{"id":44,"date":"2007-01-03T14:57:59","date_gmt":"2007-01-03T19:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/the-alligator-the-us-navys-first-submarine\/"},"modified":"2007-01-03T15:01:34","modified_gmt":"2007-01-03T20:01:34","slug":"the-alligator-the-us-navys-first-submarine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/44\/the-alligator-the-us-navys-first-submarine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alligator &#8211; The US Navy&#8217;s First Submarine"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"147322a129097e1fa44d6732c925fd6d\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-8134560547846945\";\r\n\/* 468x60 tha *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"1487607395\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Imagine living in Philadelphia during the early days of the Civil War and reading the latest issue of the Philadelphia <em>Evening Bulletin<\/em>. A front-page story reveals a strange and alarming tale: Harbor police have captured a partially\u00e2\u20ac\u2018submerged, 33\u00e2\u20ac\u2018foot long, cigar\u00e2\u20ac\u2018shaped contraption moving slowly down the Delaware River.This \u00e2\u20ac\u0153infernal machine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the paper described it, was the creation of French inventor, Brutus De Villeroi, self proclaimed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Natural Genius,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who built the submarine to salvage the 1798 wreck of the <em>DeBraak,<\/em> sunk off Lewes, DE. Taking immediate action to safeguard the safety of its citizen in time of war, the Philadelphia police impounded the submarine. Meanwhile, the local Navy Yard, answering the call from the Lincoln administration, was looking for a technological edge for fighting the Confederacy. The 1861 Philadelphia incident convinced them to invest in a submarine of De Villeroi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design.<\/p>\n<table width=\"169\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"168\" height=\"229\" border=\"1\" alt=\"Jules Verne photo\" src=\"http:\/\/sanctuaries.noaa.gov\/alligator\/images\/verne.jpg\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><em>Jules Verne (1828-1905)<\/em><\/font><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Hence begins the little-known story of the United States Submarine Propeller U.S.S. Alligator \u00e2\u20ac\u2018\u00e2\u20ac\u2018 a technological wonder akin to other great maritime advances of the Civil War era, including the well\u00e2\u20ac\u2018known ironclad USS <em>Monitor<\/em> and the recently\u00e2\u20ac\u2018raised Confederate submarine CSS Hunley. The story of the <em>Alligator<\/em> is right out of Jules Verne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>20,000 Leagues Under the Sea<\/em>. In fact, according to one translation of that novel, De Villeroi was Verne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s math teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Built to counter the threat of Confederate ironclads, the 47-foot-long, green, oar-propelled sub was a vessel like no other. Among its most notable features was an airlock designed to allow a diver to exit the vessel while submerged and place an explosive charge on an enemy ship. The <em>Alligator<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design also included an air purification system. Both are standard components of modern submarines.<\/p>\n<p>Following its launch from a Philadelphia shipyard in 1862, the <em>Alligato<\/em>r was tasked with destroying bridges crossing the Appomattox River and clearing obstructions in the James River in Virginia. But the <em>Alligator<\/em> would never get the chance to prove itself in battle. After arriving in the combat zone, the waters of the James and Appomattox proved too shallow to allow the sub to submerge. The <em>Alligator<\/em> was also less maneuverable than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing that it could be captured by the Confederacy, the <em>Alligator<\/em> was withdrawn and towed to the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., where it was refitted with a hand-cranked screw propeller. President Lincoln himself witnessed a demonstration of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153improved\u00e2\u20ac\u009d vessel. After declaring that the <em>Alligator<\/em> was ready for action, Rear Adm. Samuel Dupont ordered the sub to Charleston, S.C., in March 1863. It would be a fateful journey.<\/p>\n<p>While heading south along the North Carolina coast, the <em>Alligator<\/em> and its tow vessel, the USS <em>Sumpter<\/em>, encountered a storm so fierce that the <em>Sumpter<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crew, facing the loss of their own ship, was forced to cut the unmanned submarine loose on April 2, 1863. The Union sub was never seen again.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehistoricalarchive.com%2Fhappenings%2F44%2Fthe-alligator-the-us-navys-first-submarine%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;margin-top:5px;\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine living in Philadelphia during the early days of the Civil War and reading the latest issue of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. A front-page story reveals a strange and alarming tale: Harbor police have captured a partially\u00e2\u20ac\u2018submerged, 33\u00e2\u20ac\u2018foot long, cigar\u00e2\u20ac\u2018shaped contraption moving slowly down the Delaware River.This \u00e2\u20ac\u0153infernal machine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the paper described it, was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}