Name American Diver Out of service February 1863 Beam 3 ft (0.91 m) Construction started 1862 Length 11 m | Laid down 1862 Status Lost Propulsion Hand-cranked propeller Launched January 1863 Builder Horace Lawson Hunley | |
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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. 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.
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. An unsuccessful attack on the Union blockade of Mobile was attempted in February 1863, but the ship was deemed to be too slow by the team. She sank in Mobile Bay later that same month during stormy weather, although no lives were lost. The ship was not recovered and remains in an undiscovered location somewhere near the entrance of the bay to the present day.