USS ''Alligator'', the fourth

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ship of that name, is the first known U.S. Navy

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, and was active during the

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(the first American submarine was during the Revolutionary War, and was operated by the

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, vice Navy, in 1776 against British vessels in New York harbor). During the Civil War the Confederate States Navy would also build their own submarine, .

Construction

In the autumn of 1861, the Union Navy asked the firm of Neafie & Levy to construct a small submersible ship designed by the

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Brutus de Villeroi, who also acted as a supervisor during the first phase of the construction (de Villeroi had designed and built submarines in France and one after immigrating to the United States). The boat was about long, with a beam of and height of . "It was made of iron, with the upper part pierced for small circular plates of glass, for light, and in it were several water tight compartments". She was designed to carry 18 men. For propulsion, she was equipped with 16 hand-powered paddles protruding from the sides. On 3 July 1862, the

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had the paddles replaced by a hand-cranked propeller, which improved its speed to about four

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

s. Air was supplied from the surface by two tubes with floats, connected to an air pump located inside the submarine; it was the first operational submarine to have an air purifying system. The boat had a forward airlock, and was the first operational submarine with the capability for a diver to leave and return while both remained submerged. Divers could affix mines to a target, then return and detonate them by connecting the mine's insulated copper wire to a battery inside the vessel. The Union Navy wanted such a vessel to counter the threat posed to its wooden-hulled blockaders by the former screw frigate ''Merrimack'' which, according to intelligence reports, the Norfolk Navy Yard was rebuilding as an

ironclad An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...

ram for the Confederacy (). The Union Navy's agreement with the

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shipbuilder specified that the submarine was to be finished in not more than 40 days; its keel was laid down almost immediately following the signing on 1 November 1861 of a contract for her construction. Nevertheless, the work proceeded so slowly that more than 180 days had elapsed when the novel craft finally was launched on 1 May 1862.

Operational history

Soon after her launching, she was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to be fitted out and manned. Two weeks later, she was placed under command of a civilian, Mr.

Samuel Eakins Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

. On 13 June, the Navy formally accepted the boat. Next, the steam tug ''Fred Kopp'' was engaged to tow the submarine to

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. The two vessels got underway on 19 June and proceeded down the

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to the

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, through which they entered the

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for the last leg of the voyage, reaching Hampton Roads on the 23rd. At

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, the submarine was moored alongside the

sidewheel steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses we ...

, which was to act as her tender during her service with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. A spring 1862 newspaper report called the vessel ''Alligator'', in part because of its green color, a moniker which soon appeared in official correspondence. Several tasks were considered for the vessel: destroying a bridge across Swift Creek, a tributary of the

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia in the United ...

; clearing away the obstructions in the

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at Fort Darling, which had prevented Union gunboats from steaming upstream to support General McClellan's drive up the peninsula toward

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; and blowing up should that ironclad be completed on time and sent downstream to attack Union forces. Consequently, the submarine was sent up the James to

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where she arrived on the 25th. Commander John Rodgers, the senior naval officer in that area, examined ''Alligator'' and reported that neither the James off Fort Darling nor the Appomattox near the bridge was deep enough to permit the submarine to submerge completely. Moreover, he feared that while his theater of operation contained no targets accessible to the submarine, the Union gunboats under his command would be highly vulnerable to her attacks should ''Alligator'' fall into enemy hands. He therefore requested permission to send the submarine back to Hampton Roads. The ship headed downriver on the 29th and then was ordered to proceed to the

for more experimentation and testing. In August, Lt. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr. was given command of ''Alligator'' and she was assigned a naval crew. The tests proved unsatisfactory, and Selfridge pronounced "the enterprise ... a failure". On 3 July 1862, the Navy Yard replaced ''Alligator''s oars with a hand-cranked screw propeller, thereby increasing her speed to about .

President Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

observed the submarine in operation on 18 March 1863. About this time, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont, who had become interested in the submarine while in command of the Philadelphia Navy Yard early in the war, decided that ''Alligator'' might be useful in carrying out his plans to take

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, the birthplace of secession. Acting Master John F. Winchester, who then commanded , was ordered to tow the submarine to Port Royal, South Carolina. The pair got underway on 31 March. The next day, both encountered bad weather which, on 2 April, forced ''Sumpter'' to cut ''Alligator'' adrift off Cape Hatteras.Submarine Photo Index
/ref> She either immediately sank or drifted for a while before sinking, ending the career of the United States Navy's first submarine.

References

*Veit, Chuck, "The Innovative, Mysterious ''Alligator''" - ''Naval History'' magazine (August 2010), pp. 26–29 Attribution *

External links

navsource.org: USS ''Alligator''

NPR story
on the hunt for the ''USS Alligator''
NOAA search for the Alligator

Navy & Marine LHA history site on Alligator

Comprehensive site on world submarine history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alligator (1862) Ships built by Neafie and Levy Submarines of the United States Navy

Alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

19th-century submarines of the United States Lost submarines of the United States United States submarine accidents 1862 ships Maritime incidents in April 1863 Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Shipwrecks of the American Civil War Hand-cranked submarines

Construction

Operational history

See also

References

External links