When I hear the word “ wedge , ” I remember of something out ofThe Hunt For Red October . Yet sub - surface war forego the Cold War by over a century . In fact , the first conflict to put military zep in activity was the Revolutionary War , and it was the American Civil War which saw the world ’s first spurt of successful wedge combat .
Underwater Revolution
In 1775 , Connecticut resident physician and Yale University science bookman David Bushnell reconstruct a one - man craft which was account as resembling “ two upper plate of a tortoise joined together . " fitly , it was knight the Turtle . An astonished George Washington visit the project “ an effort of genius . ”
The Turtle was eventually lost when a vessel carry it sank in the Hudson River , and when the War of 1812 crop up , a new one - man wedge was crafted for the American cause by another Connecticut discoverer named Silas Halsey . Halsey break down with his ship on the Nox of June 30 , 1813 . It would n’t be the last clock time a primitive submarine arrogate the lifespan of its builder .
Uncivil Ships
Submarine building continued during the Civil War . The Confederates ’ first submersed attack vessel — the CSS Pioneer — was built in New Orleans in 1862 , but was later on dismantled prior to the Union ’s subjugation of the urban center . Though it was never used , the newfangled ship had dwarfed its forebears at 30 foot in length and could hold a whopping two crewmembers . The Pioneer II ( also eff as the American Diver ) had a more hydrodynamic design and featured an expanded DoI ramp up for four to five men . But the American Diver meet a watery grave in Alabama ’s Mobile Bay during a test - run in 1863 ( though her crew was rescued ) .
Meanwhile , the North was busily work on its own submarine . A Union U-boat called the USS Alligator was built and tested in 1861 . Its cracking innovation was a sealable scuttle that would allow underwater diver to expire the vessel underwater . In 1863 , the unmanned 45 - foot ship was lose at ocean while being towed to Charleston , and has never been recovereddespite decades of look for .
Later that yr , a vastly - improved ship constitute the H.L. Hunley was build . At nearly 40 feet in length and 7.5 heaps in weight , the vas was mean for a crew of eight : one man would manoeuvre while his companions would sit along a wooden bench and manually rotate a crankshaft that turned the propellor .
The H.L. Hunley lapse twice during its training full point , killing most or all of its crew on each occasion , including her designer and namesake Horace Hunley on the second attempt . But she was recovered each time , and finally embarked on her first commission on the night of February 17 , 1864 .
The labor was to put down a Union watercraft in the blockade of Charleston ’s outer harbor . To execute this , a 17 - foot - long spar had been fitted to the Hunley ’s stem , with a bristly container of explosive secured to its tip . The furtive vas posit its gunslinger upon the USS Housatonic , which sank after the result explosion — the first ship in world history to be capsized by a submarine attack . For unknown reasons , the Hunley herself also sink shortly thereafter .
The Hunley was eventually rediscovered in 1970 . Thirty twelvemonth later , after extensive archaeological analysis , she was finally brought back to the control surface , and is undergo further written report in the Warren Lasch Conservation Center . Plans for a permanent museum arecurrently being place out .
