczyk was highlighted as Head of Communications for the Type 209 Submarine /1200 ARA Salta (S-31) until 2016, date from which she stood out as Chief of Weapons of the Class Submarine TR-1700 ARA San Juan (S-42) until the time of the disappearance of the ship on November 15 2017, 430 km off the coast of the Gulf of São Jorge. On Thursday, November 30, 2017, the Argentine Navy announced that the search and rescue mission had ended in order to proceed with the material recovery mission, thus becoming the first officer to be martyred on board a submarine.
Life support system
With so-called nuclear propulsion, submarines can remain submerged for months at a time, unlike diesel submarines, which have to periodically surface or snorkel to recharge their batteries. Most modern military submarines can generate oxygen for the crew through electrolysis of water. The atmosphere control equipment includes a CO2 filter, which uses a catalyst to remove this gas from the air and mix it with the waste pumped out. A device is also used that uses a catalyst to convert carbon monoxide into CO2 (removed by the previous filter) and mixes the hydrogen produced by the ship's electric batteries with oxygen from the air to produce water. An atmosphere monitoring system analyzes the air in different areas of the ship to control the levels of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, R12 and R114 refrigerants, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other components. Poison gases are removed and oxygen is added back from a reservoir located in a main ballast tank. Some heavier submarines have two oxygen purge stations (forward and stern). The oxygen level of the air is sometimes maintained at a percentage lower than the normal atmospheric concentration to reduce the danger of fire.
Fresh water is produced either by evaporation or by reverse osmosis. It is used for showers, sinks, cooking and cleaning. Seawater is used for flushing toilets, with the resulting 'black water' being stored in a sanitary tank until it is blown outside using pressurized air or pumped outside using a special sanitary pump. The method of cleaning the toilets on board is difficult to operate, and the German Type VIIC submarine U-1206 sank with casualties due to a mistake with the toilets. Water for showers and sinks is stored separately in 'grey water' tanks, which are pumped outside using a drainage pump.
On large modern submarines, trash is typically disposed of using a tube called a Trash Disposal Unit (TDU), where it is compacted into a galvanized steel drum. When this drum is full, it is dropped to the bottom of the ocean with the help of iron ballasts.
History of submarines
History of the first submarines and submersibles
A distant ancestor of the submarine is probably the 17th-century Cossack boat called the Chaika ("seagull"), which was used underwater for reconnaissance and infiltration missions. The Chaika could be easily closed and submerged so that the crew could breathe under it like a modern underwater bell and propel it by walking along the bottom of the river. Special ballasts and tubes were also used to take in air from the outside.
There is evidence that the first attempt at underwater navigation took place in Spain in the 16th century. According to a report in Opusculum Taisnieri, published in 1562: «two Greeks entered and left the bottom of the Tagus several times in the presence of Emperor Charles V, without getting wet and without extinguishing the fire they carried in their hands ».
This event allegedly took place on the Tagus River, near the Spanish city of Toledo; Apparently, the divers used a kind of protective bell.
The first submersible whose execution there is reliable information was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England. It was propelled by means of oars, although its exact nature is the subject of some controversy: some claim that it was simply a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the Thames between 1620 and 1624. However, recent research has revealed that Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont, the forgotten Spanish engineer who registered the first patent for a steam engine, had already built a submarine. in 1600.
Although the first submersible vehicles were merely tools for underwater exploration, it didn't take long for inventors to realize their military potential. The strategic advantages of submarines were expounded by Bishop John Wilkins of Chester as early as 1648.
On September 18, 1838, the sailor José Raymundo Rodríguez Labandera made the first underwater voyage in a self-propelled wooden ship called the Hipopótamo, which crossed the Guayas River from Durán to Guayaquil.
In 1860, the Spanish inventor Cosme García patented the first submarine in Spain and successfully carried out the official tests in the port of Alicante. The device could accommodate two people and remained under water for 45 minutes. According to the official record of the Alicante Navy Command, the tests were carried out to the satisfaction of those present. On November 16, 1860, he also obtained a patent in Paris under the name of Bateau Plongeur. In 1881 and 1888, Stefan Drzewiecki, the Polish engineer, inventor and scientist built the first electric and human propelled submarine and the which was also the first to be mass-produced.
Built by Narciso Monturiol and launched in the port of Barcelona on October 2, 1864, the Ictíneo II had an anaerobic engine and solved the problem of renewing oxygen in a hermetic container. The Peral, built by Isaac Peral and launched on September 8, 1888 at the Arsenal de la Carraca shipyard, San Fernando, Cádiz, had a spindle-shaped steel hull and three trim tanks, which they shrunk by means of bombs. The maximum level of immersion was 30 m and was controlled by means of two electrically driven horizontal axis propellers. She also had a torpedo tube in the bow.
The first vehicles considered submarines and that exceeded manual or pedal propulsion were: with internal combustion "steam" the Ictíneo II (1864), the electric Pear tree (1888) and the nuclear USS Nautilus (1955).
The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, launched in 1955, marked the transition from slow underwater craft to vessels capable of sustaining a speed of 20-25 knots (37-46 km/h) submerged for weeks. Projected thanks to the work of the physicist Philip Abelson and designed by John Burnham, it was built by the General Dynamics Electric Boat in its shipyards in Groton (Connecticut). The Nautilus had an S2W naval reactor, a pressurized water reactor built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
The first military submarines
The first military submersible was the Turtle ('turtle'), an ovate human-powered device designed by the American David Bushnell, with capacity for a single person. It was the first verified submarine capable of underwater operation and independent movement, the first to use propellers for propulsion. During the American War of Independence, the Turtle (operated by Sergeant Ezra Lee of the Continental Army) attempted to sink a British warship, HMS Eagle (flagship blockaders) in New York Bay on September 7, 1776, but failed as the ship had a copper plate. The next morning, the sailors and crew of HMS Eagle saw a strange vessel that was moving away and they launched themselves in pursuit; as soon as he realized it, Lee released the torpedo sinking the small chasing boat.
In the 1800s, France built a human-powered submersible designed by Robert Fulton, the Nautilus. The French ended up canceling the experiment in 1804, as did the British when they later considered Fulton's submarine design.
During the War of 1812, Silas Halsey was killed in 1814 while using a submarine in a failed attack on a British man-of-war anchored in New London Harbor.
In 1851 Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian artillery corporal, launched a submarine designed by him and called the Brandtaucher ('incendiary diver') in the Bay of Kiel. This submarine was built by August Howaldt and was propelled by a mill. It sank but the three crew members managed to escape. The submarine was salvaged in 1887 and is on display in the Dresden museum.
Cosme García Sáez, designed, patented in Paris on November 16, 1859 and built the Garcibuzo in Barcelona, which he later moved to Alicante where it was tested on August 4, 1860, driven by the inventor and his son, they remained submerged in the port for 45 minutes. After failing to find financing in Spain, and rejecting the offer of Napoleon III, the submersible was sunk by the inventor's son in Alicante, after being informed by the port authority that it was disturbing marine traffic.
Submarines in the American Civil War
During the American Civil War, the Union was the first side to use a submarine. The French-designed USS Alligator ('alligator') was the first U.S. Navy submarine and the first to have compressed air (for the crew) and an air filtration system. The Alligator was the first submarine to include a diving hatch that allowed a diver to place electrically detonated mines on enemy ships. Initially propelled by crew-driven oars, it was refitted after 6 months to be powered by a crank-driven propeller. With a crew of 20, 45 feet long and about 4 feet wide, it was larger than the Confederate submarines. She disappeared in a storm off Cape Hatteras on April 1, 1863 without a crew as she was under tow to her first combat deployment at Charleston.
The Confederate States of America built several human-powered submarines, including the H. L. Hunley (named after one of its promoters, Horace Lawson Hunley). The first Confederate submarine was the 30-foot Pioneer, which sank an enemy schooner via an attached mine during trials on Lake Pontchartrain, but was not used in combat. She was scuttled after New Orleans was taken and sold for scrapping in 1868.
Hunley was intended to attack the Northern ships, which were blockading the Southern ports. The submarine had a long pole with an explosive charge in the bow, called a "torpedo pole." The submarine had to approach the enemy ship, put the explosive on it, move away and then detonate it. It was extremely dangerous to operate and had no air supply other than that contained in the main compartment. It sank twice: the first time half the crew died and the second time all eight crew members drowned, including Hunley himself. On February 18, 1864, the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Bay, being the first time that a submarine managed to sink another ship, although it was sunk in the same combat shortly after communicating its success. Another Confederate submarine was sunk on her maiden voyage in Lake Pontchartrain; it was found ashore in the 1870s and is currently on display at the Louisiana State Museum. Submarines did not have a major impact on the outcome of the war, but they heralded their future importance in naval warfare, increasing interest in them.
Submarines in Latin America
The first submarine was the Hippopotamus built by José Rodríguez Labandera in Ecuador who, along with José Quevedo, crossed the Guayas River on September 18, 1838. Rodríguez Labandera made some repairs to the Hippopotamus and crossed the same river on two more occasions. However, due to lack of interest from the government, the ship was stranded on the banks of the Guayas where time was in charge of destroying it.
Then, the Flach, designed and built in 1866 by the Chilean-German engineer Karl Flach, at the Duprat Shipyard in Vaparaíso, commissioned by the Chilean government during the war that this country, together with to Peru, fought against Spain between 1864 and 1866. Flach's invention was simple: made entirely of iron, the spindle-tube submarine had a length of 12.5m, a beam of 2.5m and a weight of close to 100 t. It reached a speed of 2 to 3 knots, powered by human propulsion, with a system of crankshafts and pedals that moved its two propellers, and it submerged with an ingenious system of dragging weights from one side of the ship to the other. Its armament consisted of a small gun in a deck turret. And in the bow, another breech-loading cannon with a cover in the mouth for submerged fighting, a mortar type with 20-kilogram projectiles, which could be uncovered from the inside to shoot at the keel of the ship to sink at close range. It also had an ingenious air renewal system, so that its autonomy submerged could reach approximately 8 hours. She had a hatch but every once in a while the ship had to surface to see if she was going in the right direction. Her crew consisted of 11 men. After some initial tests, the ship sank in the bay of Valparaíso, with Flach, his son, and other crew members, on May 3, 1866.
The attempts to have a submarine weapon in Peru date from the same war against Spain between 1864-1866. In 1864, engineer Federico Blume had completely designed his first submarine and as a personal contribution, he generously offered the Peruvian government the plans for his invention, as well as offering to command it in action to defeat the powerful Spanish squadron that had taken the Chincha Islands. The idea was to create a weapon that would allow attacking the Spanish fleet with the minimum of risk. But the war with Spain ended and the project never materialized.
Years later in 1879, Chile would declare war on Peru for the War of the Pacific and Blume would begin to develop his submarine in June 1879, with his own resources applying numerous original ideas of his invention. This submarine was 48 feet long (15 meters) and 7 wide (2.1 meters). It was built with 1/4-inch iron plates, its hatches were watertight by rubber friezes, they were located in two turrets with viewers, it had frame reinforcements every 3 feet, its 2 brass ventilation tubes that could be raised and lowered manually by a special device and which had a function of admitting and exhausting air to the interior assisted by a bladed fan (it was a system that today could be called Snorkel type). The water tank had levels to know the ballast readings during the dive and a plunger system to control the ballast during inversion and surfacing manoeuvres. There were also 2 mercury barometers, one measured the internal pressure and the other was connected at one end to the sea, acting as a depth manometer. The propeller was three-bladed, propelled by the muscular work of 8 men on a 7-foot-long shaft, which drove the torque of the propeller, the bilge pump, and the fan. It was manually operated by six to eight men out of a total crew of eleven.
On October 14, Blume begins her sea trials in Paita, northern Peru. During three weeks of intense tests, the Toro Submarino made more than 19 dives of more than one hour, which allowed the design to be adjusted and they obtained amazing figures for the state of the art at that time: it could dive 12 feet (3.6 meters) with the snorkel type system and a maximum speed of 3 knots and maximum immersion of 72 feet (22 meters). In order to convince the President of Peru, Nicolás de Piérola, an official demonstration of the submarine was organized in Callao, where it was secretly taken. In this test with the presence of the Peruvian Minister of Defense and Navy and various authorities, it was submerged for 30 minutes. without any drawbacks. The result was obvious, the use of this weapon against the Chilean squadron was approved. The Toro Submarino would become the first operational submersible in Latin America.
The Peruvian government appoints a board of sailors and allocates resources for the construction of another submersible with superior design characteristics, intending to eliminate the 2 air tubes, using compressed air for the immersion crew to breathe and elimination of one of the turrets. Thus, an empty keel in the bow was also added to the hull design along with a small Otto-type engine in the stern to give it greater forward speed and greater range on the surface. The construction of the new submarine was advanced in a Factory in Callao. However, the adverse development of the war for Peru and the imminent start of the Blockade of Callao in 1880, made the Peruvian Navy use it and prepare the Toro Submarino with Lay type torpedoes or with 04 mines of 10 pounds of dynamite each and time controller that adhered to the cases of an enemy ship. Their main objective would be to advance at night and attack the armored frigates Cochrane or Blanco Encalada that were prowling the bay of Callao.
At the first opportunity where the two Chilean armored vessels were anchored near San Lorenzo Island, the attack was prepared, the Toro was already armed and submerged, but the Chilean forces were warned by their spies: "The Peruvians are preparing an attack with a very powerful secret weapon." This warning caused the Chilean squadron to move from its anchorages to the south, resulting in the mission being aborted. Chilean ships would henceforth take the precaution of not hanging around in the vicinity to avoid attacks with mines or torpedoes. On January 17, 1881, before the imminent occupation of the Peruvian capital by Chilean troops, the order was given to sink all the ships of the Peruvian squadron in Callao, including the Submarine Bull, in order to avoid its capture by the enemy.
Mechanical propulsion submarines (late 19th century)
The first submarine whose propulsion system was not human traction was the French Plongeur, launched in 1863, which used compressed air at 12.4 bar (180 PSI).
The first submarine with a combustion engine was the Ictíneo II, propelled by steam and peroxide, built in Barcelona in 1864 by Narciso Monturiol and launched on October 2, 1864 in Barceloneta. It was 17 m long and displaced 65 t. Initially the propulsion was a propeller that rotated by handlebars operated by 16 men, but in view of the poor performance two years later a 6 CV steam engine was added, making the first steam output on October 22, 1867. The ship was designed to hold a crew of two, submerge 30 m, and stay underwater for two hours. On the surface he used a steam engine, but underwater such an engine would have quickly consumed the submarine's oxygen, so Monturiol turned to chemistry to invent an engine that consumed a mixture of potassium chlorate, zinc, and manganese peroxide. The elegance of this method was that the reaction driving the propeller released oxygen, which after being treated was used in the hull for the crew and also powered an auxiliary steam engine that helped propel the ship underwater. Despite successful demonstrations in the port of Barcelona, Monturiol failed to interest the Spanish or any other country's navy.
In 1870, French writer Jules Verne published the science fiction classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which chronicled the adventures of a maverick inventor on the Nautilus, a submarine more advanced than any other. existing at the time. The story inspired inventors to build more advanced submarines.
The first mass-built submarine, however, was human-powered. It was the submarine of the Polish inventor Stefan Drzewiecki: 50 units were built in 1881 for the Russian government. The same inventor built in 1884 a submarine powered by electricity.
Discussions between the English Reverend George Garrett and Swedish business and industrial expert Thorsten Nordenfelt led to a series of steam-powered submarines. The first was the Nordenfelt I (1885), a 56-tonne, 19.5m-long ship similar to Garrett's ill-fated Resurgam (1879), with a range of 240 km and armed with a single torpedo. Like the Resurgam, it ran on steam on the surface and switched off the engine to submerge. Greece, fearful of the return of the Ottomans, bought it. Nordenfelt then built the Nordenfelt II, a 30 m long submarine with two torpedo tubes, which he sold to the concerned German navy. Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with the Nordenfelt IV, with twin engines and torpedoes. She was sold to the Russians, but proved unstable, ran aground and was scrapped.
The first fully serviceable military submarine was the electrically propelled Peral submarine built by the Spanish engineer, sailor and professor of mathematical physics at the Escuela de Ampliación de Estudios de la Armada, Isaac Peral y Caballero for the Spanish Navy, prototype It was to be used in the Spanish-American War. It was launched on September 8, 1888. It had a torpedo tube, with two reloading torpedoes in addition to the one already mounted in the tube, new air systems, a tapered hull, propellant, and cross-shaped external controls, anticipating very interesting designs. later. Its underwater speed was 10 knots, but it suffered from a short range due to the battery power of its systems. The batteries were a Peral modification of a zinc-potassium dichromate system. In June 1890, Peral's submarine launched the first successful torpedo in history, fired from a submarine submerged in the sea. The Spanish navy ended up canceling the project. Many more submarines were built around this time by various inventors, but they would not become effective weapons until well into the 20th century.
From the end of the 19th century to the First World War
The turn of the century marked a pivotal time in the development of submarines, with a significant number of technologies making their debut, and being widely built and adopted by various countries. Diesel-electric propulsion would become the dominant power system, and gadgets such as the periscope would be standardized. A large number of experiments were carried out on effective weapons and tactics for submarines, which would culminate in their great impact in the upcoming First World War.
In 1895, Irish inventor John Philip Holland designed a submarine that, for the first time, featured an internal combustion engine on the surface and a battery-powered electric motor underwater. In 1902, Holland received USPTO Patent No. 708553. Some of his ships were purchased by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Imperial Russian Navy, and Japan.
The Imperial Japanese Navy began its submarine service with five Holland Type VIIs purchased from the Electric Boat Company in 1904. The five ships were delivered in sections, arriving in Japan on June 14, 1904. After re-arming, the five Hollands were ready for action in August 1905, but the Russo-Japanese War was nearing its end by that date, and no Japanese submarine would see action at that time. war.
Commissioned in June 1900, the steam-electric Narval submarine, designed by Frenchman Maxime Laubeuf and Spanish engineer Raymondo Lorenzo d'Equevilley Montjustin, reintroduced the classic double-hull design, with a pressure hull inside the lightweight outer hull. This 200 t vessel had a range of about 100 miles on the surface and about 10 miles underwater. The 1904 French submarine Aigrette (‘pile driver’) improved on the concept by using a diesel engine for surface navigation. Large numbers of these submarines were built, with 74 completed before 1914.
Submarines in World War I
During World War I, military strategists gave real importance to naval battles. They first tried models that used diesel and electric power but required frequent recharging and only reached a top speed of 10 knots (18 km/h).
The first time military submarines had a significant impact in battle was in World War I. Corps such as the German U-Boat saw action in combat in the Battle of the Atlantic and were responsible for the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, which receives much of the credit for the US decision to enter the war.
The ability of U-Boats to serve as useful war machines lay in new tactics, their numbers, and underwater technologies such as the diesel-electric power system that had been developed in previous years. More like submersible boats than modern submarines, U-Boats operated primarily on the surface using conventional motors, using their batteries to occasionally dive for attacks. Her hull was roughly triangular in section, with a distinctive keel, to control the waves, and a distinctive prow. In 1916, the Serbian Konjovic, in the service of Austria-Hungary, entered history as the first pilot to destroy a submarine from the air, specifically a French submarine in the Adriatic. When he saw that there were survivors after the bombardment, he ditched his seaplane and saved them. For this heroic action, the French government decorated him on February 14, 1968 with a special recognition for heroism, humanity and compassion in maritime battles. There is still today a portrait of Konjovic saving the sailors at the official headquarters of the French navy.
Advances Between the World Wars
Several new submarine designs were developed in the years between the world wars. Among the most notorious were aircraft carrier submarines, equipped with a waterproof hangar and a steam catapult, which could launch and pick up one or more small seaplanes. The submarine and its aircraft could thus act as a reconnaissance unit ahead of the fleet, an essential role at a time when radar did not yet exist. The first example was the British HMS M2, followed by the French Surcouf and numerous Imperial Japanese Navy ships. The Surcouf of 1929 was also designed as a "submarine cruiser", intended to seek out and engage in surface combat against commercial shipping.
Submarines in World War II
Germany
Germany had the largest submarine fleet during World War II. Because the Versailles Treaty limited naval surface forces, the rebuilding of German naval forces had only begun in earnest a year before the outbreak of World War II. With no hope of defeating the vastly superior British Royal Navy in surface combat, the German high command immediately halted construction of any major surface ships except for the nearly completed Bismarck and two cruisers, and devoted its resources to submarines, which they could be finished much faster. Although it took most of 1940 to expand production facilities and start mass manufacturing, by the end of the war more than 1,000 submarines had been built.
German U-boats had a devastating effect in the Battle of the Atlantic, attempting (but ultimately failing) to cut off British supply routes by sinking more ships than the English could replace. These routes were vital to British food and industry, as well as American weaponry. Although the U-Boots had been improved in previous years, the biggest improvements were in communications, encrypted using the famous Enigma rotary cipher machine. This allowed the tactics of massive attacks or wolfpacks (in German Rudeltaktik), but also the definitive fall of the U-Boots.
After putting to sea, the U-Boats operated practically independently to locate convoys in the areas assigned to them by the high command. If they found one, the submarine would not attack immediately, but would follow closely to allow other submarines in the area to find the convoy. They then grouped into a larger force and attacked the convoy simultaneously, preferably at night and on the surface.
In the first half of the war, German U-boats achieved spectacular successes with these tactics, but very few had any decisive effect. In the second half, Germany had sufficient submarines, but this was offset by the Allies' equally greater number of escort ships, aircraft, and technical advances such as radar and sonar. Huff-Duff (high frequency radio detection system, in English high frequency direction finding, or Huff-Duff for short, early warning system consisting of locating the submarine by direction finders when it surfaces for radio) and ULTRA allowed the Allies to guide convoys between the wolfpacks when detected by their radio transmissions.
Winston Churchill wrote that the threat of U-Boats was the only thing that caused him doubts about the final victory of the Allies (referring to type XXI).
Japan
Japan had the most diverse submarine fleet of World War II, including human torpedo suicide bombers (Kaiten), midget submarines (Kō-hyōteki, Kairyū ), medium-sized submarines, specialized supply submarines (most for army use), long-distance submarine fleets (many of which carried an aircraft), submarines with the highest underwater speeds of the war (I-201 class) and submarines that could carry multiple bombers (the biggest of the war, the I-400). These submarines were also equipped with the most advanced torpedoes of the war, the Type 95, powered by oxygen.
Overall, and despite their technical virtues, Japanese submarines were relatively ineffective. They were often used in attacks against warships, which were fast and maneuverable and had better defenses than merchant ships. In 1942, Japanese submarines sank two aircraft carriers as well as other warships, but were unable to repeat these successes later. Later that year, the submarines were used to transport supplies to the island garrisons.
United States
The United States used its submarines to attack merchant shipping (commercial assault or guerre de course ), destroying more Japanese shipping than all other weapons combined.
Where Japan had the best torpedoes of the war, the US Navy had perhaps the worst, the Mark 14 steam torpedo, with a Mk 6 magnetic detonation fuze. and a Mk 5 contact fuze, neither of which was reliable. The depth control mechanism of the Mark 14 was corrected in August 1942, but field tests of the explosives were not carried out until mid-1943, when trials in Hawaii and Australia confirmed the failures. In an attempt to correct the problems a wakeless electric torpedo was brought into service, resulting in the losses of USS Tang and USS Tullibee as a result of hits from their own torpedoes and heavy damage to USS Wahoo, due to a circular impact. on her bow before coming under aerial bombardment.
During World War II, 314 submarines served in the U.S. Navy, of which 111 were in service on December 7, 1941, and 203, of the Gato, Balao, and Tench classes, served during the war, in which lost 52 of them and 3,506 lives. US submarines sank 1,392 enemy ships with a total tonnage of 5.3 million tons, including eight aircraft carriers and some 200 warships.
The Schnorchels
Diesel submarines needed air to run their engines, so they equipped huge electric batteries for underwater operation. This limited their speed and range when they were submerged. Schnorchels (a pre-war Dutch invention) were used by German submarines to navigate just below the surface, trying to avoid visual and radar detection. The German navy experimented with hydrogen peroxide (hydrogen peroxide) engines to allow diesel to be used underwater, but the technical difficulties were enormous. The Allies experimented with various detection systems, including chemical sensors to "smell" exhaust gases from submarines.
Modern Submarines
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In the 1950s, nuclear power partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. This system was developed to also extract oxygen from seawater. These two innovations gave submarines the ability to stay submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages, such as the crossing of the North Pole under the Arctic ice cap by the USS Nautilus in 1958. Most military submarines built since that time in the United States and the Soviet Union have been powered by nuclear reactors. The factors that limit the underwater permanence of these ships are the food supplies and the psychological problems of a crew confined in such a limited space.
Although the increased range and performance of nuclear reactors means these submarines are better for long-distance missions or protecting an aircraft carrier force, diesel-electric submarines have continued to be produced by nuclear-capable and non-nuclear-capable countries, as they can be more difficult to detect, except when they need to use their diesel engine to recharge the batteries. Technological advances in soundproofing, insulation, and noise cancellation have substantially eroded this advantage. Much more limited in terms of speed and weapons capacity, conventional submarines are also cheaper to build. The introduction of ships with anaerobic propulsion has caused a revival of this type of submarine.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union maintained large fleets of submarines that played a game of cat and mouse. This tradition continues today on a much smaller scale. The Soviet Union suffered the loss of at least 4 submarines during this period: the K-129 sank in 1968 (the CIA tried to recover it from the ocean floor with the ship Glomar Explorer designed by Howard Hughes), the K-8 in 1970, the K-219 in 1986 (an episode narrated in the film Hostile Waters) and the Komsomolets (the only submarine class Mike) in 1989 (which held a depth record among military submarines: 1000 m). Many other Soviet submarines, such as the K-19 (the first nuclear Soviet submarine to sail under the North Pole) suffered severe damage from fires or radioactive leaks. The United States lost at least three submarines in this era: the diesel-powered USS Cochino (to a technical failure in the Bahrents Sea on August 25, 1949); and the nuclear USS Thresher (also due to a technical failure) and USS Scorpion (due to an unknown cause). In August 2000, the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk disaster occurred.
The sinking of the PNS Ghazi in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war was the first casualty of a submarine in the Indian Subcontinent region. The UK used nuclear submarines against Argentina in 1982 during the Falklands war. The atomic submarine HMS Conqueror was the first nuclear submarine to enter combat, sinking the Argentine warship ARA General Belgrano in a neutral zone while a UN-sponsored peace agreement was being negotiated.
In recent years, robotic submarines (unmanned underwater vehicle, also known as "submarine drones") have been developed that, by dispensing with the human factor, allow us to descend to great depths with less cost, there are two types general, remotely operated or ROV (English Remotely Operated Vehicle), and autonomous, guided by some type of software.
Narcosubmarines
A narco-submarine, is a custom self-propelled marine vehicle built by primarily Mexican or Colombian drug traffickers to illegally transport cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Spain. Some are true submarines capable of traveling under the surface of the water, but others have a structure that makes them incapable of withstanding the pressure of total immersion, although their aesthetics are reminiscent of a conventional submarine, so they are actually semi-submersibles..
Narco-submarines began to be used in the late 1990s. submersible in order to be difficult to detect visually, by radar, sonar, or infrared systems. Payloads are often several tons. In 2015, the largest known cargo, about 7.7 tons (17,000 lb), was seized from a semi-submersible. The capacities of these vessels are increasing (some are capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean); its operational capabilities, autonomy and radius of action are expanding; and their number is growing.
At the movies
A special genre of submarine movies has developed, proving to be popular elements due to the danger, drama, and claustrophobia associated with them, as well as the suspense of the cat game and the mouse that is submarine warfare. Some of the early films were Operation Pacific and Run Silent, Run Deep, the latter based on a classic novel. More modern films are The Hunt for Red October, Das Boot, U-571, Red Tide and The Enemy Below. K-19: The Widowmaker is about the first of many disasters that befell the Soviet submarine. Down with the Periscope is a comedy with Kelsey Grammer that takes place in a diesel submarine.
Another famous case of the submarine in popular culture was present in Yellow Submarine (film) animated film starring The Beatles.