You’ve heard of the Confederacy’s prototype submarine CSS Hunley. But did you know that the Union had a similar one called USS Alligator?
“Consider their Civil War service:
The Confederate Hunley was credited with sinking a Union ship.
The Union Alligator aborted its first mission because it couldn’t dive in shallow river water.
“The Hunley was believed to have sunk in combat.
The Alligator went down in a storm while being towed to Charleston, S.C.
The Hunley sank with eight men aboard.
The Alligator was unmanned when it sank.
“The Hunley was the object of an extensive search [Discovered by Dr. E. Lee Spence in 1970] and an eventual recovery in 2000.
The Alligator until now had been largely forgotten.”
More here, with cool models of each submarine.
Via The Hunley Store.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
And I consider even the modern submariners to be totally mad doing what they do. What about these? wow…
Iron coffins, pure and simple. Imagine turning the crank on the Hunley, one of eight men sitting in near-darkness (only the flicker of a single candle) and increasingly foul air. Gives me chills.