The Deadly Trade Quotes

“To borrow and adapt the Spanish philosopherpoet George Santayana’s famous phrase, it is likely only the dead have seen the last of submarine warfare.4 Humanity will have to put its faith in ‘the better angels’. The submarine, for good or ill, seems destined to play a major part in world events, and indeed its activities could yet decide the fate of all humanity.”
― Iain Ballantyne, The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare

“according to one naval historian his submersible was probably nothing more than a large leather-covered barge . . . weighted until the crew was below the surface’.7 Drebbel’s craft merely had water washing over its hull rather than actually diving, the fast-flowing current of the Thames assisting the exertions of the oarsmen. With the English naval establishment losing”
― Iain Ballantyne, The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare

“Drebbel’s craft allegedly voyaged from Westminster to Greenwich and back. Throughout, its stubby conning tower poked above the water, Drebbel navigating by peering through small windows. In 1623 Drebbel allegedly took King James I under the Thames. By instinct cautious, the King was nevertheless fascinated by science and mechanical things,”
― Iain Ballantyne, The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare

“According to Thucydides, in 414 BC during the siege of Syracuse in Sicily the Athenians sent men under the sea to saw through and clear wooden piles blocking the harbour mouth. They also broke underwater chains, all with the aim of enabling galleys carrying troops to enter harbour. Cutting the anchor cables of enemy vessels – so they would be driven ashore to destruction or collide with each other – was another favourite tactic. The earliest image of submerged men carrying weapons is a wall painting in the Nile Valley of duck hunters armed with spears stealthily approaching their prey while using reeds to suck in air. Aristotle claimed Greek combat divers used an early form of snorkel like the trunk of an elephant”
― Iain Ballantyne, The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare

“A century ago Rudyard Kipling penned a piece of verse in salute to what he called ‘The Trade’, which was plied by submariners playing what he described as ‘grisly blindfold games’. The grim potential of submarines had been displayed during the First World War, with their commanders using periscopes to seek out targets and delivering Kipling’s ‘one-eyed Death’. ‘The Trade’ concludes: Unheard they work, unseen they win. That is the custom of ‘The Trade’.”
― Iain Ballantyne, The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare