Slide 4

History of Submarines (Continued)

The first combat successful submarine was produced in the American Civil War. It was essentially an oar propelled ship with an explosive ram attached to its nose. This sub, named the CSS Hunley, was responsible for the destruction of the USS Housatonic in 1864; unfortunately, the Hunley did not survive the attack. This success started leading to more and more submarines being build. The British army even dedicated five percent of its Navy's shipbuilding budget to building submarines.

Model of the CSS Hunley submarine used during the Civil War.
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Submarines made huge advancements in World War II with the Germans creating the U-Boat which stands for "undersea boat." These boats proved very effective for a time. Groups of them would trail merchant boats and then attack at night and submerge into the water to escape. By 1943 the Germans had lost only 250 U-Boats while sinking over 3000 allied merchant ships. By then the allies started to counter the Germans forcing them to withdraw from the Atlantic.


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After World War II the Soviet Union and United States continued advancing submarines. More technology was developed for them including more advanced sonar systems and developments which allowed them to remain underwater for longer periods of time. They turned into bigger sources of gathering information rather than attacking. They are still commonly used for this.

Another modern day use for submarines are to hold missiles and nuclear weapons. The US began to experiment with submarine launched missiles which led to the creation of the Polaris and Trident which were both submarines armed with nuclear missiles. In 1995 the USS Nautilus was made which was the first nuclear powered submarine. This sub reached a staggering length of 323 feet and weighed about 3,674 tons. Nowadays, submarines are used for a variety of things including the ability to launch special forces operations and intelligence gathering.


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