Civil War Submarine Battles Were Often Suicide Missions

What it needed was a quick release system, much like the QD mounts for today's rifles, in particular, the AR system.
I'm unsure if you could manage a system along the QD mount lines that would be able to quick-release but still hold up tons of weight. The way it was done on HMS Polyphemus (a semi-submersible torpedo ram of the Royal Navy) was that the detachible keel was held on by two spindles - presumably both spindles had cutouts and two sections (the top one holding the keel, the bottom one rotating) and one would rotate the bottom section of each spindle so the cutout in that lined up with the cutout in the upper part).
It can probably be done, though it might have too much of a space penalty for an early submersible.
 
I'm not 100% sure and will rely on our experts, but I think submarine duty is to this day a volunteer proposition. The U.S. Navy does not assign sailors to "tube duty," without their individual acquiescence. I am for my own part not getting in one of these things, sorry.
To join these ranks requires a few things:
  • Volunteer to be in a sub
  • Pass prerequisite tests
  • Prove your ability to serve in this environment
  • Complete advanced training in everything from your technical specialty to damage control.
https://www.navy.com/navy-life/life-on-a-sub.html#why-live-on-a-sub
 
Correct about sub duty, today: one must qualify to. be accepted into the program, and then the schooling is so intense, that with a few more courses, my relative was able to obtain a Master's in Nuclear Physics.

To join these ranks requires a few things:
  • Volunteer to be in a sub
  • Pass prerequisite tests
  • Prove your ability to serve in this environment
  • Complete advanced training in everything from your technical specialty to damage control.
https://www.navy.com/navy-life/life-on-a-sub.html#why-live-on-a-sub

Thanks, you guys. My Old Man was a WWII (surface duty) Navy Vet, who told us years ago that submarine service was a volunteer issue. "What daddy or granddaddy said" is usually not well regarded around here. It's good to know we were told the truth.
 
Thanks, you guys. My Old Man was a WWII (surface duty) Navy Vet, who told us years ago that submarine service was a volunteer issue. "What daddy or granddaddy said" is usually not well regarded around here. It's good to know we were told the truth.

Yup. Papa was spot on :smile:
 
I believe they meant the engines found in diesel-electric locomotives. WW2 Fleet-type vessels used engines supplied by Fairbanks-Morse and General Motors' Cleveland Diesel Engine Division.
Absolutely nothing to do with our period at all but after WWI when the fleets were being run down and all the German boats surrendered there were serious proposals and some experiments in Britain and France,to use ex submarine diesels in railway locomotives.
 
Can you tell us more about Kroehl's boat? Thanks.
The vessel operated more as an independent diving bell, allowing divers to exit and re-enter through a hatch on the bottom deck, or access the oyster beds being after setting down on them. It was built in Brooklyn, NY, in a ship yard next door to another one building the 'Intelligent Whale' - another submarine built too late for the war. In fact, principal owners for both submarines were actually brothers-in-law. The 'Sub Marine Explorer' was shipped to Panama in December 1866, operated over the summer of 1867 for trials, and then beached - most likely due to Kroehl's death (was it decompression sickness, yellow fever, or a recurring bout of malaria?). Supposedly, the company resumed operations two years later, then folded. With the exception of the 'Alligator,' no other Union submarine ever was deployed. Unlike the Confederates, their application would have been used for minesweeping, removing underwater obstacles, and perhaps some special offensive attacks, such as blowing up fortifications. In 1862, Kroehl and Maj Edwin Hunt were part of a project to launch rockets from underwater against Confederate defenses in the James River. The plan did not come to fruition.
 
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