American Diver
 Design for the American Diver by James Richard McClintock from 1872
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The American Diver or Pioneer II was the second submarine designed by Horace Lawson Hunley . After Horace Lawson Hunley, Baxter Watson and James McClintock sank their first submarine, Pioneer, in New Orleans during the Civil War so that the northern states shouldn't get hold of it, they planned to build a new submarine in Mobile .
Since Admiral Franklin Buchanan had no hope in submarines, no support could be expected from the Confederate States Navy . However, Major General Dabney Herndon Maury of the Confederate States Army gave permission to build a submarine and gave access to the Park & Lyons Machine Shop and the assistance of engineer Lieutenant William Alexander.
Construction of the American Diver began as early as May 1862 . The submarine was 10.97 m long, 0.91 m wide and 1.22 m wide. In the bow and stern, which were 3.66 m long and converged to a point, there was a water tank for regulating the diving depth and a compressed air tank for supplying breathing air. The water tank could be filled or emptied with a hand pump. It was planned to propel the submarine with an electric motor . Since it was impossible to buy a corresponding motor from New York , which was in the hands of the northern states, they built an electric motor themselves. When a first test attack on a Unionist ship off Mobile was carried out in early February 1863, it turned out that the power of the engine was insufficient. By the time the blockade ships cruising 10 km off the coast were reached, they were already far away. Attempts with a small steam engine were also unsuccessful.
For this reason, a hand crank was installed that was operated by four men to drive the propeller. On February 14, 1863, the American Diver was equipped with a sea mine , towed to Fort Morgan, and another attack on an enemy ship was launched. However, a storm approached in which the submarine sank. However, the crew was saved.
literature
- Peter Winston Hitchcook: Intelligent Whale: A Historical and Archaeological Analysis of an American Civil War Submersible ( Thesis ), May 2002, pp. 60–62 ( online )
