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  • Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
    Nov 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

    @CoolerPseudonym You know Conan Doyle was nearly right about submarine warfare? If Poland hadn't cracked the ENIGMA cypher and sent their notes to the UK where GCHQ followed up and read the U-Boat's orders over Doenitz's shoulder the UK would have been epically fucked during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1940-43. U-boats came much closer to starving the UK into submission than the Luftwaffe ever did by bombing.

    Also note: Conan Doyle also wrote SF, eg the Professor Challenger stories.

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Replies

  • dB CooperCoolerPseudonym@wandering.shop
    Nov 5, 2026, 12:37 AM

    @cstross I did know that! I read “the lost world” when I was a kid; I just recently read the Challenger story “The Poison Belt”, which is genuinely strange. Worth a glance if you haven’t.

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  • Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
    Nov 5, 2026, 7:18 AM

    @CoolerPseudonym Submarines were *very* science-fictional in the late 19th century, is my point about Conan Doyle, even though they were kinda-sorta real: like reusable space launcher's in the late 20th century. Much the same technothriller vibe.

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  • OldCoderOldCoder@dansu.org
    Nov 5, 2026, 10:11 AM

    I’m a Capt. Nemo fan myself.

    Capt. Nemo is similar to The Professor on Gilligan’s Island, who was what I wanted to be 60 years ago. Both could start with coconuts [or probably seashells in Nemo’s case] and work out the schematics for a submarine with its own power source from first principles. [Don’t ask why The Professor wasn’t able to patch a two-foot hole in a wooden boat.]

    18th-Century illustration of Captain Nemo.
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  • Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
    Nov 5, 2026, 12:27 PM

    @OldCoder I’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island. (It wasn’t on any British TV channel when I was growing up and I mostly gave up watching TV thereafter.)

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