Going back through some old stuff.
Most CW buffs have heard lots and lots about the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, but few know that the North had one as well.
The Jan. 14, 2008, North Attleboro (Ma) Sun Chronicle had an article about Chuck Veit, president of the Navy and Marine Living History Association who received a $4,999 grant to update and distribute posters of the Union Navy's 1862 submarine called the Alligator which was largely forgotten until five years ago.
It was built by the French inventor Brutus de Villeroi who immigrated to the US.
The 47-foot-long, oar-propelled Alligator got its name from what it looked like. Its first mission was to destroy a bridge on the Appomattox and James rivers, but they were too shallow for a complete submerge and there was a fear that Confederates would capture it so the mission was aborted.
It sank in 1863 off Cape Hatteras while being towed for an attack on Charleston.
See www.navyandmarine.org which has a whole page on the Alligator Project.
Wouldn't that be something to find this wreck and possibly recover it. The direct predecessor of today's nuclear subs. Had the Alligator reached Charleston, we might have had the first battle of the submarines.
Just Thinking. --B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
