Tradecraft, and related technologies. His books include building the kaisers navy, forged in war the Naval Industrial complex and american submarine construction, rising tide the Untold Stories of the western submarines that fought the cold war russian submarines that fought the cold war. And the winner of the Richard Leopold prize. Also the former editor of the National Journal of naval history. Dr. Weir is here to comment on the Technological Development of the submarine, and the role and plans of the german navy as world war i developed. This is his first appearance at the Maryland Historical society. [applause] our other speaker is professor nicholas lambert. Currently the class of 1957 distinguished chair of naval American Heritage at the u. S. Naval academy. After receiving his doctorate from oxford in 1992, he has held fellowships at yale, wolfson college, oxford, and Southampton University of england, and was an associate fellow at the Royal United Services institute in london. His first book is a revisions account of British Naval policy before world war i, and it won the distinguished book award for military science history. The second book planning armageddon received the world war i historical associations 2013 Norman B Tomlinson junior prize. It may be also appropriate for you and the audience to know that nicks grandfather commanded 3 submarines for the royal navy in world war ii. And miraculously survived the war. Professor lambert will comment about the british navys blockade of germany, and some comments about cargo summer submarines like the uboat deutschland. This is also his first appearance at the Maryland Historical society. Each will talk, we will take questions from the audience, and those that wish to meet them privately or have books signed if you are so inclined. Let us give them a welcome. [applause] mr. Weir being in traffic for 2. 5 hours leads you into thinking of places you would rather be. [laughter] one of my places on the planet im sorry. Any better . There you go, we did it. One of my Favorite Places on the planet is in massachusetts near cape cod, where i do a lot of research. And in doing so, i have linked oceanography and Ocean Sciences to the art and science of undersea warfare. Which led me to my development tonight. There will be a great many comments this evening, both in the exhibit and from this table regarding the significance of the deutschland and commercial uboats. Often it is considered an episodic significance. I would suggest it is not. But in order for us to understand that it is not episodic, that it is lasting, we have to go back a little bit. Remember, in the Second World War, the most successful Warfare Community of any of combatants was the american submarine force. The japanese could no longer provide them with targets. They were all gone. They even had to invade the inland sea and torpedo merchant ships because they would not come out. How do we get to that point . Put yourself in this situation. Suppose it is november 1941. You are on board the ss 182, a uss salmon. You just begin a patrol off the philippine islands. A few days into your peaceful control, it suddenly becomes your first war patrol because Congress Declares war. You encounter two destroyers, they try to peel away from the torpedo lines. Then you escape into a rain squall. That is the way your world starts on that control. The salmon is important to the deutschland. If you look at the salmons design, the type of ship she was, and compare or combine her with models afterwards the design of the two gave the navy the prototype for the massproduced summer in class submarine class which would fought in a sort in most of world war i. How did we decide that would be the best way to go . What does the envelope look like . The salmon is a diesel electric boat. I wont bore you about it. This is about 14001500 tons. Length about 1900 meters. 93 meters. Range around 1100 thousand 11,000 nautical miles. It can do that at about 10 knots. Double hull construction. The kind of boat that america chose to go to war with. The data class is extremely successful, far more successful than the salmon was in this scenario i just described. How did we get there . It was a rough road. Once again, the deutschland plays able in this. So let us cast our gaze back further and find out how. If you take a look at world war i and the american submarine construction effort, we massproduced a class of boats called the s class. That is exactly what you dont do to build a submarine. Vibrating their scopes. Engines were torn apart. Habitability was a real problem because the designers put the head next to the mess area. We did not know how to do it at the time. We were building bad vessels. This is very well documented. The americans mea culpa, those were the facts. Looking at the inspection and survey records at the national archives, it is one catastrophe after the next. So many sclass boats being towed across the pacific until some american submarine officers got sick and tired of it. They were disgusted that the bureaus were not paying attention to models they had in hand, not looking at closely enough. In 1922, senior captain James Stirling was the commandant of the Philadelphia Naval shipyard. He writes a letter to the secretary of the navy. Talk about putting your boss in an awkward position. He said, these baots are garbage. They will not contribute anything to the navy at all unless we do something now to make a difference. Lo and behold, they actually listened to him. Did i hear a drumroll in the back . [laughter] thank god they did. They knew what they were talking about. We had six german uboats at the time. They start looking much more closely at those boats, particularly one, the u140. Which is a u cruiser, which was a class that germany built almost as i followon, to guess what . The commercial boats. What do we have in the envelope . What makes the u140 so interesting . Guess what . Diesel electric heard this before . Roughly 1500 tons, length 90. 5 meters, range, a little over 12,000 nautical miles. It sounds an awful lot like salmon, dont you think . In turn, how did the german arrive at their formula . Because what they produced in the uboats large and small were quickly produced, excellently engineered, both easy to handle, and dependable out of the ocean. All of the things our sclass was not. Stirling said, go Pay Attention and take a closer look. And we did. We discovered that when the ucommerical boats were produced, paper produced under the codename u200. That was not actually a boat, just a codename for the commercial boats. They were not the idea from the Imperial Naval office. Does anybody know . It was an independent wholesale merchant from raymond. He had an interest in bringing goods over and through the royal navys standoff blockade. The major motive was economic for him. Bypass the blockade, open up dormant trading possibilities. And bring in key natural resources. Nickel, chromium, tin, rubber, things of that sort. And doing it right under the british blockade. Being the good businessman he was, he decided he had to find backing. He goes to the deutsche bank. Deutsche bank decides to back him. That is how they manage to find the german Ocean Shipping Company limited described earlier. He gets 2 million reich marks as capital to start the project and starts with the naval marines to build the ships. It is sort of interesting how the ships get built. Remember, keep the lineage constant. We started with an american boat called the salmon. Then we tracked it back to the u140, which have roughly the same appointments. And the u. S. Was beginning to learn from the process. Now going back to both like deutschland. The way they are built and the way that happens is interested as wel. Loman figures the shipyard in his own town would be the best. He put in a build for them. Someone says, i can do this for free no problem. They offered to build the boats for nothing. Looking at the small print in the contract, my cargo priorities take priority. In other words, you should what i need to have you ship what i need to have ships. This company owns the largest private shipyard in germany. And of course the rice marine the reich marine says, we cannot do this for free. Very often when you look at sources regarding the deutschland, the shipyard is named under a different name. They were full of boats and other ships. Did not have room to do the basic construction. They formed out the whole the entire hull. When that bulk was finished, they would bring it to crook to krupp outfitter yard and do all of the internal. You her scopes, torpedo tubes, propulsion systems, even the habitability and personal areas. The designer what sort of envelope did he design . Is it the lineage valid . Guess what . Diesel electric drive. We can talk in the q a whether that is a good choice. 9. 5 knots. But again it is not a warship, it is a vessel. You dont have to fit two torpedoes and a stern. More important is the experiment of the ship itself. Most of the german submarines of the era ranged in displacement capacity between 800 t00 capacity between 800 to 1000 tons. This boat was a lot bigger and had weight of a different sort. Not just people and weapons. The first outbound crews that the deutschland undertook, they had concentrated dyes on board to the tune of about 1. 7 million. You had to learn how to handle this boat on the surface and submerge. You had to make sure that your cargo is stable. You had to understand how this boat operated. You need good seat keeping qualities. You were not going to be towed anywhere. This is the first. The deutschland makes two trips in 1916. The first comes to baltimore. The u. S. Is not in the war yet, and we dont want to be. They are good representatives of the kaisers government. They bring back rubber, tin, chromium, nickel. It goes into steel to make nickel steel armor plate for battleships. In november, the boat comes back to go to new london. At the same time, the much smaller boat, a 350 ton boats makes it across the atlantic and sinks a few american steamers. It is an interesting story in itself. The second of the seven commercial uboats is lost at sea. We have no idea why it was lost. All hands went down. We dont know why that boat met that fate. But we did know that the deutschland worked, and it was handled well. And it behaved well as a ship. That is what begins so impressive to the germans themselves. If they were going to convert them into warships, and the commercial return was not the best when they convert them, they take a look at the possible advantages and duplicating it on a larger scale. Making sure that weapons are intact and usable to the point really have an additional advantage. They understand what it takes to build a boat of this sort. And handle it on the ocean, both on the surface and submerged. What i would suggest is that the real legacy of the deutschland is important cultural, but for my point of view as a submarine historian, the true point of the deutschland is that you have the range that you need, the seakeeping you need, the reliability that you need. Endurance surfaced and submerged, protected time on station, being able to stay put. To a warrior, that means something. To someone in congress, that means something of a different sort. The ability to stay put and return on one fuel. Reliable propulsion. The deutschlands configuration of boat contributed to the 140. Those what the american bureaus wanted to look at. That is why the salmon was in place just before pearl harbor. The deutschland is a significant root in the evolution of modern submarines. The most survivable components of the american triad is probably the Naval Submarine components. Because it is silence, it is constantly moving, deeply submerged, and can touch you regardless of where you are in the world. There is no way to combat that. That does not exist without boats like the deutschland and salmon. There is a Lasting Legacy of technology and naval heritage, and a lasting contribution to the evolution of a significant weapons system. Thank you. [applause] mr. Lambert you are right on time. Mr. Weir there you go. Mr. Lambert good evening ladies and gentlemen. First let me say how delighted ia m to be here this evening. I had an opportunity to look around the exhibit. I had a private viewing. It really is quite extraordinary. I dont know where the model of the deutschland comes from. I am very impressed by that. In any case, i would like to thank fred in the Maryland Historical society for inviting me to talk to you tonight. I should warn you from the beginning, this is my third lecture to date. There is a danger that i might run out of steam a little bit. Luckily this is a slightly different audience than one i am used to addressing. The most noticeable is that your eyes are open. [laughter] and that you are leaning forward, attentive, alert, and perhaps interested, which isnt the case today unfortunately. This is the sixth week of exams for the midshipmen, which means they probably get three or four hours of sleep each night. They are more concerned about passing their capitalist and demonstrate exams their chemistry and calculus exams than naval heritage. I had to learna certain trick like standing up all of the maps. I didnt have to do that today. In fact, i dont have any illustrations at all. It was suggested that i should put up some visuals. I thought that sounded rather pointless, futile even. Because there is a rather good exhibition outside. [laughter] i couldnt possibly compete with that. I am going to talk to you for about 15 to 20 minutes, as was said in the beginning, about the deutschland in the context of the british blockade in the first world war. Im going to start a little bit, then surprise you with one or two things at the end perhaps. I will try and keep the economics to a minimum. As i noticed you didnt put the book on Economic Warfare which weighs half a ton. It also has the word economics on it. When my publisher said it had to be cemented to Harvard University press, the question was, it has the word economics in it. Is that really necessary . And the second question was how much economics is really in it . Someone was swayed into publishing. But nonetheless i will keep the economics to a minimum. The british blockade comes a little bit later. The original british plan for warfare against germany in 1914, the corner store british grand strategy and culmination of prewar planning was to wage ruthless Economic Warfare against german society. Before the first world war, as is generally known. Throughout europe it was widely expected that any war between deliver apowers would massive shock to the global system. In the 20th century, there were three great economic crashes that we know about. Would anybody care to speculate what they are . There was one quite recently, 2008. The one everybody always remembers, which is 1929 or 1931. Does anybody remember the economic crash of the 21st century . It is 1914. Every stock market in the world, including wall street, shut. The entire world Financial System crushed to a halt. In any case, the british and many other countries anticipated this. The british had disproportionate control of the Economic System had a plan to channel these economic forces away from themselves towards germany, with a corporate desk with a deliberate attempt with a deliberate attempt to collapse the German Economy. Quickly disrupting economic output, creating unemployment on a scale that would precipitate a socioeconomic crisis so great that the kaiser would have to call off the war. The plan to bring the war to an end quickly. Well, the plan was put into effect. And the strategy worked, sort of, for a couple of weeks. The problem was it worked a little bit too well. It generated, to use the modern term, rather considerable collateral damage. British businessman start shrieking really leslie that really loudly that their business was being hurt. Particularly Woodrow Wilson was interested because of the devastation that it did to the u. S. , industry. The price of cotton opened that 13. 25, and the price dropped below 9, stockbrokers went bankrupt. And president Woodrow Wilson is a democrat, and rather needs the south. Its just safe accommodation of Interest Groups in britain and other countries brought enormous pressure on the British Exchange to call off the Economic Warfare plan. They did. They have revised to a more recognizable personal strategy, a blockade. In general terms, the interdiction of all Foreign Trade between germany and much of the Foreign Trade in close by neutrals. So, deutschland. The spring of 1915, the notion of this short war evaporated. This has serious economic implications for all parties, particularly war economies. Even the regular economy, too. This was the case in germany especially. The blockade constructed the flow of strategic commodities necessary to sustain modern history, and wage modern industrial warfare. These commodities, gary weir mentioned a number of them chromium, nickel, tin, other agents could not be found inside germany. Certainly not in the quantities required. They were not available from other central powers as well. Around this time the spring of 1915, a number of those in germany hit upon the idea of going around, or brother under the blockade or rather under it through a submersible. This gained attention of the german government, who authorized a number of prototypes. One of those was the deutschland. Precisely who funded them there are so many shell corporations. Dwight had gone quite some way in his book to identify some of t