3 ms·

When did Britain ridicule submarines?

• greedo 6mo ago
  First Sea Lord Admiral Wilson famously called submarines "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English." Yet this didn't prevent the RN from purchasing submarines from the US in 1901, far earlier than most other industrial nations.
• deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
• anigbrowl 6mo ago
  Around 1900. They were held in very dubious regard in the early days of development. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1941/january/chapter-history-submarines https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1941/january/chap... On British naval luminary compared submarine warfare to piracy, leading to the emergence a few years later of a tradition of Royal Navy submarine captains flying the Jolly Roger after completing successful missions.
  • rjsw 6mo ago
    Britain had the biggest navy in the world at that point, it didn't need to be the first to adopt the submarine.