Post by Rich Martin

The Alligator: America’s Lost Civil War Submarine Long before the modern submarine, a strange green vessel shaped like a cigar appeared on the Delaware River. Philadelphia newspapers called it an “infernal machine.” The U.S. Navy saw something more valuable: a weapon that might slip beneath Confederate defenses.  The 47-foot Alligator was designed by French inventor Brutus de Villeroi and launched in 1862. Powered first by hand-worked oars—and later by a hand-cranked propeller—it contained two remarkable innovations: an air-purification system and a lockout chamber through which a diver could leave the submerged boat, attach an explosive to an enemy vessel and return.  One of those divers was Cooper Woodington, whose surname also appears in records as Woodrington. Born in New Jersey around 1839, Cooper endured a difficult childhood and was placed in Philadelphia’s House of Refuge while still a boy. Yet he emerged with an unusual and dangerous profession. Payroll records identify him as a diver in de Villeroi’s submarine project, expected to work underwater in the era’s heavy “submarine armor.” He later served with the Navy version of the craft and traveled with it to City Point, Virginia.  The Alligator never fired a weapon in combat. Shallow rivers prevented its early missions, and mechanical problems sent it back to Washington for rebuilding. In March 1863, it was dispatched toward Charleston under tow. During a violent storm off Cape Hatteras, the tow vessel’s crew cut the unmanned submarine loose to save their own ship.  The Alligator vanished into the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Its wreck has never been conclusively located. Cooper survived, raised a large family in New Jersey and lived into old age—a forgotten human link to America’s first Navy submarine.