March 28, 2024

Like Verne’s “Nautilus”: divers find an old submarine – the flag

New York (AFP) – A submarine built in 1907 that sank more than 75 years ago has been discovered by divers off the east coast of the United States. Professional diver Richard Simon discovered the Defender, a prototype built for the US Navy, in the mouth of the Long Island River off the coast of Old Saybrook, Connecticut (about 150 kilometers from New York City). This discovery is an important evidence of the development of submarines in the United States, decades before the first major submarine battles, the US station NBC News quoted Simon in a report on Wednesday.

The inventor of the Defender, Simon Lake, responded to a US Navy tender in 1893 and submitted several designs to build underwater vehicles, all of which were initially rejected, according to the Connecticut submarine library and museum association. . With his prototype, Lake also implemented ideas inspired by the “Nautilus,” the submarine from Jule Verne’s novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”