From the advent of the earliest of the type,
submarine design has always pressed against the outer limits of the
contemporary technological envelope. Inventors and engineers have, of
necessity, incorporated new and untested machinery and equipment into
their craft in order to meet their goals of creating effective undersea
vessels. The underwater environment, moreover, is unforgiving; errors in
operation or failures of equipment have very dangerous and even fatal
consequences. Success in submarine design, therefore, has come to those
naval architects who have combined innovation and experimentation with
substantial direct, prior experience or knowledge.
The obvious potential military advantages
of the stealthy and lethal capabilities of successful submarines soon
attracted the attention of admiralties around the world. Early designers
of practical craft found a relatively ready market for their wares,
either through export or license construction by their customers.
Designs by the German Wilhelm Bauer were constructed in Germany and
Russia, while George Garrett’s boats, built by the Swedish industrialist
Thorsten Nordenfeldt in Sweden and Britain, were marketed to Greece,
Turkey, and Russia. Beginning in the years around 1900, boats by Maxime
Laubeuf in France, the Italian Cesare Laurenti, and above all, John P.
Holland in the United States, found ready markets in navies around the
world in the years before World War I.
The maturation of submarines as a result of
operations during World War I expanded the global demand for the type.
Design teams with successful records dominated this worldwide arms
market. Firms from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United
States prevailed in this trade in submarines. In the German case, since
indigenous submarine design and construction had been prohibited by the
Versailles Treaty, the design teams established themselves across the
border in the Netherlands and contracted out construction to yards in
other European countries. A similar situation pertained after World War
II, although Italian designs, no longer on the cutting edge, faded from
the export market, while the emphasis on nuclear propulsion in the
United States led that nation to withdraw from overseas sales to avoid
the distribution of sensitive technologies. Its place was taken by
substantial export of both vessels and designs by the Soviet Union, the
resurgence of the German submarine industry, and the maturing of Swedish
design and construction.