USS Alligator was first launched on May 1, 1862. She was a Villeroi-designed Alligator was the first U.S. Navy submarine. It was also the first to feature compressed air for an air supply and an air filtration system. Initially propelled by sixteen hand-powered paddles protruding from the sides, it was converted after six months to a screw propeller powered by a hand crank. At 47 feet long and about 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter, the USS Alligator was the largest of the documented American Civil War submarines. It was lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras on April 1, 1863 while under tow to its first combat deployment at Charleston.
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