After 80 years of searching the depths, we have finally found a jewel of submarines: the Defender

There are boats dedicated to treasure hunting. And others that, by chance of the troubled nautical history, end up turning themselves into treasures. it happened to Defendan American submarine assembled in the early 20th century by the Lake Torpedo Boat Companysignature of the famous naval engineer and architect simon lake. His story is not very epic and accumulates more failures than victories, but what the Defender did achieve was gain some fame. both in life of simon lakewho died in 1945, after accumulating dozens of patents… Like since the mid-40s, when the submersible vanished almost without a trace.

Now, eight decades laterWe have finally found him.

To understand why it was important the Defender submarine in its time and why it is so that we have found it now, it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the 20th century. To 1907, to be more precise, the year in which the US Navy launched a contest with the purpose of acquiring half a dozen submarines. In exchange, the authorities offered a juicy contract of several million dollars.

Determined to win the contract simon lakean experienced mechanical engineer from New Jersey, decided to bet on a design that he named after himself, the Lake XV —or Lake, without more—, a submersible for 10 crew members, 28 m long, four wide and with an underwater displacement of 200 tons that was also equipped with three 457 mm torpedo tubes.

“Touch History”

I didn’t start from scratch. She didn’t even move blindly. When conceiving it, Lake took advantage of the experience he had accumulated with his two previous submersibles, the Argonaut and Protectivethe latter submersible launched in 1902 with important innovations —for example certain additions at the front of the conning tower – and attracted the interest of the Russian authorities, who they renamed it Osetr.

To Lake XV, however, it didn’t go well in its purpose. Perhaps it was a good design, but it did not convince the US Navy, which opted for the alternative proposal: the Octopuses (SS-9)a 32-meter-long model that proved to be faster both on the surface and underwater during tests.

It was one thing, however, to give up the contest and another to the underwater race.

Resigned to losing the contract, Lake did the only thing he could, like remember in Nav Source: He returned the ship to the Bridgeport shipyard – where it passed in 1907 and 1928 -, applied some changes and refitted it so that it could be dedicated to mining and salvage work. New Focus and New Name: Perhaps in an attempt to put her past behind her, the Lake was renamed the Defender.

Popular Mechanics Explain that the submersible could act as a base for divers and even incorporated a system of wheels to move on the bottom of the sea.

That didn’t work either. The Navy is not quite convinced by the submarine, which was even considered unsuccessfully as an option for the Arctic expedition of Hubert Wilkins. In a desperate attempt to change the star of Ella Lake, she offered the Navy a salvage demonstration off Block Island in 1929, and earned the media support of the aviator and writer Amelia Earhart.

Good publicity, discreet results.

Simon Lake fantasized about using the submarine to recover gold from an old sunken frigate, but the reality is that the Defender’s story ended up being much more gray and nondescript: it was left gathering dust on a New London pier, where it sank several times. occasions. Unable to change her star, she ended up abandoned in a quagmire of Old Saybrookin Middlesex.

Tired perhaps of seeing that rusty mass bogged down on the Connecticut coast, in 1946 —late Simon Lake—, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to make a move: they pulled the Defender out of the marsh and sank it somewhere in the vast Long Island Sound, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Where exactly is a data that did not transcend.

Until now.

Almost 80 years later a team led by Richard Simon, a Connecticut diver fascinated by the Defender’s history, has managed to find its whereabouts. The task has not been easy: Long Island Sound covers an area of more than 3,000 square kilometersso the expedition has had to review for months the data from sonars and underwater mapping, in addition to diving into documents that it accessed thanks to the Freedom of Information Act.

“A submarine has quite a distinctive shape. It has to be 100 feet long and 13 feet in diameter, so I made a list of everything that was that long,” Simon explains to the Associated Press. With these guidelines, a lot of patience and also facing the occasional last-minute unforeseen event, such as the tide that forced them to abort a first dive attempt, the team set out in search of the Defender. The award did it at the end of Aprilwhen located it in front of Old Saybrook.

The search was almost as intense as the Defender’s own story. Simon acknowledges the anxiety of the last hours of the mission, when he waited from the deck of the ship for the two divers to emerge who were to confirm the find. When he finally saw them come out of the water —Explain— felt a “pure joy.”

The data and images collected by Simon’s team show the length and size of the submarine, as well as the shape and characteristics of the keel. Added to the place of the dive, it has led them to identify the wreck as the emblematic Defender. Now they are planning future expeditions to take photos and videos.

“I was hiding in plain sight —Add—. It’s on the navigation charts. It is known to exist in Long Island Sound, only no one knew what it was.”

“By wreck diving I can visit historytouch it, live it”, he explains.

Cover image: Submarine Force Museum and Library

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