Despite the rapid buildup in numbers of submarine craft in other navies (notably the Prussian and Manchurian), Imperial Naval Chiefs were initially sceptical of the promise held by these vessels. An announcement in The Times regarding the launch of Nautica's sister-craft "Thorn", makes clear the prevailing Navy attitude;
"It is understood that no ceremony will take place at the forthcoming launch of the first British submarine at Barrow-in-Furness. The Admiralty regards these boats as wholly in the nature of an experiment and like all other experiments carried out from time to time this one will be carried out with every privacy."
This attitude was to change markedly with the decimation of the Russian Pacific Fleet by Manchurian submarines during the short conflict of 1882. HMSVs Thorn and Nautica were to be quickly followed by bigger and more-heavily armed submarines, as a new branch of the Imperial Navy came into existence; "The Silent Service".
Both Nautica and Thorn were decommisioned and scrapped in 1897, however a collection of photographic images of Nautica survives, and can be viewed by the interested reader here.