The Intelligent Whale was depending on the design and source of the first or second for the Marine the northern states in the American Civil War built submarine . Other sources cite the alligator as the Unionists' first submarine.
On November 2, 1863, Scovel Sturgis Merriam , the designer of the Intelligent Whale , signed a contract with Augustus Price and Cornelius Scranton Bushnell to build the submarine. In April 1864 the American Submarine Company took over the construction. It was planned to use the submarine as a privateer in war. The Intelligent Whale was launched in 1864 and was not completed until 1866 . Construction costs increased from $ 15,000 to $ 65,000. On April 18 of the same year it was sold to the Navy. During the testing, there were several accidents in which the submarine sank. A total of 35 sailors died here. It was finally abandoned in September 1872. It was first exhibited in the New York Naval Shipyard . In 1968 it was brought to the National Museum of the United States Navy in the Washington Navy Yard and can be viewed from 1999 in the National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey , in Sea Girt, New York.
The Intelligent Whale was intended as an answer to the Confederate submarines and had a crew of 6 to 13 men. It was driven by a hand-crank-operated screw that was operated by four men. With this propulsion the ship could reach 4 knots . The boat was 8.74 m long, 2.13 m wide and 2.74 m high. It had a sluice at the bottom that divers could use to attach mines to enemy ships or other constructions without being noticed.
Presumably the shape of the Intelligent Whale served John Philip Holland as a model for the construction of his submarines.
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