Civil War Submarines Essay

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Submarines also played an instrumental part in the Civil War. The need for them predominantly came about because Union warships would patrol the seas and formed a blockade of Confederate ships, which were coming with guns, gunpowder and shipbuilding materials for the Confederate soldiers. One of these ports was Charlestown, which was a major hub of trade (Walker 6). The Confederate soldiers needed to open up Charleston but they didn't have ships to go head on with the stronger and better-made Union warships. The obvious solution to them was the torpedo. There were still issues with that solution though because torpedoes of the Civil War era were immobile and instead they were anchored to the bottom of harbors and river channels. A wire ran from the torpedo to the coast …show more content…
This is where submarines came into play. Early submarines such as the Turtle were built during the American Revolution but it never sunk a ship. There were plenty of issues with that submarines of the Civil War. For instance the David, which was used by the Confederates had a cigar shaped wooden boat powered by a steam engine. Torpedoes would be attached to the end of its spar and it would jam that into enemy ships in order to try to sink it. The obvious issues were its steam engine alerted ships of their location, giving the boat enough time to maneuver around the David (8). Horace Lawson Hunley and James McClintock went to Mobile, Alabama in 1862 and were confident that they could build a submarine to aid the South. McClintock had the technical experience because he was a skilled engineer and part owner of a shop that built gauges for steam operated equipment (9). Horace Hunley on the other hand was a rich plantation owner and the blockade prevented him from selling his sugar and cotton. Therefore, he served as the captain of the blockade-runner, which moved supplies past the blockade at

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