On September 7, 1955, the U.S. Navy’s first midget submarine – USS X-1 – was launched at Oyster Bay, Long Island. Archival footage of the launch, where the diminutive vessel can be seen cruising past the Balao class submarine USS Bergall (SS-320), may seem comical. Yet the development of the midget submarine – midget submarines meaning small displacement submarines with their own propulsion system that can be operated by a handful of crew – represented something of a novelty for the U.S. Navy at the time. Inspired by existing (notably British) midget submarines, USS X-1 was designed to bolster U.S....
