A fabled Civil War era submarine that has been missing for over a century may have been located by a drone in New Jersey.
Equipped with a magnetometer – essentially a massive metal detector – a drone flying over Rancocas Creek detected a magnetic anomaly that corresponded with what would be expected of the iron-hulled vessel known as The Alligator Jr.
Although it’s too early to be certain that it’s the Alligator Jr., the anomaly’s location is consistent with the research of local historian Alice Smith, who believes that the submarine was sunk or abandoned somewhere along the creek in 1861.
If the drone did find the Alligator Jr., experts are saying the ‘historical’ significance of the discovery would be enormous.
Researchers christened the missing vessel the Alligator Jr. because it served as a prototype for the U.S.’s first naval submarine, the Alligator, which was sank in 1863 and has never been found.
Built in 1859 by French-born inventor Brutus de Villeroi, the Alligator Jr. was likely 30 feet long and weighed several tons.
Experts speculate that the crew powered the vessel by operating pedals, which turned the propeller.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the submarine, which was one of the first of its kind, mysteriously disappeared in 1861, when it was headed toward the Philadelphia Navy Base for some testing.
The Delaware Harbor police were frightened by the futuristic vessel and seized it, referring it to as an ‘infernal machine.’
What became of the submarine afterwards remained an inscrutable puzzle for historians and archeologists.
The Alligator Jr. was eventually rumored to be in the care of its inventor, de Villeroi, who placed it on the South Jersey side of the Delaware, where it was either forgotten or deliberately sunk in the mud.
But soon, historians like Alice Smith grew interested in the vessel’s ultimate whereabouts.
For two decades, Smith tirelessly searched for the submarine. Her research led her to a spot on Rancocas Creek.
Although several searches in the area over the years proved fruitless, Smith didn’t lose hope.
She scraped together funds online to engage RETTEW, an engineering company that possessed an impressive magnetometer.
Smith had them fly the drone over where she suspected the submarine lay, and it soon detected the anomaly.
‘It’s been a 20-year adventure, and extremely enjoyable, Smith, who is president of the Riverside Historical Society, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
‘I’d like to accept congratulations, but I think we’re at a point where there are some additional steps to take and I have some mixed emotions.
‘Still, this is probably the best report that I’ve gotten in those 20 years.’
Vince Capone, a sonar technology expert with decades of experience finding shipwrecks, said that they should employ radar technology to get a clearer idea of what’s down there.
‘There is a very good indication there’s a mass of iron in the marsh, and the area roughly corresponds to some of the evidence that Alice has put together,’ Capone said. ‘But it is not conclusive that it is the submarine.’
James Delgado, a noted maritime archaeologist, said that if the Alligator Jr. has in fact been discovered it would be ‘not only historically significant, but archaeologically significant.’
He observed that the Alligator Jr. was created at a time in the 19th century when countless inventors from around the world were scrambling to patent submarine technology.
‘There’s not that many of these things left around,’ he said.
‘There were so many being made, but how many survived? Very few. I mean, there’s just a handful.’