LAST LECTURE IN THE SUBMARINE LECTURE SERIES
AT THE MARITIME MUSEUM OF SAN DIEGO
Aboard ferryboat Berkeley
Monday, June 12, 2006 7:30 p.m.
The Search for the Navy’s First Submarine, USS Alligator
Timothy Runyan, Ph.D.
Launched in 1862, the 47-foot, 30-ton iron submarine USS Alligator was the U.S. Navy’s first submarine. Representing a significant leap forward in naval engineering, the sub contained an airlock to allow a diver to exit the vessel while submerged and place an explosive charge on an enemy ship. The ship’s design also included an air purification system. Both are standard components of modern submarines. The Alligator was equipped with oars for propulsion, but was later refitted with a hand-cranked screw propeller.
It operated with a crew of 17-22, but was unmanned while being towed from Washington, D.C. to Charleston, South Carolina in April 1863. A storm forced the crew to cut the towline and the vessel sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it has remained for 143 years.
A search for the sub was launched by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research in 2002. Researchers with East Carolina University’s Maritime Studies program are participating in the search.
Dr. Runyan is Interim Assistant to the Vice Chancellors for Research and Academic Affairs, and former director of the Maritime Studies Department at East Carolina University. His interests include medieval maritime history, the Great Lakes, law, and preservation. He is past editor of The American Neptune, a maritime history journal published by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.
Dr. Runyan will talk about the most recent efforts to locate and retrieve the Alligator from the watery Graveyard of the Atlantic off the coast of Cape Hatteras.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets will be sold at the door for each lecture ($10 nonmembers, $8 Maritime Museum members). The box office will open at 7:00 p.m.
Advance tickets can be purchased online ONLY at www.sdmaritime.org
Admission to the lecture includes a self-guided tour of B-39, the Foxtrot Russian submarine on display at the Maritime Museum.