The early days are pure steampunk, the first undersea boats being built by carpenters, wagon-makers and other inventors armed with a combination of naivety and cleverness.
These boats were often swamped while still on the surface, or went into uncontrollable dives. Yet the idea of submersible ships refused to go away, even when employed to little effect in the American Civil War.
When WWI began, their capabilities were downplayed, in part because their use was widely believed to be immoral. Then in September 1914, one antiquated German submarine sank three British cruisers in the space of 90 minutes, killing more British sailors "than were lost by Lord Nelson in all his battles put together." It suddenly became clear that "the smallest cheapest warship could now take on the battleship, head to head, and win."
The Allies eventually found convoys to be proof against submarines, but it was a stratagem that became less effective in WWII because of advances in technology. Now German submarines formed "wolf-packs" and had easy pickings for a while. In hindsight, if Germany had launched unrestricted attacks against merchant shipping much earlier than they did, England might have been subdued before the US entered the war.
In the Pacific, the Japanese employed not only midget submarines, but also the underwater equivalent of a Kamikaze attack -- manned torpedoes whose pilots were "locked in for a one-way voyage which was destined to last no more than five hours, no matter what."
The book was published in 1997, a year after the US nuclear-powered sub Seawolf had conducted its first sea trials. At the time it was considered to be the most powerful warship in the world.
I couldn't put this book down. It's scary, fascinating reading.
David Bushnell's Turtle, 1775
The hand-cranked Confederate submarine Hunley, 1864.
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