[On September 7th, 1776, the Revolutionary forces employed the Turtle, the first submersible to be used in warfare. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that event and other submarine stories in our history and culture, leading up to a special weekend tribute to one of my favorite people who has a special sub connection!]
On what three Civil War submersibles reveal about this evolving form of warfare and transportation.
- CSS David: That hyperlinked Gilder Lehrman Institution page highlights a striking primary source, Union sailor Lewis West’s letter describing the October 1863 attack in Charleston Bay on his vessel, the USS New Ironsides, by the Confederate submarine the David. That attack was as unsuccessful as the Turtle’s had been in the Revolution, and in fact even more so as the David was itself nearly blown up by its “torpedo” (the era’s term for what we would call mines) in the process, but the submarine did survive; it continued to be part of the Confederate war effort for at least another year or so, with 1864 attacks on the USS Memphis and USS Wabash. But both were also unsuccessful, and I think what the David most illustrates is how fraught subs still were, nearly a century after the Turtle—fraught at best as weapons of war, and fraught as well (or at least hazardous) as vehicles.
- CSS H.L. Hunley: Interestingly enough, the David was the only Confederate submarine that was not financed by the inventor Horace Lawson Hunley; Hunley did fund the Confederate mechanic and shipbuilder James McClintock in his construction of three other submersibles, the Pioneer, the American Diver, and the sub named after its benefactor, the H.L. Hunley. Of the three, only the Hunley saw combat (the Pioneer was scuttled in April 1862 and the American Diver sunk in heavy surf in February 1863), but it was also the first successful combat submarine: in February 1864, the Hunley detonated a torpedo against the hull of the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor, sinking the Union vessel in just three minutes. Yet that success came at a cost, as the Hunley failed to return to her base, going down with all hands (and leading to a more than century-long, famous quest to recover her remains). A combination which reflects the continued dangers of this new form of warfare, but also the ways it would begin to profoundly and permanently alter naval warfare.
- USS Alligator: The first U.S. Navy submarine (partly a technicality, as the Turtle was part of the Continental Navy, but also a reflection of both the evolution of the U.S. Armed Forces and their contrast with the Confederate Navy) was the least successful of all these vessels—it never attempted an attack, and while being towed from Philadelphia to South Carolina in March 1863 was cut adrift in bad weather and quickly sank (leading to another, and to this day unsuccessful, quest to find her remains). But what’s worth taking away from the Alligator, besides the fact that both Civil War navies recognized the value of this new form of vessel, is that she was designed by a talented immigrant: the engineer and inventor Brutus de Villeroi, who had designed a number of diving ships in his native France before immigrating to the U.S. in 1856. I’m a big fan of the diversity of American military history, and I love that the first U.S. Navy submarine was designed by a recent immigrant.
Next SubStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Sub stories you’d share?
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