USS Alligator: Fall 2005 Search

NOAA, with support from the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research, has sponsored a search September 9-12 for the Civil War submarine the USS Alligator.  Because of poor weather the team spent one day on the water running search patterns with sidescan sonar and a magnetometer.  Hurricane Ophelia then caused evacuations of Ocracoke Island and neighboring areas of North and South Caronlina.  Checkout the NOAA Mission Logs for more detail.

Launched in 1862, the green, 47-foot Alligator represented a significant leap forward in naval engineering. But before it could prove itself in battle, the Union sub was lost while being towed to Charleston, S.C. and never seen again.

Alligator Statistics:

Based in Ocracoke, N.C., the 2005 NOAA-ONR expedition took place Sept. 9-12 off Cape Hatteras, N.C. in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” where the Civil War-era vessel was lost during a fierce storm in 1863.  Visit the NOAA Alligator website for more information.

Search Area

The 2005 search area is based upon research conducted by the NOAA HAZMAT modeling group in Seattle, Wash., and a side-scan survey conducted by the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson as it transited the Alligator search area in the spring of 2005.  Several targets have been identified for follow-up examination using a marine magnetometer and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

It was the intent of this year’s expedition to examine the side scan sonar targets noted during the Thomas Jefferson survey and determine if the targets represent geologic features associated with the ocean bottom or if the features have an associated magnetic signature, indicating the potential of a man-made object. To facilitate the best possible data acquisition, two different remote sensing tools were employed in the survey.  More information on NOAA underwater search tools.

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Images courtesy of NOAA.