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Within weeks of the beginning of the Civil War, the
navies North and South turned to submarines. To the
Confederates, these were a means to break the Union
blockade; to the Federals, a way to destroy the
underwater obstacles that barred their attacks from the
sea upon the ports through which vital supplies from
Europe flowed to arm the rebels. Submarines, along with
underwater mines, were considered “infernal machines”—an
ungentlemanly if not illegal means of waging war.
Because of the secret nature of this first “war beneath
the waves,” the exploits of these early submariners are
little known. However, the story of one boat and the men
who crewed her is slowly coming to light . . .
The Civil War’s first submarine (and the first such
vessel accepted into the U.S. Navy), was designed by an
immigrant Frenchman eager to help his new country.
Brutus de Villeroi had a history of submarine
experiments dating back to 1832 in
France , where
he first demonstrated a functional boat designed for
salvage work. One month after the Civil War began, de
Villeroi popped up in the waters off Philadelphia Navy
Yard to show his most recent vessel to the Navy officers
there; acting upon rumors of an unusual vessel possibly
intent upon sabotage, the harbor police impounded the
boat. But the Navy agreed to examine the vessel.
Impressed by what they saw, de Villeroi was asked to
build a larger submarine.
While the main role envisioned for Union submarines
would be to clear obstructions, the Navy contracted for
de Villeroi’s boat for an entirely different reason.
Rumors of a powerful Confederate ironclad building upon
the remains of the burned out
Merrimack had northern
sailors rushing to find a means to meet this new threat.
Three types of iron-plated vessels were rushed into
production ( Galena
, New Ironsides, and Monitor); a squadron
of civilian-owned transports was hired to ram the enemy
ship; and, at the shipyard of Neafie & Levy in
Philadelphia , constructors
worked feverishly to complete the “submarine propeller”
designed by de Villeroi.
One of the features that made this vessel so unique was
the fact that it employed an air-scrubbing system to
remove carbon dioxide from the interior environment of
the boat. No other Civil War submarine had such a
system. Unfortunately, the expense of the components of
this system, the unfamiliarity of Navy officials with
its workings, and, quite probably, the fact that neither
the shipyard nor the Navy had ever dealt with a
self-described “natural genius” before meant
construction was delayed long after the threat of the
CSS Virginia had been met.
Completed in the spring of 1862, the Navy’s new
submarine was sent up Hampton Roads in
Virginia for its first combat
mission: to destroy a railroad bridge over Appomattox
Creek and thereby cut a major supply line to
Richmond
.
About this time, the new submarine acquired its name—not
in any official ceremony, but at the whim of a newspaper
reporter who likened the progress of the green-painted
boat through the water to that of an alligator. Although
not recognized by the Navy, the new name stuck. The
image was suggested not only by the color of the vessel,
but also from the fact that this first version was
propelled by banks of oars! De Villeroi had opted to
discard the already-traditional propeller for individual
oars that deployed and feathered with each stroke.
So, how does a submarine attack a railroad—especially in
this early period when self-propelled torpedoes were
still twenty years in the future? Alligator’s
mode of attack was advanced for its day. In addition to
the crew of 14+ men and an officer, the submarine
deployed a diver through a forward airlock. Exiting the
boat, the diver could attach mines to a target, return
to the boat, and detonate the mines by connecting an
insulated copper wire from the mines to a battery in the
vessel. Unfortunately, Alligator was denied this
second chance to make history when local Navy officers
warned of shallow water along the Appomattox;
passing through this area would make the submarine
easily visible and most likely simple to capture. In the
hands of the Confederates, Alligator could be
used to attack the blockading fleet and there would be
little that the Union vessels could do to defend
themselves. Alligator was towed back to
Washington .
Over the summer and winter of 1862, the Navy replaced
the civilian crew with one of its own, officered by
Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. Running extensive tests
with the boat resulted in the substitution of a
propeller for the unwieldy oars; this doubled the speed
of the boat from two to four knots. After completing
these tests and making it very well known that he
thought little of submarine warfare, Lt. Selfridge and
his men were transferred to the Mississippi Squadron and
Alligator came under the command of Acting Master
Samuel Eakins. This officer was a professional diver
(who worked for the Czar of Russia in the years before
the Civil War, trying to salvage Russian ships lost
during the Crimean War). Eakins had a small conning
tower with viewing ports added to Alligator over
the winter of 1862-63.
In the early spring of 1863, Alligator was
assigned a new mission to destroy underwater obstacles
barring the waters around Fort
Sumpter in
Charleston harbor. Admiral DuPont
intended to use his squadron of ironclads to destroy the
fort and finally take the town, but knew he would be
hampered by obstructions and minefields. In late March
Alligator began the long voyage to
South Carolina under tow by USS
Sumpter. Its route took it around stormy
Cape
Hatteras , the “Graveyard of the
Atlantic ” which had already claimed USS Monitor
and almost taken its fellow ironclad, USS Passaic.
On
April 2, 1863 , in a storm
described as one of the most violent ever experienced by
the captain of Sumpter, the lines connecting
Alligator to its tow vessel began to part. As the
small (47’) submarine yawed back and forth in the
violent waves, slowly filling with water from broken
portholes and loosened iron plates, the decision was
made to cut the remaining lines before the boat dragged
down Sumpter as well. Alligator
disappeared from the view of the men on Sumpter
as they fought for their lives against the storm.
Admiral DuPont’s ironclad attack went in three days
later, and was a dismal failure.
With the close of the war and de Villeroi’s death in
1875, knowledge of this advanced submarine was all but
lost. The United States, surrounded
by protecting oceans, had little need to develop a
submarine force at this point in its history.
Now, the hunt is on for Alligator. In a project
spearheaded by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and including the Navy & Marine
Living History Association (NMLHA), historical research
as well as probes into the waters off
Cape
Hatteras are underway. The biggest
find so far: a complete set of original plans drawn by
de Villeroi in 1863 and sent home to
France!
While finding Alligator would be interesting from
an historical perspective, there are also compelling
reasons to develop the technology to locate something so
small in such deep waters. These include national
defense for, in the words of Rear Admiral Cohen of the
Office of Naval Research, 'If we can find Alligator,
we can find anything!"
The ability to "find anything" is also critical for
protecting our seas and shores from environmental
dangers: for more than a century, metal-hulled vessels
have been sinking and taking down cargoes of lethal
chemicals and fuels. Corroding in the salty waters of
the oceans, those ships are a ticking time bomb that
will eventually poison our coasts. Finding them and
securing them before it is too late is absolutely
necessary.
If you would like to be informed of developments in the
Hunt for the Alligator, visit either the NOAA or
NMLHA websites and sign up for email updates. We’ll let
you know when new information is posted to the sites.
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