31 Interesting Facts About Submarines

1. During WWII, L Ron Hubbard once led a 68 hour battle against two Japanese submarines which he claimed definitely sunk, beyond doubt. An analysis later concluded that there were never any submarines in the area. – Source

2. In WWII, weather reports were censored to prevent enemy submarines from learning about conditions. A football game in Chicago was so covered in fog that the radio announcer couldn’t see the field, but afterward he was officially thanked for never using the word fog or mentioning the weather. – Source

3. A $350m drillship built in the early ’70s by US billionaire, Howard Hughes, to collect mineral riches from the ocean floor was actually a cover for the CIA to be used to lift a lost Soviet submarine, loaded with nuclear missiles, up from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 3 miles deep. – Source

4. Only once in history has one submarine deliberately sunk another submerged submarine. – Source

5. A US nuclear submarine that sank in deep water in 1968 is still resting at the bottom of the sea at a known location. Its nuclear reactor and nuclear weapons have never been recovered. – Source

6. Pentagon freaked out in the 1980s when they realized Finland had, against their expectations, managed to build two Mir submarines capable of diving to 6000 meters. They went on to shut down the whole Finnish submarine industry by privately threatening the country with heavy sanctions. – Source

7. Since sound can travel through the water better than it can air, the potential number of decibels is greatly increased. LFA Sonar used by submarines is the loudest man-made noise, reaching 200+ decibels. Marine biologists believe that sea creatures may beach themselves to escape the noise. – Source

8. The British submarine HMS Artful can stay submerged for 25 years without having to surface for air. – Source

9. One of the checks which a British nuclear submarine makes to see whether the government is still functioning is whether BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting. – Source

10. In the 1960’s, for fear of having their submarine communication cables cut by the Soviets, the US military sent 480,000,000 copper needles into space to secure their communications infrastructure. The needles acted as a mirror for radio waves, enabling communication between distant sites. – Source

11. The UK has 4 nuclear submarines as a nuclear deterrent, each has an identical letter of last resort. These letters contain orders from the current PM should the government collapse due to nuclear attack. The PM has only four options to choose and they’re destroyed unopened upon a new PM. – Source

12. In 2009, two nuclear submarines (French and British) collided with one another in the Atlantic because they couldn’t detect one another. – Source

13. A WWI submarine washed ashore on the beach at Hastings, England. – Source

14. A Japanese submarine shelled California during WWII and the commander directed his gun to fire at a spot where he had an embarrassing fall before the war. – Source

15. In 1998, an entire North Korean submarine and her crew were lost to a single South Korean fishing net. – Source

16. Around half of the USA’s nuclear arsenal is inside of 14 submarines. – Source

17. In October of 1981, a Soviet Whiskey-class submarine ran aground on the south coast of Sweden. This incident became known as Whiskey on the rocks. – Source

18. 4 people died and 43 were captured because someone didn’t know how to operate a submarine toilet. – Source

19. There was a Soviet Submarine that sank with 34 warheads aboard. Those warheads are no longer there. – Source

20. No US Navy submarine is ever considered lost if it does not return, it is considered to be still on patrol. – Source

21. Columbian drug cartels have custom-designed fiberglass submarines to smuggle cocaine. They’re designed to carry about 4 people and are extremely hard to detect. – Source

22. The reason that most of the submarines are yellow is that yellow is one of the last few colors to be visible at great depth. – Source

23. The US Navy’s most secretive naval base is located on a remote lake in northern Idaho. This base is believed to be used to develop stealth submarine technology and some locals believe that there is an underground waterway to the Pacific ocean used for top-secret deployment. – Source

24. British naval submarines have for years flown the jolly roger to honor submarine tradition. – Source

25. When two New Zealand trawlers came across a Japanese submarine that outweighed them by more than 1000 tons, the two Kiwi trawlers kept ramming it until they beached the much larger submarine. This allowed the US to capture key Japanese codebooks. – Source

26. It takes over 1,000 years in man hours to construct a single Virginia class nuclear submarine. – Source

27. The Royal Navy’s nuclear-armed submarines run on an outdated version of Windows XP called Windows for Submarines. – Source

28. There is a small town in Australia which has a decommissioned submarine on display in a park, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ visit to the country community members knitted yellow wool squares to cover the entire submarine. – Source

29. The deep diving submarine Alvin was attacked by a swordfish at 2000 feet below the surface. It became trapped in Alvin’s skin, which was forced to quickly surface. The swordfish was then detached and eaten for dinner. – Source

30. There is a lucky cribbage board that gets passed along from the oldest submarine in the US fleet to the next once the oldest one is decommissioned. It currently resides in a submarine-launched in 1978. – Source

31. Navy members undergoing submarine escape training must yell HO HO HO as they rise to the surface to avoid collapsing their lungs from pressure change. – Source