Ship's Library

By DAVID W. MUNNS
Assistant Editor

THE SUBMARINE: A History
by Thomas Parrish, New York, N.Y.: Viking Publishing, May 2004. 576 pp. $29.95

ISBN: 0-670-03313-8

At the outset of the Civil War, the Rev. Franklin Smith, “a Tennessee inventor as well as a preacher,” proposed a new “cigar-shaped craft that could move underwater to attack enemy ships” to combat President Abraham Lincoln’s blockade of the Confederate coast. The result was the H.L. Hunley. Its initial promise as a warship was somewhat overshadowed by the death of its namesake, Horace L. Hunley, who was lost when the submarine sank in a mishap, causing it to be known as the “peripatetic coffin.” Its resurrection and successful sinking of a warship, the USS Housatonic, the first in history by a submarine, foreshadowed the ultimate use of submarines as effective underwater mechanisms for carrying out attacks on larger vessels.

On May 17, 1897, the New York Times reported, “The little cigar-shaped vessel … may or may not play an important part in the navies of the world in the years to come.” Thomas Parrish, a renowned historian, addresses the not only important, but essential role the submarine plays in naval history and modern warfare in his latest release, The Submarine: A History.

Parrish also recognizes that the submarine has a vital role in the world’s diplomatic and political history. He traces these themes as well as recounting the careers and adventures of officers, crews and others involved with submarines. The result is an astounding compilation truly marking the significance of the evolution and recognition of perhaps the greatest asset to naval forces.

The idea of an underwater craft can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci, who “professed to have discovered the secret of remaining underwater for a ‘protracted period of time’ but refused to reveal it to anybody … ‘because of the evil nature of men who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea.’” However, his thoughts about prolonged underwater submersion were theorized, designed and ultimately constructed in the 16th through 19th centuries, yet “exerted no influence on great events.”

Inventor John P. Holland was the first to realize the dream of underwater naval warfare with the introduction of the Holland that received its historic designation, SS-1, making it “the U.S. Navy’s first commissioned submarine.” Competing with the inventive genius of Simon Lake, Holland and the U.S. Navy further developed the submarine as essential to defending the United States against the dominant forces of the British, German and French navies.

The submarine played a prominent role in the three major wars of the 20th century. The submarine was particularly crucial in the first and second world wars by extending the scope of warfare from land and water surfaces downward to greater depths. During World War I, the submarine was instrumental in combating opposing forces, and, in fact, assumed a more dominant and destructive role than the airplane.

The invention of the self-propelled torpedo by Robert Whitehead and its implementation by German Rear Adm. Alfred Tirpitz further added to the submarine’s lethality showing an additional vulnerability to the vital parts of a ship’s underbelly, which previously could only be attacked through close-in ramming techniques. On Oct. 18, 1914, three months into World War I, the British merchant ship Giltra was the first to be sunk by a submarine attack. This led to intimidation by the German Navy and subsequent retaliation from Allied forces.

The sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania demonstrated the remarkable ability of submarines to sink much larger ships and added additional foreboding to the potency of these underwater vessels. With one shot, a U-boat skipper had sunk a great ocean liner and, although he “did not yet realize [it], with his one torpedo, he had fired a shot that would truly be heard round the world — and across the Atlantic.”

The political consequences of this shot brought retaliatory unleashing of a ministerial change in Washington, D.C. President Woodrow Wilson, who previously declined involvement in the war, was now subjected to American “popular indignation” that “had burst out with such strength that ‘even the German-Americans were terror-stricken by its violence.’” The submarine was shown to be a great threat to international security and the primary catalyst for fear among the American populace.

The onslaught of World War II propagated the development of antisubmarine methodologies. With this catalyst, the Royal Navy invented a submarine detection system known as asdic, which later became universally known by its American name, sonar. “Sonar indeed represented a definite advance in the detection of hostile vessels … it could detect even an unmoving submarine, because it was active, emitting a series of pings that would bounce off an object and back to listening earphones,” Parrish states.

The Nautilus was launched in January 1954 as the first nuclear-propelled submarine. The advent of nuclear propulsion solved many technical limitations, and presented the submarine as a truly impenetrable force in naval warfare. Nuclear subs became a significant factor in Cold War conflict because of the threat they presented with their ability to travel vast distances and position themselves to launch nuclear missile strikes from afar.

The Submarine: A History is a holistic history of submarine warfare, advancement and development. Parrish makes his narrative unique by infusing the history of the submarine with a thorough analysis of its political and diplomatic effects, as well as the personal motives and actions of the crews, inventors and leaders that charted the submarine’s course throughout history. With this personal interest, Parrish eloquently unveils the complicated details surrounding the invention and evolution of this ship in a definite, readable manner that adds interest to history by charting the real-life drama and landmarks left in the wake of the submarine during the past two centuries.