Some curious facts about submarines. Maybe this might stir an idea or so for those writing about submarines.

Here are some strange facts you will not find in most history books.

The submarine that was worth the most money was not the modern VIRGINA class, nor the giant Russian TYPHOON. It was the American WWII submarine USS TROUT. Trout was tasked with removing the gold and silver from treasury of the Philipines just before the fall of Manila, in 1941. She was worth about 17 Billion in todays money.

During the early part of World War Two, American torpedoes would not always detonate when they struck the sides of a ship. It was found that the firing pin was to heavy. To solve the problem new firing pins were made from the propellers of Japanese aircraft shot down at Pearl Harbor.

In the 30's the American Navy built a submarine designed to carry small aircraft. The boat had on her deck, a rounded steel hanger in which the planes were folded into.  Not happy with the results, the Navy scrapped the idea.  The rounded hanger found another use. Modified, it became the McCain Rescue Chamber used to rescue crews of stricken submarines.

When was the last ship sunk by a WWII German U-boat?  1963 when a large fishing vessel caught an unexploded torpedo in her nets.

In the 1982 Falkland's conflict a British nuclear submarine sank an Argintine Cruiser using WWII torpedoes. The Cruiser GENERAL BELGRANO, was formerly the USS PHONEIX; a survivor of the raid at Pearl Harbor.

A plane launched from a Japanese I-400 class submarine, is the only enemy plane to bomb the contintal US. The plane got lost and dropped it's bomb in the Oregon woods.

The largest ship ever sunk by a submarine was the Japanese Carrier SHINANNO. Sunk by USS ARCHERFISH. This was the biggest aircraft carrier in history until the nuclear powered USS ENTERPRISE was launched in the 1960's. What is strange about the sinking was it was by accident. A Torpedoman on ARCHERFISH, pressed the torpedo firing button by mistake.