The United States was the first nation to operate submarines as serious warships. The U.S. Navy commissioned its first submarine, USS Holland on October 12, 1900. (In the 109 years since Holland was commissioned, the U.S. Navy has built and operated some 800 submarines.)
Warships, by their very nature and purpose, are complex and dangerous machines. A warship designed to operate below the surface of the ocean is doubly intricate and perilous. Despite the risks and complications, American submarines have operated successfully in both peace and war.
The purpose of this site is to study and examine worldwide peacetime submarine accidents.
Information is gained from both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources are newspaper stories, news-wire service reports, and personal accounts from survivors of submarine accidents. The secondary sources included books and magazine articles on submarines, official historical works from navies around the world, books and magazine articles on specific submarine losses, and books about recent shipwrecks.
Because the submarine combat casualties of all participants of both World Wars have been closely examined, this site focuses only on peacetime accidents. To qualify for listing on this site, an accident is defined as a non-combat related incident in which the submarine was either totally destroyed, lost to active service for at least 6 months, or when at least one person was killed on a vessel involved in the incident. Thus, non-combat related submarine accidents involving fires, flooding, and training accidents during both world wars are included.
Because this study covers over 100 years of submarine operations, data was divided chronologically into seven periods:
Losses are presented in the order of occurrance and not in the order the submarine was built. Each entry indicates the submarines name, nationality, designation, hull number, date of loss, and whether the submarine was returned to service. Detailed information about the incident is also included.
In addition, this site also investigates the aftermath of many of the most significant losses.
Return to Peacetime Submarine Accidents