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Divers in Connecticut found a sunken submarine Sunday that was built over 100 years ago and sank in the Long Island Sound.
The submarine was initially named the Simon Lake XV, according to NavSource Naval History.
It was built in the early 1900s by Simon Lake, a naval architect who wanted to win a competition for a U.S. Navy contract. The boat didn’t win so he then tried renovating it for minesweeping, salvage and rescue tasks, renaming it the Defender, the Associated Press reported.
No one ever bought the vessel but it was still popular among some and was even visited by Amelia Earhart in 1929, said Richard Simon, the diver whose crew found the vessel.
The submarine was an experimental vessel, equipped with wheels to move along the ocean floor and a door that gave divers the option to exit the vessel underwater, Simon told the Associated Press.
Eventually, it sat docked in New London before it was abandoned and later scuttled by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1946, NavSource Naval History reported.
Until Sunday, the submarine’s whereabouts had been unknown. On Sunday, Simon led a crew that found the 92-foot-long submarine.
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How did the team find the submarine?
Simon developed an interest in the sunken submarine years ago and told the Associated Press he spent months analyzing sonar and underwater mapping surveys of the bottom of the sound.
He also looked at government documents to identify any phenomenon that matched the size of the Defender.
“A submarine has a very distinct shape,” he told the outlet. “It needs to be 100 feet long and 13 feet in diameter. So I made a list of everything that was that long and there was one target on that list.”
He put together a team of divers to see if the submarine was there. An initial attempt last Friday was thwarted due to tidal conditions but the divers tried again Sunday. That’s when they found the Defender more than 150 feet beneath the water’s surface.
“It was legitimately hiding in plain sight,” he said. “It’s on the charts. It’s known about in Long Island Sound, just no one knew what it was.”
Simon said he waited anxiously on the deck of his own vessel waiting for two of his divers to return to the water’s surface.
He said his team knew they’d found the Defender because of its length and the protrusions on the submarine’s keel.
The team plans to dive on the sub this summer, capturing photos and videos. His company, Shoreline Diving, funded the mission, he told the Associated Press.
He has also reached out to the Navy to see if anyone is interested in preserving the site.
The ship is protected under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act. The act states that the wreckage must be treated like an archaeological or historical site versus a commercial property.
“So, as a wreck diver, I can go visit history; I can touch it; I can experience it,” Simon said. “It’s just a different connection to history, to the past that we don’t have in any other activity.”
Contributing: Associated Press
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757 – and loves all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. Follow her on Twitter at @Saleen_Martin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
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