Submarine

PERHAPS no man in the past century has had as much to do with the shape of history as Simon Lake. That statement is intended as a query rather than as a statement of fact. It may be debatable, but it is also defendable. He is responsible for the modern submarine. The World War pivoted on him. Not on the Kaiser or Lloyd George or Hindenburg or Wilson or Ludendorff. He had nothing to do with the provocations or the settlements. He was an engineer almost unknown except on the coast of New Jersey and in a few capitals of Europe. His sympathies were not warmly engaged for either of the parties to the conflict. Not until the United States entered the war was he greatly stirred. Yet the pitch-pine boat he stitched and screwed and nailed together as a boy rattled a mighty empire. Great Britain’s crown as Queen of the Seas almost slipped off her imperial head. If she had gone down, France must have gone with her. The consequences of such a collapse are now incalculable. Today’s world may have been no worse than it is, but it must have been almost insanely different.

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