Divers Locate 1907 Submarine In Long Island Sound

A commercial crew found the remains of an early experimental submarine scuttled in 1946.

By Lidia Goldberg

In 1907, millionaire Simon Lake designed and built a submarine to win a U.S. Navy contract. Simon lost the bid to a competitor, but redesigned the sub and renamed her Defender. She was never sold and lingered in Bridgeport, Connecticut, until she was scuttled in 1946.

This month, the submarine was found in Long Island Sound by a team from Shoreline Diving Services, which was led by the company’s owner Richard Simon. Simon grew up fascinated by Lake’s inventions, and Defender happened to be missing in a body of water that Simon had traveled for years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had conducted a bathymetric survey of Long Island Sound and marked the wreck as “unidentified.” Simon’s team determined that the wreckage off Old Saybrook, Connecticut, could be Defender and dove on it this month to confirm it.

On April 16, 2023, divers Steve Abbate and Joe Mazraani dropped down to the site where they found Defender intact at about 150 feet. “It is such a thrill to finally put our hands on this important piece of maritime history,” said Abbate, who made the dive the day before his sixtieth birthday and added, “It’s also an incredible birthday present!”