![]() Strike three! No? Well, it appeared that Hunley was not out of the fight to make the Confederate States of America a formidable naval power just yet. In a test on August 29, 1863, a human error resulted in the submarine descending sooner than planned and drowned five men. Two strikes! In his third effort, Hunley worked on what became his namesake vessel. Okay, strike one! Their next effort, the American Diver or Pioneer II, was then built later on in 1862, but sank in a storm in 1863. ![]() To that end, Horace Hunley worked with two other inventors to design and build the submarine Pioneer in 1861, only to have to scuttle it in 1862. The Southern States also dabbled in submarine warfare for quite a few years of the war. Unfortunately, its bloody history actually precedes this rather infamous claim to military fame.ĭuring the American Civil War, both sides experimented with various innovative naval vessels, the most famous being the ironclads used at the battle of Hampton Roads. The Hunley‘s real claim to fame therefore is in being the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. Robert Fulton, another American inventor, invented the leaky Nautilus in 1800 and thus tried unsuccessfully to entice First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France to make use of the device. The first military submersible was most likely the Turtle invented by David Bushnell in 1775 for use in the American Revolutionary War. The Hunley was NOT the first submarine ever invented and certainly not the first one ever used for military purposes. ![]() Hunley, a Confederate (the South!) submarine, sank during a test, killing its inventor and namesake, Horace L. ![]()
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