“Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns, and Pearls,” by James P. Delgado, Texas A&M University Press, 184 pages, $34.95.
What do you do with a war-surplus submarine — after the American Civil War?
The answer is presented in “Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns, and Pearls,” by James P. Delgado. It tells the story of Sub Marine Explorer, built on spec for the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.
The submarine was incomplete at war’s end. The Navy, unenthusiastic about the boat during the war, decided not to purchase it. The owners then decided to use it for commercial activities, notably as a means to harvest pearls off Panama.
The endeavor failed. Sub Marine Explorer worked as expected, allowing crews to reach pearl beds as deep as 100 feet below the surface and harvest nearly a ton of pearl oysters on each trip. Uniformly, crews, including its builder Julius H. Kroehl, contracted fever and died shortly afterward.
Kroehl’s creation was beached on an island off Panama for use the next year. It proved impossible to hire men to operate the boat because of the deaths of previous crews (a result of decompression sickness, then unknown) and the pearl beds were fished out. The company went bankrupt. Forgotten, the craft washed out to sea following a hurricane, sinking in shallow waters off Ile San Telmo, the wreck visible at low tide.
By 2001, when Delgado was vacationing at Ile San Telmo, the old wreck had become encrusted with legend as well as corrosion. Locals believed the vessel to be anything from a World War II mini-sub to a poison-laden vessel that destroyed the pearl beds.
A maritime archeologist, Delgado sought to discover its origins. After nearly a decade, he unraveled the boat’s history, presenting the results in this book.
Delgado’s tale goes beyond just the boat wrecked at Ile San Telmo. He tells the story of its creator. Kroehl, born in Germany, immigrated to the United States in the 1840s. Kroehl became a photographer, then as a civil engineer, he took an interest in what today is called ocean engineering, becoming involved in clearing underwater obstructions. This led to an interest in diving bells and, in turn, to the development of Sub Marine Explorer. Delgado follows Kroehl’s career as an engineering pioneer.
“Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine” offers readers a fascinating story of engineering, pioneering undersea exploration and America at the start of the Gilded Age. Delgado restores a forgotten chapter in submarine development to history.
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