American Diver Explained
American Diver, also known as the
Pioneer II, was a prototype
submarine built for the
Confederate States of America military. It was the first successor to the
Pioneer. The
Diver was invented and built by the same consortium that built the
Pioneer in New Orleans. It was composed of
Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson. They were forced to move their operations to
Mobile, Alabama, following the capture of New Orleans by
Union forces in April 1862.
[1] Although ultimately unsuccessful, it served as a model in the development of the consortium's next submarine, the
H. L. Hunley. The
Hunley eventually became the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship.
[2] History
The Diver was designed and built by the consortium in late 1862. Over the course of several months many costly attempts were made to propel the submarine with some type of electrical motor and then a steam engine, but both methods proved to be failures. The steam engine was finally replaced by a hand-crank. The submarine was ready for trials by January 1863. It required four crew members to turn the propeller crank and one to steer and was deemed to be too slow by the team. Nonetheless, it was decided in February 1863, to tow the submarine down the bay to Fort Morgan and attempt an attack on the Union blockade of Mobile. However, the submarine foundered in the heavy chop caused by foul weather and the currents at the mouth of Mobile Bay and sank.[3] The crew escaped, but the boat was not recovered. [4]
Notes and References
- Book: Keegan, John . The American Civil War: A Military History . 2009 . Random House . 287.
- Web site: American Diver: A New Diver of Destruction . September 17, 2011 . Friends of the Hunley . September 20, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20021211024111/http://www.hunley.org/main_index.asp?CONTENT=DIVER . December 11, 2002 . dead . mdy-all .
- Book: John S. Sledge. The Mobile River. 29 May 2015. University of South Carolina Press. 978-1-61117-486-1. 188–189.
- Web site: The Birth of Undersea Warfare – H.L. Hunley . https://web.archive.org/web/20121016165452/http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_32/hunley.html . October 16, 2012 . September 17, 2011 . Undersea Warfare: The Official Magazine of the U.S. Submarine Force . United States Navy .
