This wooden barrel was the world's first military submarine (6 photos). History of submarines. The first submarines. Modern submarines

The body was a wooden barrel, the lining was sewn from bovine hides soaked in fat. On such a submarine, the Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel dared to dive into the waters of the Thames in 1620. 100 years earlier, the idea of a warship moving underwater came to the mind of Leonardo da Vinci - who, however, did not try to implement it.

Muscle power diving

Drebbel awakened the imagination of many designers, who eagerly set about building the submarine. During the American Revolutionary War, inventor Davitt Bushnell built the submarine Turtle, which was used to attempt an assault on a warship in 1776. Since the boat had only enough air for half an hour, the attack failed. The main problem of the first submarines was the lack of a suitable engine. Back in 1850, the first German submarine of engineer Wilhelm Bauer, the Brandtaucher, was propelled by the power of human muscles

Modern submarine

Only in 1863 did the French build the Plongeur submarine with a motor powered by compressed air. The boat left bubbles on the surface and thereby lost its main military advantage: invisibility. The invention of the electric motor and the internal combustion engine contributed to the development of the modern submarine. The decisive step was taken by the American inventor John Holland, who installed two motors on the submarine - a steam engine for surface movement and an electric motor for movement under water. Since 1954, atomic energy began to be used in engines. Only from this time on can we talk about real underwater vessels capable of remaining in the depths of the sea for months.

1800: American Robert Fulton demonstrated the Nautilus submarine in the port of Brest.
1958: The first American nuclear-powered submarine passes under the ice of the North Pole.

The very first

Observing sea inhabitants, man tried to imitate them. Relatively quickly, he learned to build structures capable of floating on water and moving along its surface, but under water... Beliefs and legends mention individual attempts made by people in this direction, but it took centuries to more or less correctly imagine and express it in the design drawings of the underwater vessel. One of the first to do this was the great creator of the Renaissance, the Italian scientist Leonardo da Vinci. They say that Leonardo destroyed the drawings of his submarine, justifying it as follows: “People are so evil that they would be ready to kill each other even at the bottom of the sea.”

The surviving sketch shows an oval-shaped vessel with a ram in the bow and a low deckhouse, in the middle part of which there is a hatch. It is impossible to make out other design details.

The first to realize the idea of an underwater vessel were the Englishmen William Brun (1580) and Magnus Petilius (1605). However, their structures cannot be considered ships, since they could not move under water, but only sank and surfaced like a diving bell.

In the 20s of the 17th century. The English court nobility had the opportunity to tickle their nerves by taking an underwater trip along the Thames. The unusual ship was built in 1620 by a scientist - physicist and mechanic, court physician of the English King James I, the Dutchman Cornelius van Drebbel. The vessel was made of wood, covered with oiled leather for water resistance, could dive to a depth of about 4 m and remain under water for several hours. Immersion and ascent were accomplished by filling and emptying leather bellows. The inventor used a pole as a propulsion device, which was supposed to push off from the river bottom while inside the vessel. Convinced of the insufficient effectiveness of such a device, Drebbel equipped the next underwater vessel (its speed was about 1 knot) with 12 ordinary roller oars, each of which was controlled by one oarsman. To prevent water from getting inside the vessel, the holes in the hull for the passage of oars were sealed with leather cuffs.

In 1634, the French monk P. Mersen, a student of R. Descartes, first proposed a project for a submarine intended for military purposes. At the same time, he expressed the idea of making its body from metal. The shape of the body with pointed ends resembled a fish. The weapons on the boat included drills to destroy the hull of enemy ships below the waterline and two underwater guns located on each side with non-return valves that prevented water from entering the boat through the barrels when fired. The project remained a project.

In 1718, a peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye near Moscow, Efim Prokopyevich Nikonov, who worked as a carpenter at a state-owned shipyard, wrote in a petition to Peter I that he was undertaking to make a ship that could sail “hiddenly” in the water and approach enemy ships “to the very bottom,” and also “to use a shell to destroy ships.” Peter I appreciated the proposal and ordered, “hidden from prying eyes,” to begin work, and the Admiralty Collegiums to promote Nikonov to “master of hidden ships.” First, a model was built that successfully stayed afloat, sank and moved underwater. In August 1720, in St. Petersburg at the Galerny Dvor, the world's first submarine was secretly laid down without unnecessary publicity.

What was Nikonov's submarine like? Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to find its drawings, but some indirect information from archival documents suggests that it had a wooden body about 6 m long and about 2 m wide, sheathed on the outside with sheets of tin. The original immersion system consisted of several tin plates with many capillary holes, which were mounted in the bottom of the boat. During the ascent, water taken into a special tank through holes in the plates was removed overboard using a piston pump. At first, Nikonov intended to arm the boat with guns, but then he decided to install an airlock chamber through which, when the ship was underwater, a diver dressed in a spacesuit (designed by the inventor himself) could emerge and, using tools, destroy the bottom of the enemy ship. Later, Nikonov retrofitted the boat with “fiery copper pipes,” information about the principle of operation of which has not reached us.

Nikonov spent several years building and rebuilding his submarine. Finally, in the autumn of 1724, in the presence of Peter I and the royal retinue, she was launched into the water, but in doing so she hit the ground and damaged the bottom. With great difficulty, the ship was pulled out of the water and Nikonov himself was saved. The tsar ordered the hull of the boat to be strengthened with iron hoops, encouraged the inventor and warned the officials so that “no one would blame him for the embarrassment.” After the death of Peter I in 1725, people stopped being interested in the “hidden” ship. Nikonov's demands for labor and materials were not met or were deliberately delayed. It is not surprising that the next test of the submarine ended unsuccessfully. In the end, the Admiralty Board decided to curtail the work, and the inventor was accused of “invalid buildings,” demoted to “simple Admiralty workers,” and in 1728 exiled to the distant Astrakhan Admiralty.

In 1773 (almost 50 years after Nikonov’s “hidden ship”) the first submarine was built in the United States, the inventor of which, David Bushnell, was dubbed by the Americans “the father of scuba diving.” The hull of the boat was a shell made of oak planks, fastened with iron hoops and caulked with tarred hemp. At the top of the hull there was a small copper turret with a sealed hatch and portholes, through which the commander, who combined the entire crew in one person, could observe the situation. In appearance, the boat resembled a turtle shell, which is reflected in its name. At the bottom of the Turtle there was a ballast tank, when filled, it sank. During the ascent, water was pumped out of the tank using a pump. In addition, emergency ballast was provided - a lead weight, which, if necessary, can be easily detached from the hull. The boat was moved and controlled along the course using oars. The weapon was a powder mine with a clock mechanism (attached to the hull of an enemy ship using a drill).

D. Bushnell's submarine: a - front view; b - side view

In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the Turtle was used in action. The target of the attack was the English 64-gun frigate Eagle. But the attack failed. To protect against fouling, the bottom of the frigate turned out to be covered with copper sheets, against which the drill was powerless.

Nautilus and others

At the end of the 18th century. The ranks of submarine inventors were joined by Robert Fulton, who later became famous for creating the world's first steamship, a native of America, the son of a poor Irish emigrant. The young man, who was interested in painting, went to England, where he soon took up shipbuilding, to which he devoted his future life. To succeed in such a complex undertaking, serious engineering knowledge was needed, to acquire which Fulton went to France.

The young shipbuilder made several interesting proposals in the field of underwater weapons. With the maximalism characteristic of his youth, he wrote: “Warships, in my opinion, are the remnants of outdated military habits, a political disease for which no remedy has yet been found; my firm conviction is that these habits must be eradicated and the most effective means for this is underwater mine-armed boats."

Fulton's mind was not only inquisitive, but also practical. In 1797, he turned to the government of the French Republic with a proposal: “Keeping in mind the enormous importance of reducing the power of the British fleet, I was thinking about building a mechanical Nautilus - a machine that gives me a lot of hope for the possibility of destroying their fleet...”

The proposal was rejected, but the persistent inventor obtained an audience with the first consul Napoleon Bonaparte and interested him in the idea of a submarine ship.

In 1800, Fulton built a submarine and, with two assistants, dived to a depth of 7.5 m. A year later, he launched the improved Nautilus, whose hull, 6.5 m long and 2.2 m wide, was shaped like a cigar blunted at the bow. For its time, the boat had a decent diving depth - about 30 m. In the bow there was a small pilothouse with portholes. Nautilus became the first submarine in history to have separate propulsion systems for surface and underwater travel. A manually rotated four-bladed propeller was used as an underwater propulsion device, which made it possible to reach a speed of about 1.5 knots. On the surface, the boat moved under sail at a speed of 3-4 knots. The mast for the sail was hinged. Before diving, it was quickly removed and placed in a special chute on the hull. After the mast was raised, the sail unfurled and the ship became like a nautilus shell. This is where the name Fulton gave his submarine came from, and 70 years later borrowed by Jules Verne for the fantastic ship of Captain Nemo.

An innovation was a horizontal rudder, with the help of which the boat had to be kept at a given depth when moving underwater. Immersion and ascent were carried out by filling and draining the ballast tank. The Nautilus was armed with a mine, which consisted of two copper barrels of gunpowder connected by an elastic bridge. The mine was towed on a cable, brought under the bottom of the enemy ship and exploded using an electric current.

The ship's combat capability was tested at the Brest roadstead, where the old sloop was taken out and anchored. Nautilus came to the raid under sail. Having removed the mast, the boat sank 200 m from the sloop, and a few minutes later an explosion occurred and a column of water and debris shot up in the place of the sloop.

True, shortcomings also emerged, the most significant of which was the low efficiency of the horizontal rudder due to the very low speed in the submerged position, and therefore the boat was poorly maintained at a given depth. To eliminate this drawback, Fulton used a screw on the vertical axis.

The inventor abandoned the combat use of the Nautilus due to the fact that the French Minister of the Navy did not satisfy his demand to assign military ranks to the crew members of the boat, without which the British, if captured, would hang them as pirates. The minister formulated the reason for the refusal in a style characteristic of the professional conservatism of sailing admirals: “People who use such a barbaric means to destroy the enemy cannot be considered in military service.” In such a formulation, it is difficult to draw the line between chivalry and a lack of understanding of the merits of the new weapon.

Fulton headed to England, where he was warmly received by Prime Minister W. Pitt. Successful experiments with ship explosions did not so much inspire as they confused the British Admiralty. After all, the “mistress of the seas” at that time had the most powerful fleet in the world, since in her maritime policy she was guided by the principle of the double superiority of her fleet over the fleet of the next most powerful naval power. Fulton said that after another demonstration of the combat capabilities of a submarine, when the brig Dorothea was blown up, one of the most authoritative sailors of the English fleet, Lord Jervis, said: “Pitt is the greatest fool in the world, encouraging a method of warfare that gives nothing to a people who already have supremacy at sea and which, if successful, can deprive him of this supremacy."

But Pitt was by no means a simpleton. On his initiative, the Admiralty offered Fulton a lifelong pension with the condition... to forget about his invention. Fulton indignantly rejected the offer and returned to his homeland in America, where he built the first paddle steamer suitable for practical use, the Claremont, which immortalized his name.

In the first half of the 19th century. there was no shortage of attempts to create a submarine. The submarines, which turned out to be unsuccessful, were built by the French Maugery, Caster, Jean Petit and the Spaniard Severi, the latter two died during testing.

The original design of the submarine was developed in 1829 in Russia by Kazimir Chernovsky, who was imprisoned in Shlisselburgskaya. fortresses As a propulsion device, he proposed blade rods - pushers, when pulled into the ship, the blades folded, and when extended, they opened like umbrellas with emphasis on the water. But despite a number of bold technical solutions, the War Ministry was not interested in the project, since the inventor was a political criminal.

A noticeable mark in underwater shipbuilding was left by an active participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, the famous Russian engineer Adjutant General Karl Andreevich Schilder. He was the author of a number of projects and improvements. In the 30s of the 19th century. Schilder developed an electrical method for controlling underwater mines, successful experiments with which gave him the idea of a submarine.

In 1834, in St. Petersburg, at the Aleksandrovsky Foundry (now the Proletarsky Plant association), a submarine with a displacement of about 16 tons was built according to Schilder’s design, which is considered to be the first-born of the Russian submarine fleet and the world’s first metal submarine. Its body, 6 m long, 2.3 m wide and about 2 m high, was made of five-millimeter boiler iron. The propulsion system used were paddles made like the paws of waterfowl and located in pairs on each side. When moving forward, the strokes folded, and when moving backward, they opened, providing support. Each stroke was driven by swinging the drive handle from inside the ship. The design of the drive made it possible, by changing the angle of the swing of the strokes, not only to ensure the linear movement of the boat, but also to ascent or submerge it. The innovation was the “optical tube” - the prototype of the modern periscope, which Schilder designed using the idea of \u200b\u200bthe “horizontoscope” by M.V. Lomonosov.

The boat was armed with an electric mine designed to operate at a close distance from enemy ships, as well as missiles, which were launched from two three-pipe missile launchers located on the side. The rockets were ignited by electric fuses, the current to which was supplied from galvanic cells. The boat could fire salvo missiles from surface and submerged positions. This was the first missile weapon in the history of shipbuilding, which in our time has become the main one in the strategy and tactics of war at sea.

Schilder's submarine with a crew of eight led by midshipman Shmelev set out for testing on August 29, 1834. The first underwater voyage in Russian history began. The boat maneuvered under. water and stopped submerged using an anchor of an original design. The missile launchers were successfully tested. Schilder is allocated additional funds and develops a project for a new submarine. Its hull was also made of iron and had a regular cylindrical shape with a pointed bow ending in a long bowsprit and a metal harpoon with a suspended mine inserted into it. Having thrust a harpoon into the side of the enemy ship, the boat reversed to a safe distance. The mine exploded with an electric fuse, the current to which was supplied from a galvanic element through a wire. Tests of the submarine ended at the Kronstadt roadstead on July 24, 1838 with a demonstration of the explosion of the target vessel.

Schilder's submarines had a very significant drawback: their speed did not exceed 0.3 knots. The inventor understood that such a low speed was unacceptable for a warship, but he was also aware that using a “muscular” engine would not be able to increase the speed of the submarines he created.

Unfulfilled hope

In 1836, Russian academician Boris Semenovich Jacobi created the world's first electric boat with paddle wheels, which were rotated by an electric motor powered by a battery of galvanic cells. The commission that conducted the tests, noting the enormous importance of the invention, but drew attention to the very low speed of the vessel - less than 1.5 knots. The idea of an electric ship was jeopardized. Members of the commission came to Jacobi's aid - engineer Lieutenant General A.A. Sablukov and shipbuilder Staff Captain S.O. Burachek, who argued that the problem is not in electric propulsion, but in the low efficiency of the wheel propulsion. At a meeting of the commission, Burachek, supported by Sablukov, proposed replacing the paddle wheels on the electric ship with a water-jet propulsion device, which he called a “through water flow.” The commission members approved the proposal, but it was never implemented.

A water jet, like a paddle wheel and a propeller, is a jet propulsion device. The working body of the water cannon (pump, propeller) imparts high speed to the water, with which it is thrown into the stern through the nozzle in the form of a jet stream and creates a thrust that moves the ship.

The first patent for a water-jet propulsion device was received in 1661 by the Englishmen Toogood and Hayes, but the invention remained on paper. In 1722, their compatriot Allen proposed “to use water for the movement of ships, which would be thrown from the stern with a certain force through a mechanism.” But where could one get such a mechanism at that time? In the 1830s, while in exile, the Decembrist sailor M.A. drew attention to the water-jet propulsion system. Bestuzhev and even developed an original design...

Having failed to convert the Jacobi electric ship to a water-jet propulsion system, A.A. Sablukov, who took an active part in testing Schilder’s submarines, proposed, in order to increase the speed, to equip his second boat with a water-jet propulsion device of his own design, which consisted of two receiving and draining channels inside the boat’s hull with a centrifugal pump in the form of a horizontally located impeller driven by a steam engine. Schilder accepted the offer, and by the autumn of 1840 the boat was re-equipped. But due to a lack of funds, the mechanical drive of the pump had to be abandoned, replacing it with a manual one.

Tests of the world's first water-jet submarine were carried out in Kronstadt and ended in failure. The speed of the boat did not increase, and it could not have been otherwise when the pump was rotated manually. However, the Chief of the Main Naval Staff, Admiral A.S., who was present at the tests. Menshikov did not even want to hear about further work on finishing the ship. The Maritime Department stopped subsidizing the work. Not finding support in the highest spheres of the fleet, knowing about the ridicule of the courtiers, who nicknamed him “eccentric general” for his numerous projects that were ahead of his time, K.A. Schilder stopped technical research in the field of naval weapons and devoted himself entirely to his career in the engineering forces, which he headed towards the end of his life.

One of the diving enthusiasts, Bavarian Wilhelm Bauer, and two assistants, on February 1, 1851, tested the first Brandtaucher submarine in Kiel harbor with a displacement of 38.5 tons, driven by a manually rotated propeller. The tests almost ended in disaster. At a depth of 18 m, the boat was crushed, and the crew escaped through the side neck with great difficulty. Both companions were forever cured of even the thought of scuba diving, but not Bauer himself, who had not yet created a more or less suitable boat, predicted with pathos: “...Monitors, battleships, etc. are now only the funeral horns of an obsolete fleet.”

Everything turned out to be much more complicated, which the inventor apparently thought about more than once while getting out of the sunken Brandtaucher, but Bauer was persistent. After the Bavarian government refused to build a new submarine, he offered his services to Austria, England and the USA, but did not meet with support there either. And only the Russian government, concerned about the technical backwardness of the fleet that emerged during the Crimean War, reacted favorably to the Bavarian’s proposal, concluding a contract with him in 1885 for the construction of a submarine. Four months later the ship was built, but Bauer avoided demonstrating its combat qualities, although there was a practically unlimited opportunity to attack the Anglo-French fleet blockading Kronstadt. Moreover, he achieved the postponement of the tests to the spring of 1856, that is, to the time when hostilities ceased. The reason for the delay became clear when the tests began. The submarine covered about 25 meters in 17 minutes and... stopped due to “complete exhaustion of the people driving the propeller.” Later she sank, and Bauer’s next proposal to build an underwater corvette for the Russian fleet was decisively rejected. Returning to his homeland, Bauer continued his inventive activities, but, like his predecessors, he never created a suitable submarine.

Steam and air

The low-power “muscular” engine stood as an insurmountable barrier to the inventors of submarines. And although at the end of the 18th century. Glasgow mechanic James Watt invented the steam engine; its use on a submarine was delayed for many years due to a number of problems, the main one being the supply of air for combustion of fuel in the furnace of a steam boiler when the boat was submerged. The main one, but not the only one. Thus, when the machine was operating, fuel was consumed and, accordingly, the mass of the submarine changed, but it must always be ready to dive. The crew's stay in the boat was hampered by heat generation and toxic gases.

The design of a submarine with a steam engine was first developed by the French revolutionary Armand Mézières in 1795, but such a ship was built only 50 years later in 1846 by his compatriot Dr. Prosper Peyern. In the original power plant of the boat, called Hydrostat, steam was supplied to the machine from a boiler, in a hermetically sealed firebox in which specially prepared fuel was burned - compressed briquettes of a mixture of nitrate and coal, which released the necessary oxygen when burned. At the same time, water was supplied to the firebox. Water vapor and fuel combustion products were sent to the steam engine, from where, having completed the work, they were discharged overboard through a non-return valve. Everything seemed fine. But in the presence of moisture, nitric acid was formed from nitrate (nitric oxide) - a very aggressive compound that destroyed the metal parts of the boiler and machine. In addition, controlling the combustion process with the simultaneous supply of water to the firebox turned out to be very difficult, and the removal of the vapor-gas mixture at depth overboard was an intractable problem. In addition, the bubbles of the mixture did not dissolve in the sea water and unmasked the submarine.

Peyern's failure did not deter his followers. Already in 1851, the American Philippe Laudner built a submarine with a steam engine power plant. But the inventor did not have time to finish the job. During one of the dives on Lake Erie, the boat exceeded the permissible depth and was crushed, burying the crew along with Philipps at the bottom of the lake.

Faced with the problem of using a steam engine in a submarine, some inventors took the path of creating structures that occupy an intermediate position between a submarine and a surface ship. Such semi-submarines with a hermetically sealed hull and a pipe rising above it could be located at a depth limited by the height of the pipe, in which two channels were located - for the supply of atmospheric air to the boiler firebox and for the removal of combustion products. A similar submarine was built in 1855 by the inventor of the steam hammer, the Englishman James Nesmith, but due to a number of major shortcomings it turned out to be unsuitable for use.

Many original submarine projects were received by the Russian Naval Ministry during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, when patriotic enthusiasm served as an impetus for the creative initiative of specialists in many areas of military technology. In 1855, fleet mechanical engineer N.N. Spiridonov presented to the Marine Scientific Committee a design for a submarine with a crew of 60 people, equipped with a water-jet propulsion unit, the piston pumps of which were driven by compressed air. Air to the two pneumatic motors was to be supplied through a hose from an air pump installed on the surface escort vessel. The project was considered difficult to implement and ineffective.

In an attempt to solve the problem of an underwater engine using compressed air, the talented Russian inventor Ivan Fedorovich Aleksandrovsky turned out to be more successful. In June 1863, in the boathouse of the St. Petersburg Carr and McPherson plant (now the Baltic shipyard named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze), the usual activity was observed that accompanied the laying of the ship, but it was noteworthy that a guard was posted at the entrance to the boathouse, blocking access to it to outsiders. By autumn, a strange ship, unlike any of the many built by the plant, already stood there. The spindle-like hull had neither deck nor masts. This was the second submarine designed by I. F. Aleksandrovsky. The first one was not built...

Ivan Fedorovich Alexandrovsky

In his youth, Aleksandrovsky was interested in painting and was not unsuccessful. In 1837, the Academy of Arts awarded him the title of “non-class artist” and Aleksandrovsky began his independent working life as a teacher of drawing and drawing at the gymnasium. Meanwhile, the young artist was irresistibly drawn to the technical sciences and, with his characteristic tenacity, independently acquired knowledge, especially in the field of colloid chemistry, optics and mechanics.

In the middle of the 19th century. In Europe, the newly emerging photography became fashionable, and Aleksandrovsky became interested in the new business. In the early 50s, he finally left teaching and opened a photo studio. From now on, his business card read: Ivan Fedorovich Aleksandrovsky, artist-photographer, own studio, St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect, 22, apt. 45. Deep knowledge not only in the field of photography, but also in related chemistry and optics allowed Aleksandrovsky to achieve great success in his new business and made his photo studio the best in the capital, which turned into a very profitable enterprise. But this man did not live by bread alone. Aleksandrovsky continues to study science and is interested in various fields of technology and especially shipbuilding. The turning point in his fate came in 1853, when in the summer, shortly before the start of the Crimean War, Aleksandrovsky visited London on business at his photographic studio, where he not only saw an armada of formidable steam ships, but also heard more than once that the squadron being prepared was intended to sail to the shores of the Crimea in order to " teach the Russians a lesson." Knowing the low technical level of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which consisted mainly of sailing ships, Ivan Fedorovich could not remain indifferent and decided to create a submarine.

The project was almost completed when Aleksandrovsky learned that the construction of the previously mentioned Bauer submarine had begun under a contract with the Russian Navy Ministry. Despite the efforts and resources expended by this time, Aleksandrovsky is developing a new project for an original submarine with engines running on compressed air, for which he involves in the project a prominent specialist in the field of pneumatic engines S.I. Baranovsky.

In 1862, the Marine Scientific Committee approved the project, and in 1863 the ship was laid down.

The submarine with a displacement of 352/362 tons was equipped with a single two-shaft power plant for surface and underwater travel, consisting of two pneumatic engines with a power of 117 hp. With. each with a drive to its own propeller. The supply of air, compressed to a pressure of 60-100 kg/cm2, was stored in 200 cylinders with a capacity of about 6 m3, which were thick-walled steel pipes with a diameter of 60 mm, and according to the inventor’s calculations, it was supposed to ensure the boat floats underwater at a speed of 6 knots for 3 h. To replenish the supply of compressed air, a high-pressure compressor was provided on the boat. The air exhausted in the pneumatic engines was partially supplied to the boat for the crew members to breathe, and partially removed overboard through a pipe with a non-return valve that prevented water from entering the engines if they were stopped when the boat was submerged.

In addition to the original power plant, Aleksandrovsky implemented a number of other progressive technical solutions in the project. Particularly noteworthy is the first use of blowing water ballast with compressed air for ascent, which has been used to this day for more than a hundred years on submarines of all countries. In general, this happens as follows.

To fill the ballast tank with sea water, there are seacocks, or simply holes, in its lower part, and ventilation valves in the upper part. With the seacocks and ventilation valves open, air from the tank freely escapes into the atmosphere, seawater fills the tank and the submarine submerges. When ascending, compressed air is supplied to the ballast tanks with the ventilation valves closed, which squeezes water out of the tank through the open seacocks.

The weapons on Aleksandrovsky's submarine were two buoyant mines connected to each other by an elastic bridge. The mines were placed outside the boat's hull. Being fired from inside the boat, the mines floated up and covered the bottom of the enemy ship on both sides. The explosion was carried out by electric current from a battery of galvanic cells after the boat moved to a safe distance from the target of attack.

In the summer of 1866, the submarine was transferred to Kronstadt for testing. Due to the shortcomings identified during their course, it was tested for several years, during which significant changes were made to the design. But some shortcomings could not be eliminated. The speed of the boat in a submerged position did not exceed 1.5 knots, and the cruising range was about 3 miles. At such a low speed, horizontal rudders turned out to be ineffective. All submarines of that time, equipped with horizontal rudders, starting with the Nautilus, had this drawback (horizontal rudders, the effectiveness of which is approximately proportional to the square of the speed, did not ensure that the boat was kept at a given depth).

Aleksandrovsky’s submarine was accepted into the treasury and enrolled in the mine detachment. However, a decision was made that it was unsuitable for military purposes and that it was inappropriate to carry out further work to eliminate the shortcomings. If one can agree with the first part of the decision, then the second was controversial, and one can understand the inventor who, recalling the indifference to his ship of the Navy Ministry, wrote with bitterness: “To my extreme regret, I must say that since then I have not only “I did not meet with the sympathy and support of the Navy Ministry, but even all work to fix the boat was completely stopped.”

David crushes Goliath

Meanwhile, fundamental research by S.I. Baranovsky in the field of practical use of compressed air for power plants did not go unnoticed abroad. In 1862, in France, according to the project of Captain 1st Rank Bourgeois and engineer Brun, the submarine "Plonger" with a displacement of 420 tons was built with a single pneumatic engine with a power of 68 hp for surface and underwater travel. s., in many ways reminiscent of Aleksandrovsky’s ship. The test results turned out to be even less favorable than those of Aleksandrovsky’s boat. Low speed, ineffective horizontal rudders, traces of air bubbles...

An engineer from Russia, Major General O.B., was present and took part in the Plonger tests. Gern, who, being interested in issues of underwater diving, designed three submarines for the order of the military engineering department. Two of them were driven by a manually rotated propeller, and the third by a gas engine. But none of the boats lived up to expectations, and Gern, using Plonger’s testing experience, developed a design for an original submarine with a displacement of about 25 tons. The ship’s power plant consisted of a two-cylinder steam engine with a capacity of 6 liters. s., receiving steam at a pressure of 30 kgf/cm2 from a boiler adapted to operate on solid and liquid fuels. When the boat was in the surface position, the machine worked on steam coming from a boiler heated with wood or charcoal, and underwater - on compressed air in the pneumatic engine mode or from the boiler, for which purpose, before diving, the firebox was sealed and slow-burning fuel briquettes were burned in it , releasing oxygen during combustion. In addition, as a backup option, in a submerged position the boiler could be heated with turpentine, which was sprayed into the firebox with compressed air or oxygen.

For its time, the submarine O.B. Gerna was a significant step forward. Its metal spindle-shaped body was divided into three compartments by two bulkheads. The boat was equipped with an air regeneration system, consisting of a lime tank located in the hold of the middle compartment; a fan pumping air through the tank; three cylinders with oxygen periodically added to the purified air.

The submarine was built in 1867 at the Alexander Foundry in St. Petersburg. However, the tests of the ship, carried out in the Italian pond of Kronstadt, dragged on for nine years. During this time, Gern made a number of improvements. But the boat could float underwater only with a pneumatic engine, since it was not possible to seal the boiler furnace. To eliminate this and some other shortcomings, funds were required, which the military engineering department cut in every possible way.

Meanwhile, a significant event occurred in the history of diving. Before the Civil War 1861-1865. In the United States, virtually no attention was paid to submarine shipbuilding. With the start of the war, the southerners announced an open competition for the best submarine design. Of the presented projects, preference was given to the submarine of engineer Aunley, under whose leadership a series of small cylindrical iron boats with pointed ends, about 10 m long and about 2 m wide, was built. The first boat was named David after the biblical young David, who defeated the giant Goliath . Goliaths, of course, meant the surface ships of the northerners. David was armed with a pole mine with an electric fuse that exploded from inside the boat. The crew consisted of nine people, eight of whom rotated the crankshaft with the propeller. The immersion depth was maintained by horizontal rudders. In essence, these were semi-submersible ships, when moving underwater, a flat deck remained above the surface of the water.

Schematic representation of a David-class submarine

In October 1863, a boat of this series attacked a Northern battleship at anchor, but the explosion was carried out prematurely and she was lost. Four months later, the Hanley boat made a similar attempt, but from the waves of a steamer passing nearby, it tilted sharply, scooped up water and sank. The boat was raised and repaired. But evil fate pursued her. The David type boats had insufficient stability, as a result of which the Hanley, which was anchored at night, suddenly capsized. The boat was restored again. To determine the causes of accidents involving Aunley, extensive tests were carried out, during which Hunley sank again with the entire crew and the inventor. Another recovery and repair followed, after which on February 17, 1864, Hanley became the hero of an event about which it is written in the “Naval History of the Civil War”:

"On January 14, the Secretary of the Navy wrote to Vice Admiral Dahlhorn, commander of the fleet at Charleston, that, according to information he had received, the Confederates had launched a new ship capable of destroying his entire fleet ... on the night of February 17, the newly built beautiful ship Housatonic with a displacement of 1200 tons, stood at anchor in front of Charleston, was destroyed under the following circumstances: at about 8:15 in the evening, some suspicious object was seen 50 yards from the ship. It looked like a board floating towards the ship. Two minutes later, the officers were already near the ship. were warned in advance and had a description of the new “hellish” machines with information about the best way to get rid of them. The watch commander ordered the anchor ropes to be loosened, the machine to be set in motion and everyone to be called up. But, unfortunately, it was too late... One hundred pounds of gunpowder at the end. the pole was sufficient to destroy the strongest armadillo." True, the boat itself did not escape the fate of its victim. As it turned out later, Hanley did not have time to move to a safe distance and was pulled inside the battleship along with the water gushing through the hole. But David crushed Goliath. The death of Housatonic caused a stir in the naval departments of different countries and drew attention to weapons, which until recently were not taken seriously by many.

Under the enemy ship, use a drill to attach a mine to its bottom, and then set the clock mechanism into action and retreat to a safe distance. In domestic and foreign books on the history of the development of scuba diving, images of a Buchnel boat with two types of propulsors are usually given. Let's look at these drawings in more detail. In the top drawing (probably from an original drawing) roughly...

Lieutenant Beklemishev. They were allowed to settle in the Experimental Shipbuilding Basin, where they developed the project for “destroyer No. 113” - this was the first name of the submarine “Dolphin” (the class of submarines did not yet exist in the Russian fleet). On May 3, 1901, the commission in the above-mentioned composition presented the project they had developed to the chief inspector of shipbuilding. In July 1901...

The concept of a ship capable of submerging underwater for a period of time goes back centuries. Nowadays, it is no longer possible to separate historical facts from myths and find out who was the original author of this idea. They are primarily used for military purposes and form the basis of the fleets of many countries. This is due to the main characteristic of submarines - stealth and, as a result, invisibility for the enemy. The ability to launch surprise attacks on enemy ships made submarines an indispensable component of the armed forces of all maritime powers.

Early theoretical developments

The first relatively reliable mentions of ships capable of submersion date back to the 16th century. British mathematician William Bourne outlined a plan for creating such a vessel in his book entitled Inventions and Devices. Scottish scientist John Napier wrote about the idea of using submarines to sink enemy ships. However, history has not preserved any information about the implementation of these early theoretical developments in practice.

Full size models

The first submarine to be successfully tested was designed in the early 17th century by Cornelius van Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of King James the First of England. His ship was propelled by oars. In tests on the River Thames, the Dutch inventor demonstrated to the British monarch and thousands of Londoners the boat's ability to submerge under water, remain there for several hours and then float safely to the surface. Drebbel's creation made a deep impression on his contemporaries, but did not arouse interest from the English Admiralty. The first submarine was never used for military purposes.

The development of science and industry in the 18th century did not have a noticeable impact on the success of attempts to build and use submarines. Russian Emperor Peter I actively promoted the work of self-taught inventor Efim Nikonov to create the first submarine. According to modern researchers, the ship, built in 1721, from the point of view of technical solutions, was indeed a prototype of a submarine. However, most of the tests carried out on the Neva ended unsuccessfully. After the death of Peter the Great, the model of the first submarine was forgotten. In other countries, throughout the 18th century, there was also little progress in the design and construction of ships intended for diving into the depths of the sea.

Examples of application in the 19th century

The first case of a submarine successfully sinking an enemy ship was recorded during the Civil War in the United States of America. The rowing submarine Hunley, named after its designer, was in service with the Confederate army. It was not very reliable. This was evidenced by the results of several unsuccessful tests, accompanied by human casualties. Among the dead was the designer of the submarine, Horace Lawson Hanley. In 1864, a Confederate submarine attacked the enemy sloop Housatonic, whose displacement exceeded a thousand tons. The enemy ship sank as a result of the explosion of a mine attached to a special pole in the bow of the Hunley. This battle was the first and last for the boat. Due to technical problems, she sank a few minutes after the attack.

World War I

Mass production and use of submarines in the world began only at the dawn of the 20th century. Submarines had a serious impact on the course of the First World War. German boats showed their effectiveness in the fight against enemy ships, and were also used to attack trade convoys in order to establish an economic blockade. The use of submarines against civilian ships caused a wave of indignation and contempt on the part of Great Britain and its allies. Nevertheless, the German submarine blockade tactics turned out to be extremely effective and caused significant damage to the enemy’s economy. The most egregious example of this method of warfare was the destruction of the transatlantic passenger liner Lusitania by a torpedo fired from a German submarine.

The Second World War

The role of submarines increasingly increased as global conflicts of the 20th century developed. During World War II, Germany's strategy did not undergo significant changes: its submarines were primarily used to cut off enemy sea supply routes. The German submarine fleet represented one of the most serious problems for the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Before the United States entered the war, Great Britain was in a critical situation due to the blockade. Numerous American warships reduced to some extent the effectiveness of German submarines.

Post-war period

The second half of the 20th century was marked by a number of revolutionary technological breakthroughs. The discovery of atomic energy and the creation of a jet engine were extremely useful for submarines. Submarines have become carriers of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The first test launch was made in 1953. Nuclear reactors have partially replaced traditional diesel-electric generators. Equipment was invented to extract oxygen from sea water. These innovations have increased the autonomy of submarines to incredible levels. Modern boats can remain submerged for weeks or months. But new technologies have also created additional dangers, primarily associated with radiation leaks when using nuclear reactors.

During the so-called Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States competed to build large submarines. The submarines of the two superpowers were involved in a kind of game of cat and mouse in the vastness of the World Ocean.

Best submarine

Identifying the absolute leader among submarines is fraught with certain difficulties. They lie in the fact that the global list of submarines is extremely diverse. The wide range of qualities and characteristics of ships does not allow us to establish a single evaluation criterion. For example, it is very difficult to compare nuclear and diesel-electric submarines. With some degree of convention, we can highlight the Soviet heavy missile submarine cruiser "Akula" (according to NATO codification - "Typhoon"). It is the largest submarine in the history of navigation. According to some experts, the creation of such a powerful vessel played a significant role in ending the Cold War.

The American television channel Discovery tried to rank submarines with special characteristics:

"Nautilus" (the world's first nuclear-powered ship).
"Ohio" (Trident missile carrier).
"Los Angeles" (designed for hunting submarines).
"Pike-M" (Soviet multi-purpose boat).
"Lyra" (underwater interceptor).
"George Washington" (nuclear missile carrier).
"Elusive Mike" (a boat inaccessible to acoustic detection).
"Goldfish" (absolute world speed record).
"Typhoon" (the largest submarine).
"Virginia" (one of the most protected from detection boats).

Since ancient times, man has dreamed of conquering the air and the sea. People have been sailing along the waves of the surface of the waters since ancient times: the Vikings, the Homeric fleet, the Phoenicians, Polynesians, and the aborigines of Easter Island. According to modern scientists, the latter carried out expeditions that have not been surpassed in length and duration in almost a thousand years.

The sea submitted to man, and the underwater ocean waited. But for the appearance of submarines, a certain level of human development was needed.

Submarines from antiquity to the present day

Ancient authors talk about underwater work as a matter of course. This is evidenced by Aristotle's famous message about... an elephant! The elephant, it turns out, was a much greater curiosity to the ancient European naturalist than a submariner!

Rhetoric demanded “to describe the incomprehensible through the familiar,” and Aristotle explains the trunk of an unknown elephant through the terminology of submariners: “an elephant crosses a river under water thanks to its trunk raised above the surface, through which air flows, like to a diver.”

This means that underwater work was something commonplace for the ancients. They were less amazing than the elephant. Probably, many documents were lost, otherwise the researchers had to rack their brains less, for example, about what kind of “special forces” were able to saw through the “anti-ship” underwater fence made of thick logs during the war between Athens and Syracuse (even before Archimedes).

Sawing under the surface of the sea is not lifting shells with pearls, the work is hard, you can’t do without air supply.

Data have been preserved about a giant inverted glass box in which Alexander the Great explored the bottom. This “project” can be considered a prototype of a bathyscaphe or submarine of antiquity.

In the records of this fact there is mention that the Macedonian bell was illuminated from the inside. There was no electricity; lighting was only possible with torches, oil lamps or candles. This means that the Great Alexander himself viciously shortened the time he spent at the bottom for the sake of “show-off,” without taking into account the fact that the combustion reaction would reduce oxygen reserves.

When did the first submarines appear?

There is vague evidence of an extant 1190 epic, Salman and Morolf, in which the protagonist traveled underwater in a longship submarine with a tightly sealed waterproof leather deck. But the first reliable information about the continuation of man’s assault on the underwater world dates back to the beginning of the 16th century.

The genius and patronage of the Popes (especially Borgia) allowed Leonardo da Vinci to invent new things and improve the old.

The mechanisms, the diagrams of which he found in the papal archives, may not have been implemented, but they gave flight to the creative thought of a genius. The first reliable drawing of a muscle-powered submarine belongs to the great Leonardo.

After him, the history of the development of human assault on the depths accelerates:

1538 ─ maritime superpower Spain tests an underwater bell under Emperor Charles V;
1620 (approximately) ─ mechanic Cornelius Drebbel with King James I conduct the first launch of a rowing submarine with a crew of 15 people;
1716 ─ space explorer Halley invents the supply of oxygen to a diving bell.

His invention was later improved by a pump system. The emergence of a relatively autonomous combat submarine seemed about to take place.

First combat submarine

But a century and a half passed, full of failures (Nikonov’s failed project in 1720) and tragedies (the sinking of the Englishman Day’s submarine with its inventor in 1770) before another war again pushed human thought to the creation of submarines.

1776: American David Bushnell invented his famous turtle submarine, and his companion Ezra Lee launched the world's first attempt at an underwater mine attack on an enemy (English) fleet in New York Harbor. The submarine failed to cope with its combat mission, but it was in the “Turtle” that the main technological foundations that were developed in the designs of the future were laid:

conning tower;
ballast tank;
screw engine at the stern;
pressure gauge to determine the submersion depth of a submarine.

In addition to inventing the submarine, Bushnell made another discovery: he proved that gunpowder could explode even under water. Due to the weakness of the powder charge ─ real mines required more powerful explosives ─ the first “mine war” ended in the defeat of the submarines.

After the loss of the first submarine, underwater attacks by the stubborn Bushnell's men (the designer himself did not take risks) continued until 1778. The mines from the first submarine could not do anything to the copper plating of wooden ships, and their accuracy was poor. As a result, the “Turtle” managed to accidentally (instead of a frigate) sink a barge.

Immediately after Bushnell, a submarine with air tanks with two propellers (for horizontal and vertical movement) is being designed in France.

For the first time, provision was made for an air supply on board. Contemporaries assessed the design as “too complex” (although the propellers were rotated by the muscular strength of the crew) and the project did not take place.

1800 ─ Fulton creates an all-metal (copper-hulled) Nautilus;
1810 ─ muscle-powered submarine from the Kössan brothers;
1834 ─ design of a submarine by General Schilder, armed with a mortar (information has not survived);
1860s ─ projects by Alexandrov, Spiridonov, type of propulsion ─ “jet”, due to the ejection of compressed air from gas tanks placed on board;
1861 ─ American Frenchman Villeroy builds the underwater “cigar ship” Alligator in Philadelphia. The design served as the prototype for the Confederate submarine HorusHunley, who added ballast tanks to the design as in Bushnell's design;
1864 ─ the first successful combat use of a submarine: Confederate Lieutenant Dixon, using a mine attached on a pole to the bow of the Hunley-Villeroy submarine, sinks the flagship of the Yankee squadron blockading Charleston. The submarine dies along with its crew;
1879 ─ the world's first project of an electric underwater vessel designed by S. Dzhavetsky with batteries.

Chronologically, the first combat submarine was the “Turtle,” and according to the actual result, the “Alligator” by Confederate Lieutenant Dixon, designed by H. Hanley.

Since the beginning of the First World War, submarines have become a formidable weapon for the warring parties. The submarine fleet developed particularly rapidly during World War II and at the height of the Cold War.

With the advent of nuclear reactors, the autonomy of submarines increases many times over. In one of V. Vysotsky’s songs there are the words: “we can not care about the weather for a year.” In the sense that a submarine may not surface for a year. The power of weapons is also increasing, turning submarines into a powerful instrument of nuclear apocalypse.

Main design features of a modern submarine

Since Fulton's time, submarine hulls have been built all-metal. Today, submarines are usually designed with a double hull. Interesting fact: the most modern American single-hull submarines “X-Craft” exploit the design ideas of S. Dzhevetsky. But most submarines have two hulls:

“robust” hull, capable of withstanding enormous outboard pressure;
a “light” water-permeable hull that forms the optimal “aerodynamic” qualities of an underwater vessel (submariners use the term “streamlining”).

Alloy steel is used to make durable cases in all countries. In the Soviet Union, these cases were made of titanium. This metal, in addition to increased (compared to steel) strength, had greater magnetic permeability. Titanium submarines are more difficult to detect using one of the main types of search: magnetometric. Titanium nuclear submarines set records for diving depth.

Unfortunately, it turned out that titanium loses strength when hot welded. The project of titanium hulls for nuclear submarines was postponed for a while.

Under Yeltsin, the St. Petersburg VNIIESO (under the minimal guidance of the Kyiv Patton Welding Institute) completed the work on its own in the laboratory of S. Kartavy and D. Kulagin, solely on sheer enthusiasm (in 1992-1997, VNIIESO survived without funding) created a device for cold welding of titanium plates.

Unfortunately, according to the fashion of the times, the invention was bought by the sponsoring trading company, which did not allow the scientists to die of hunger. The fate of the device is unknown to the authors of the article today, although S. Kartavoy’s laboratory continues work.

On a single-hull submarine, everything except the superstructure and deckhouse fencing, even the ballast tanks, is covered with a durable hull.

In double-hulled nuclear submarines, part of the ballast tanks was previously located between the strong and light hulls, but due to a number of disasters, the main ballast tanks (main ballast tanks) are now completely protected by a solid hull.

There are multi-hull types of submarines: the Dutch Dolphin has three, and the Soviet-Russian Project 941 has two durable hulls.

In addition to titanium and alloy steel, promising hull materials ─ especially for small submarines ─ are composite materials:

fiberglass;
carbon fiber.

Ultra-small underwater vessels with modern engines and hulls made of composites are stealth submarines, since their detection by acoustic or magnetometric methods is very difficult.

Submarine engines

When you hear the words “modern submarine,” you often think of a mighty nuclear submarine with a nuclear reactor. In practice, the largest number of submarines are diesel.

A nuclear reactor and diesel for a submarine have their drawbacks.

They require quite a lot of space, which is critical for a submarine. A diesel submarine must surface daily, usually at night, for stealth. A generator is attached to the diesel engine, which replenishes the batteries discharged during the day's journey with electricity.

The nuclear reactor heats the water, the water turns into steam, which goes to the steam generator. It already rotates the water jet or propeller, as well as the electric generator to provide energy to the boat. But the thermal footprint is huge. Therefore, modern thermal imagers can easily detect a submarine, especially at shallow depths.

Therefore, the future lies in the development of submarines with the latest “alternative” types of engines. They are not as noisy as diesel engines and take up less space on the submarine. For example, the latest submarines of Sweden and Japan (Gotland type, Soryu type) are equipped with a Stirling engine, and almost all German nuclear submarines (U-212 type) are equipped with a hydrogen engine. Israel, Korea, and Italy are now arming themselves with submarines of this type.

The American development of solid oxide engines for submarines, which began in 2006, is interesting.

The Japanese are also experimenting with new types of energy for submarine engines.

underwater air

Compressed air is second in importance after the power plant on a submarine. They blow through ballast water tanks and fire torpedoes. It is the air reserves on the submarine that limit the time of movement underwater.

On submarines, air is contained in three systems:

main, high pressure (HPP) ─ under pressure from 193 to 400 atmospheres;
medium pressure (in the region from 30 to 6 atmospheres);
low pressure (less than 6 atmospheres).

So far, submarines are not able to exist without reserves of air compressed under high pressure. Modern submarines have systems for producing air from sea water, but they are not so advanced as to completely replace VVD reserves. Supplies can be replenished upon surfacing, but then the submarine’s stealth mode is disrupted.

Therefore, strict control is carried out on airborne reserves on board the submarine, rationing and air circulation. The oxygen balance inside the boat is restored by special devices. It is estimated that at the end of a modern nuclear submarine's voyage, submariners breathe air that has been reduced more than 150 times. Special attention is paid to the air regeneration system on submarines; the technology there is almost cosmic.

Diving and surfacing of modern submarines

Starting with the “Turtle” (with inevitable deviations in design ideas in one direction or another), the submersion and ascent of submarines is carried out using tanks with ballast. The TsGB are located at the stern, bow and middle of the submarine. Additional tanks are placed in a lightweight hull and are used, as a rule, to eliminate trim and roll of the vessel.

When submerging a submarine, the end tanks are first filled with ballast (sea water), then, after checking for leaks, the tanks in the middle group are filled.

When ascending, the central air circulation tanks located in the middle of the body are blown with compressed air from the high-pressure air pressure systems first. Buoyancy increases and the boat floats.

In addition to the CGB systems, the submarine is helped to maintain stability by:

auxiliary ballast tanks (to eliminate trim);
torpedo tanks (where water is drained from the launcher after a shot to avoid the “dance” of the submarine);
annular gap tanks.

Despite this complex system of trim systems, even a modern nuclear submarine can behave unpredictably after a salvo.

Enemy surveillance and detection system on a submarine

The submarine's ability to carry out combat orders covertly from enemy anti-submarine defense forces is its main weapon. Despite the new types of hulls, new engines remain the main methods of detecting the enemy:

hydroacoustic;
magnetometric.

Most modern combat submarines have both acoustic and magnetometric posts.

In combat conditions, magnetometers are installed on aircraft or anti-submarine helicopters.

The main advantage of the magnetometric method is its simplicity and invisibility: like passive hydroacoustic observation, such a post is almost impossible to detect.

For modern submarines, the main combat missions are:

evasion of ground (air) anti-submarine surveillance areas;
evasion when an enemy submarine is detected (battles between submarine fleets depicted in novels are not considered a priority task for submarines).

But stealth and stealth for all detection systems remain the most important weapon of submarines.

Modern weapons

The most ancient and original weapons of submarines were mines and torpedoes. Then missiles were added to them. The types of weapons of the newest submarines are divided into:

missile ballistic;
missile (cruise missiles);
multi-purpose (missiles, mines and torpedoes in the case of small submarines, torpedoes, cruise and ballistic missiles ─ in the case of “heavy” class submarines);
torpedo;
missile and torpedo.

The military doctrines of a number of countries have emphasized the development of a fleet of attack submarines (PLAT), but today's military thought believes that a “division of labor” between different types of submarines is necessary.

Classification of submarines

The above text provides a classification of underwater combat submarines by type of weapons, number of hulls and type of propulsion; it remains to give the modern classification of submarines by tonnage and military purpose.

By tonnage, submarines are divided into:

cruising;
large;
average;
small;
ultra-small.

A separate, “highest class” of submarine should be considered the “submarine cruiser” type, the idea of which appeared in Germany during World War I (U-139). The essence of the idea was a long-term autonomous military campaign of the submarine.

The first submarine cruisers of 1917-1918, like the postal submarine Deutschland or the combat project U-139 (1918), had a range of 12 and a half thousand miles, and in addition to torpedoes they were armed with artillery.

True, the submarine made its long journey mostly on the surface.

Modern submarine cruiser

According to the classification of Russian submariners, missile nuclear submarines (submarine cruisers) are divided into:

cruisers (with cruise missiles);
heavy cruisers (with ballistic missiles that can be equipped with a nuclear warhead).

release of sabotage groups (small and midget submarines);
communication and relay of command orders anywhere in the world (large and medium diesel submarines);
reconnaissance (both direct and in the system of a common command electronic network);
destruction of enemy surface (priority) submarines;
laying minefields and obstacles (usually as part of a “curtain” of a squadron of diesel submarines);
destruction of ground targets of the hostile side (this is already the job of nuclear-powered cruisers).

In addition to the above, the submarines will be responsible for a nuclear retaliation strike.

Submarines in civilian life

In 1914, the world's first "peaceful" submarine was built - the German Loligo. Today, submarines in civil service are primarily used for scientific purposes, along with bathyscaphes. They are also used for peaceful purposes as:

transports ─ in the 90s they wanted to re-equip ALL Russian TRPKSN class submarines, but they didn’t have enough funds;
underwater communications vessels;
tourist submarines for underwater cruises (the French submarine “Auguste Picard” on Lake Geneva, the Finnish “cruise” submarine “Golden Taimen” for underwater safari in warm seas, as well as the Russian excursion project “Sadko”).

In countries where oligarchs have nothing to be ashamed of, the fleet of private submarines is growing, and ultra-small submarines made of composite materials are often used by criminal syndicates.

Video

The very first

The surviving sketch shows an oval-shaped vessel with a ram in the bow and a low deckhouse, in the middle part of which there is a hatch. It is impossible to make out other design details.

D. Bushnell's submarine: a - front view; b - side view

Nautilus and others

The proposal was rejected, but the persistent inventor obtained an audience with the first consul Napoleon Bonaparte and interested him in the idea of a submarine ship.

Nautilus by R. Fulton

Submarine K. Schilder

Unfulfilled hope

Steam and air

Ivan Fedorovich Alexandrovsky

In 1862, the Marine Scientific Committee approved the project, and in 1863 the ship was laid down.

David crushes Goliath

Schematic representation of a David-class submarine

"On January 14, the Secretary of the Navy wrote to Vice Admiral Dahlhorn, commander of the fleet at Charleston, that, according to information he had received, the Confederates had launched a new ship capable of destroying his entire fleet ... on the night of February 17, the newly built beautiful ship Housatonic with a displacement of 1200 tons, stood at anchor in front of Charleston, was destroyed under the following circumstances: at about 8:15 in the evening, some suspicious object was seen 50 yards from the ship. It looked like a board floating towards the ship. Two minutes later, the officers were already near the ship. were warned in advance and had a description of the new “hellish” machines with information about the best way to get rid of them. The watch commander ordered the anchor ropes to be loosened, the machine to be set in motion and everyone to be called up. But, unfortunately, it was too late... One hundred pounds of gunpowder at the end. the pole turned out to be sufficient to destroy the strongest armadillo." However, the boat itself did not escape the fate of its victim. As it turned out later, Hanley did not have time to move to a safe distance and was pulled inside the battleship along with the water gushing through the hole. But David crushed Goliath. The death of Housatonic caused a stir in the naval departments of different countries and drew attention to weapons, which until recently were not taken seriously by many.