Shipbucket

Hello everyone,

Today I have a very small and unique boat for you today, the Sassaroli midget submarine. Designed for Italian frogmen and MAS detachments, the Sassaroli was essentially a special-operations submarine made out of relatively cheap materials. Four layers of "aircraft-grade" plywood, with no rivets - only "Kaurit" glue - made most of this sub. On top of the wood was a layer of cast iron, but it is not known how thick this layer was.

The other interesting part of this submarine was that it was powered by an Alfa Romeo 200hp gasoline engine, which gave a projected speed of 20 knots on the surface and 30 knots submerged. This is quite an impressive speed, especially when it's using a car engine underwater (exhaust was sent out into the water through mechanical pumps, apparently). The pilot of the sub was seated in the centre, and he had three portholes in order to see. Unsurprisingly, the pilot had to wear a respirator due to the engine being directly behind him and constantly threatened CO2 buildup. His respiration was supported by 7 oxygen cylinders, which gave ~2 hours of oxygen. He was able to control the sub with two contrarotating propellers and one rudder.

The sub was armed with one torpedo, which was mounted on the keel.

The Sassaroli had one completed prototype, but was never able to be tested due to the war. It is unknown if the design would even work, but it is certainly an interesting one.

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Interesting entry! Nice work.