Mystery submersible

[mkyzzzrdet]

 

[mkyzzzrdet]

Last week I visited the "Houmas House" plantation near New Orleans. Beautiful antebellum place. One item was what they called a "Confederate Submersible" (above). There was no explanatory material with it, however. I don't know what it is, or whether it ever actually saw service. I was going to look at the "Naval War: section of this forum, but I see there are 62 pages! Is this "submersible" mentioned in any of the other files? Does anybody know what it is supposed to be?? Thanks.

 

[Ptarmigan]

From an engineering point of view the metal its made from looks very thin so its probably made out of copper sheet like some torpedoes were . Its an intriguing shape , obviously designed to go in water but I would question its stability without a significant amount of ballast . It seems to have no means of propulsion (its too narrow for a hand crank) and has no steering . It looks like something thats been designed to be towed but the roof indicates it would have had a crew inside it , also if the the ends were submerged it would only show a small part of itself above water indicating that it was intended to be stealthy. If it is copper then I would speculate that it might have been a very big towed torpedoe , initially guided to the target by a crewman who would bale out prior to impact . When someone comes up with the real history I am going to look a bit foolish but until then thats my theory and I am sticking to it.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Here's some information:

The infernal Confederate Machine (Houmas Plantation)

A Confederate infernal machine was exhibited for many years in the small private Civil War museum (belonging to an oil company) at the Tezcuco Plantation, near Burnside, Louisiana. On May 12, 2002, the Manor House and other buildings of the plantation were totally destroyed by fire. However, I had the opportunity to visit this plantation in July 2001 and took some shots of the submarine. Fortunately, although it had been abandoned for a few years, it was not too badly damaged. I took the necessary steps so that it could be entrusted to the remarkable Civil War Naval Museum of Columbus in Georgia, but to no avail. It finally was bought by the Museum of Houmas House Plantation, near Darrow, Louisiana, which quickly completed the restoration of the small submersible as shown on the photograph taken at this location in 2007.

More at:
http://chab-belgium.com/pdf/english/Submarine monsters.pdf

 

[alan polk]

Could be a bootlegger's submersible. They used to have one on display at The Agricultural and Forestry Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

 

[mkyzzzrdet]

That's an interesting story about the wealthy planter and the two slaves. Could well be true. Thanks for the info.

 

[Dilandu]

Interesting. Seems more like some sort of semi-submersible. Probably hand-made and not on the factory - the hull forms are too rough.

My IMHO, if she is truly Civil War era ship - she is probably some personal, non-government attempt to make submersible/semi-submersible craft. Due to the small size and lack of space (or any sort of screw) - probably some sort of semi-submersible canoe, driven with paddles.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Could be a bootlegger's submersible. They used to have one on display at The Agricultural and Forestry Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

There's another bootlegger's sub on display at the Grand Gulf Military Park south of Vicksburg.

Not Civil War vintage, but still neat.

A 1920's contraption that operated with a Ford Model-T engine.

It was more like mini version of a Confederate "David" semi-submersible torpedo boat.

But I digress.

 

[alan polk]

There's another bootlegger's sub on display at the Grand Gulf Military Park south of Vicksburg.

Not Civil War vintage, but still neat.

A 1920's contraption that operated with a Ford Model-T engine.

It was more like mini version of a Confederate "David" semi-submersible torpedo boat.

But I digress.

You know, it might have been at Grand Gulf where I saw it. Wherever I saw it, there was a whiskey still displayed nearby the submersible, both, I think, confiscated by Mississippi Alcohol Beverage Control.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

You know, it might have been at Grand Gulf where I saw it. Wherever I saw it, there was a whiskey still displayed nearby the submersible, both, I think, confiscated by Mississippi Alcohol Beverage Control.

Yep, I think that's the same Grand Gulf Moonshiner sub.

It's not too far from the whiskey still on display as well.

https://dytam.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/april-3-9-glimpses-of-the-deep-south/

 

[alan polk]

You are correct, my friend! Thanks for posting! I still wonder if what mkyzzzrdet posted is not something similar?

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

A professor sent me photos of this vessel last year and asked that I check it out. He didn't send any history or details, just a few pix. I never did have time to follow up on it, but my first thought was that it was simply a display piece. As noted, the metal is remarkably thin and there was no obvious mode of propulsion in the photos I was sent, so I didn't take it very seriously. A curiosity for sure.

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

From an engineering point of view the metal its made from looks very thin so its probably made out of copper sheet like some torpedoes were . Its an intriguing shape , obviously designed to go in water but I would question its stability without a significant amount of ballast . It seems to have no means of propulsion (its too narrow for a hand crank) and has no steering . It looks like something thats been designed to be towed but the roof indicates it would have had a crew inside it , also if the the ends were submerged it would only show a small part of itself above water indicating that it was intended to be stealthy. If it is copper then I would speculate that it might have been a very big towed torpedoe , initially guided to the target by a crewman who would bale out prior to impact . When someone comes up with the real history I am going to look a bit foolish but until then thats my theory and I am sticking to it.

I agree with you, although to me the metal appears to be iron.
However, those rivets do not seem to fit (size wise or frequency- really small and very close together) for iron construction of the ACW era.

 

[Ptarmigan]

One thing for sure, it wasnt designed to submerge so that rules out the Belgium "Infernal machine" idea as it is designed to be operated more like a David than a submersible . If its made of copper or wrought iron then it might be civil war period but if its made of steel then its a post civil war vessel as this was only an experimental material used in the UK during the war . A rum runner would probably have been made of steel but I would have expected it to be more corroded than this.