Divers Discover Century Old Submarine In Long Island Sound

Scientists continue to say that we know more about space than what lies beneath the sea. It seems to hard to believe in the crowded Long Island Sound, a 92-foot submarine would be just lying there unnoticed for nearly 80 years. Apparently, that was the case.

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On Sunday, an underwater commercial diver from Coventry, Connecticut and his team found something they had been looking for, the Defender.

The Defender was an experimental submarine designed by Simon Lake in 1908. According to Pat Eaton-Robb of apnews.com, the vessel was designed to win a U.S. Government contract by Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Like two of Lake's other designs, the Defender (or The Lake as it was called at the time) was rejected by Congress.

This past Sunday, commercial diver, Richard Simon and his company, Shoreline Diving, made the discovery of a vessel that they had been searching for. Simon told the Associated Press, “A submarine has a very distinct shape. 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." Poor conditions delayed the discovery until Sunday but the crew was certainly excited with the find.

"It was legitimately hiding in plain sight. It’s on the charts. It’s known about in Long Island Sound, just no one knew what it was.” Simon verified that it was indeed the Defender. The length, the size and shape of protrusions on the submarine’s distinct keel, and the shape and location of diving planes characteristic of Lake-built vessels, all helped identify it, Simon told the Associated Press.

Simon and his team plan to spend the summer diving on the sub. They will film and document the vessel by taking pictures. Simon has contacted the U.S. Navy to gauge interest in preserving the submarine. You never know what lies beneath the ocean.