The silent service -- August 12, 2000 : the final moments aboard the Russian Navy's nuclear submarine Kurst -- The birth of the submarine : A brief history of early subs, including the Turtle and the Nautilus -- The first underwater weapon of war : the American Confederate sub H.L. Hunley -- The submarine comes of age : the influence of John Holland on submarine design -- Battle under the sea : the submarine has now become a forbidable weapon, as Germany's U-boats prove during the First World War -- Lost in peace : two submarine tragedies, the US Navy's Squalus and the Royal Navy's Thetis, dominate peacetime headlines -- The U-boat war : Germany revolutionizes the way submarines are used in combat -- A casualty of the Cold War : a tiny piece of aluminum foil spells disaster for the US Navy's nuclear submarine Scorpion -- Disaster under the Barents Sea : the tragic story of the Kursk -- For those in peril.