American Diver, also known as the Pioneer II, was a prototype submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 built for the Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 military. It was the first successor to the Pioneer

Pioneer (submarine)

Pioneer was the first of three submarines privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock and Baxter Watson.Hunley, McClintock and Watson built Pioneer in New Orleans, Louisiana...

. The Diver was invented and built by the same consortium that built the Pioneer in New Orleans. It was composed of Horace Lawson Hunley

Horace Lawson Hunley

Horace Lawson Hunley , was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was posthumously named for him, H. L...

, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson. They were forced to move their operations to Mobile, Alabama

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

 following the capture of New Orleans by Union forces

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 in April 1862. Although ultimately unsuccessful, it served as a model in the development of the consortium's next submarine, the H. L. Hunley. The Hunley eventually became the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship.

History

The Diver was designed and built by the consortium in late 1862. Over the course of several months many costly attempts were made to propel the submarine with some type of electrical motor

Electric motor

An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

 and then a steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

, but both methods proved to be failures. The steam engine was finally replaced by a hand-crank

Crank (mechanism)

A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...

. The submarine was ready for trials by January 1863. It required four crew members to turn the propeller crank and one to steer. An unsuccessful attack on the Union blockade

Union blockade

The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...

 of Mobile was attempted in February 1863, but the ship was deemed to be too slow by the team. She sank in Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...

later that same month during stormy weather, although no lives were lost. The ship was not recovered and remains in an undiscovered location somewhere near the entrance of the bay to the present day.