Первая подводная лодка ВМС США: USS Alligator

Submarine of the United States

USS Alligator, the fourth United States Navy ship of that name, is the first known U. S. Navy submarine, and was active during the American Civil War (the first American underwater vehicle was Turtle during the Revolutionary War, and was operated by the Continental Army, vice Navy, in 1776 against British vessels in New York harbor). During the Civil War the Confederate States Navy would also build its own submarine, H. L. Hunley.

In the autumn of 1861, the Union Navy asked the firm of Neafie & Levy to construct a small submersible ship designed by the French engineer Brutus de Villeroi, who also acted as a supervisor during the first phase of the construction (de Villeroi had designed and built submarines in France and one after immigrating to the United States). The boat was about 47 feet (14 m) long, with a beam of 4 feet (1 m) and height of 5 feet (2 m). Air was supplied from the surface by two tubes with floats, connected to an air pump located inside the submarine; it was the first operational submarine to have an air purifying system. The boat had a forward airlock, and was the first operational submarine with the capability for a diver to leave and return while both remained submerged. The Union Navy wanted such a vessel to counter the threat posed to its wooden hulled blockaders by the former screw frigate Merrimack which, according to intelligence reports, the Norfolk Navy Yard was rebuilding as an ironclad ram for the Confederacy (CSS Virginia). The Union Navy's agreement with the Philadelphia shipbuilder specified that the submarine was to be finished in not more than 40 days; its keel was laid down almost immediately following the signing on 1 November 1861 of a contract for her construction. Nevertheless, the work proceeded so slowly that more than 180 days had elapsed when the novel craft finally was launched on 1 May 1862.

Soon after her launching, she was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to be fitted out and manned. Two weeks later, she was placed under command of a civilian, Mr. Samuel Eakins. On 13 June, the Navy formally accepted the boat. Next, the steam tug Fred Kopp was engaged to tow the submarine to Hampton Roads, Virginia. The two vessels got underway on 19 June and proceeded down the Delaware River to the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, through which they entered the Chesapeake Bay for the last leg of the voyage, reaching Hampton Roads on the 23rd. At Norfolk, the submarine was moored alongside the sidewheel steamer Satellite, which was to act as her tender during her service with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. A spring 1862 newspaper report called the vessel Alligator, in part because of its green color, a moniker which soon appeared in official correspondence. She either immediately sank or drifted for a while before sinking, ending the career of the United States Navy's first submarine. An attempt to find it in 2005 was not successful.