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.”
The Defender had wheels, they could drive on the ground. It had a door that you could let divers out through,” Simon told NBC. The son of a professional diver in Connecticut, he grew up hearing tales of the submarine and eventually set off with a team to search for the potential resting place. Years of searching preceded the success in finally finding the boat, which was about 11 meters long with very low visibility.
were not in use
For the US Navy, the Defender remained an experiment, and it was never used for military purposes or mass-produced according to the project. In 1946, the boat sank in the estuary leading from New York City to the North Atlantic Ocean. The USS Holland, named after its inventor John Philip Holland, was the first modern submarine in the United States.
Simon told NBC he did not want to reveal the exact location of his discovery, about 50 meters below sea level, to protect it from treasure thieves. But he hopes that one day “Cannonballs” will be lifted to be shown so that everyone can enjoy them.
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