- Do you know these fun facts about submarines?
April 11th is National Submarine Day and these fun facts will teach you more about these amazing machines!
- If you’re stationed on a submarine, you’re in the Navy.
- Submarines go under the water instead of on top.
- Subs can go as fast as 40 knots or about 46 miles per hour.
- Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel built and tested the first submarine from 1620 to 1624.
- Both the North and the South built and used submarines during the Civil War. The South’s subs were called Davids, they were steam-powered and were equipped to fire ship disabling torpedoes at the North’s ships. The Hunley was the first submarine to sink a target in the war off the coast of Charleston. This submarine was recovered by diving experts in August 2000.
- The United States and the Soviet Union maintained significant submarine fleets during the cold war. Did you know this about submarine day?
- The USSNautilus was the first nuclear-powered submarine in 1954. At the time, it was able to go faster and stay underwater longer when compared to other diesel-electric submarines that were used at the time.
- Submarines are able to navigate underwater by way of sonar. The sonar equipment sends out a sound wave that bounces off other objects underwater. This signal alerts the crew to how far away things are and what the underwater landscape is like and keeping them from hitting other things down there.
- Ballasts are what makes submarines rise and sink. They’re giant compartments that fill up with water so the more the submarine takes on water, the more the sub will sink and vice versa for rising.
- The propeller pushed the sub along in the water and the faster it spins, the faster the sub goes. What a zippy fun fact about submarine day.
- Submarines can dive thousands of feet underwater easily.
- The furthest completed dive by a submarine was 35,858 and at the time was the deepest point recorded on Earth.
- The first submarines were only able to carry 1-2 passengers where some submarines can now hold over 100 people and very comfortably!
- The first known military submarine was named the “Turtle,” held one person, and was controlled underwater independently and the first of its kind.
- Torpedoes became an important part of submarine warfare when they were developed in the 1800s.
- The book ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Seas’ was a popular science fiction book written in 1870 by French writer Jules Verne and boosted interest in submarine design. Have you read this submarine day book?
- Submarines are used in the Navy but also for exploring marine life and throughout the ocean.
- Some submarines can remain under the water for months.
- Heavy and strong metals like titanium are used to create the outer shell of a submarine in a precise build to withstand the intense force of the water pressure.
Did you know these things about submarines? Let me know in the comments!