The Ultimate Submarine Of World War One: Germany's Project 50

The Imperial German Navy's (Kaiserliche Marine) incredible Project 50 steam-powered cruiser submarine is largely unheard of. Yet it is fascinating and, had it been built, would have been the largest submarine of World War One.

[philorkill]

You draw those cutaways in MS Paint?! I want to see a timelapse one of these days! Amazing work as always. Thank you for sharing!

[dwavenminer]

I'm still amazed by your work on all your cutaways, they are great works of informative art!

[maximmatusevich]

This is epitome of german engineering.
1. Fancy
2. Needlessly complex





3. Only exists on paper :)

[marcusfranconium]

Did you know that in late 1915 and early 1916 2 submarines where stranded in dutch waters . Brand new submarines at that . The german M1 and British H6 . Both where used by the dutch navy, where the H6 Had become the O8 and had its periscoops and other equipment replaced by german equipment of the M1 plus several dutch inovations . This submarine was still around in may 1940 as decomisiond training vessel . The germans captured it and used it for training duties for their own crews before decomisioned again in 1943 . finaly it got scuttled on may 3 1945 preventing it of falling in alied hands.

A remarkable tale of a submarine that was build and used in britiain got german submarine upgrades was in service with the dutch navy after the invasion used in the german navy . One of the oldest and longest serving submarines that almost survived 2 world wars . At the rightfull age of 30 years .

[lokischildren]

Absolutely fantastic video. I love the cutaways drawings

[ReZpawner]

... "I draw these cutaways in MS paint". You say that as if it's a common thing. I can't do a passable stick-figure in MS paint.

[Heldermaior]

In the drawing room when this sub was being planned:
Engineer:
-So what type of power delivery should we use?

Lead designer:
-Yes.

[riderstrano]

10:04 due to the placement of the equipment, and with pr.50 being oil fired, I believe this gear is actually auxiliary to the boilers. Oil fired boilers, of any kind, need a lot of air flow, known in the field as “forced drafting”. Thus being stated, I believe the gear in these rooms to be blowers for the boilers.

[nukkinfuts]

Another kickass delivery, thank you H I Sutton!

[rawnukles]

I like your cutaways. When I watched your last video that Project 50 design caught my eye, so very happy to see a full video about it. Can you do the Nordfelt IV? It reminded me of a steam punk Type XXI when I saw it in the last video.

[tamasmihaly]

Your illustrations look wonderfully detailed. Must have been painstaking work. Thank you.

[jggunner]

The three power source layout is very similar to a nuke boat. I imagine the diesels would be necessary backups in the event of a steam line rupture, as the steam plant would be down much longer than battery capacity would allow. Of course, maintaining electricity on a nuclear boat is much more important, so I’m not sure the analogy is completely accurate.

[keys]

your channel deserves so much more recognition

[Headbreak]

Being even longer than the K class I wonder whether it would have suffered from the same lethal control difficulties underwater. The fact that it has amidships planes suggests that they were at least somewhat knowledgeable about it, but it's a shame we don't know the diving depth to see if they gave the crew more margin.

[carlorrman]

Very, very good, mate. Never seen your show before. What a great watch. Thanks, man.

[SimonWallwork]

Fascinating. Your passion for the subject is clear.

[foowashere]

Thanks for making and sharing! Amazing designs really, but also maybe over-ambitious.
Re 10:05 I would imagine the fan room also and mainly housing the forced draft fans for feeding air to the boilers, as for most contemporary high-power steam plants. It’s hard to see these boilers using natural draft only, with the limited space. (The air flows are very large.)

[brucegibbins]

Years ago, I read someplace, that the Imperial Kreigsmarine agreed to change from unrestricted to restricted warfare. Meaning that a UBoat would surface, allow the crew of the soon to be sunk freighter to disembark via the ships life boats thus saving lives while denying their enemy the benefit of the ships cargo. However, Germany had perfidious enemies that took tactical advantage of this Teutonic largesse by declaring open season on UBoats. Not really in the spirit of the thing, so the Kreigsmarine saw no other option but return to unrestricted warfare with its corresponding increase in loss of life.
If true, then the allies seemed to have scored an own goal here.

[vipondiu]

Amazing drawing and a very ambitious design, i love it, they went for everything in this one. It's just missing an autogyro or a small zeppelin, maybe a Paris gun or a giant mortar and it's the steampunk cousin of that Stalin submarine with mini-subs and both cruise and ballistic missiles.
I'm confused about the torpedo tube turn-table at the bow. It sounds awesomely complex and very german, but it seems evidently impractical compared to the solution they went for at the stern, way simpler and safer. Having to connect/disconnect a couple of big tubes from an aperture in the PRESSURE HULL each time you want to shoot at something sounds dangerous and very slow to switch to the other openings at the other side...
HI Sutton is still hands down the best submarine content you can find on the internet

[rolandcash]

Oh and so glad to see you branching out covert shores has been a must read for years