Submarine A submarine or U - boat was a ship designed to operate underwater . In 1492 , the Fourth Doctor claimed that Leonardo da Vinci ' s submarine design wasn ' t practical . ( TV : " The Masque of Mandragora " ) British subs . In the early 19th century , Sir Adrian Stapleford tried to develop a submarine for the Royal Navy . His assistant Sam and he nearly suffocated in it when Lord Trumpsworth sabotaged it . They were rescued by the Fourth Doctor , who convinced Adrian to discontinue work on the craft . ( COMIC : " The Emperor ' s Spy " ) The first British submarine was launched in 1901 , as was announced in the copy of " The Times " the Fifth Doctor found aboard the S . S . " Shadow " . ( TV : " Enlightenment " ) In the 1970s , Captain John Hart sent out a submarine expedition led by Commander Ridgeway to search for the Sea Devil s . The Sea Devils captured the submarine and its crew , but the Third Doctor helped free them . ( TV : " The Sea Devils " ) Some time later , a group of Dalek s based underneath Antarctica used a captured nuclear submarine , the USS " Jefferson " to attack Sydney as part of their plan to use the city as a base from which to convert human s into Daleks and conquer Earth . ( COMIC : " * Sub Zero " ) Some time later , used time - displaced Scottish warriors to seize a nuclear submarine and threaten Britain with obliteration if he wasn ' t given the Doctor ' s TARDIS . ( COMIC : " The Glen of Sleeping " ) In 2006 , Mickey Smith launched Harpoon missile UGM - 84A from the submarine HMS " Taurean " at 10 Downing Street . ( TV : " World War Three " ) In 2119 , the Drum had a submarine . ( TV : " Under the Lake " ) German U - boats . During World War I , a German U - boat , the " U - 20 " , sank the RMS " Lusitania " on 7 May 1915 , which precipitated the entry into the United States of America into the First World War . ( AUDIO : " The Sirens of Time " ) In World War II , a German U - boat patrolling the English Channel in 1943 was sent forward in time to October 1964 , where it threatened to torpedo the Isle of Wight ferry . Sir Toby Kinsella of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group ordered Group Captain Ian Gilmore and his squad to investigate and render assistance to the personnel of the nearby Lanchester Naval Base . ( AUDIO : " State of Emergency " ) The Eleventh Doctor , Edward Anderson and Lord Hellcombe escaped in a U - boat and fired a torpedo to damage a Dalek flying saucer underwater . It was damaged by Aqua - Dalek s . ( COMIC : " The Dalek Project " ) At some point , Alec Palmer was involved in operations in the North Sea to disrupt U - boats . ( TV : " Hide " ) Other human subs . In 1983 , the frozen body of Grand Marshall Skaldak was picked up and revived in the " Firebird " , a Soviet submarine . ( TV : " Cold War " ) In 1993 on a parallel world , Silurian s used Kronosaur s to harass the remaining human submarines . ( PROSE : " Blood Heat " ) In 2006 , the Ninth Doctor , Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness investigated the decommissioned submarines at an abandoned Russia n naval base . ( PROSE : " The Deviant Strain " ) Extraterrestrial subs . In 2594 , the SSSSSSS used a submarine to explore Tyler ' s Folly . ( PROSE : " Down " ) On Marinus , the Voord used one - man glass submarines to get to the Conscience of Marinus . One of these submarines fractured and the acid sea killed the Voord within . ( TV : " The Sea of Death " ) On Olleril , Luminus was based on a submarine called the " Gargantuan " . ( PROSE : " Tragedy Day " )