This is an excellent book about a piece of history that is long overdue. Everyone has heard of the CSS Hunkley, but with this read, another important step in naval history is uncovered. Well done.

This was a very interesting read about a boat I did not even know existed. I feel like I had heard a lot of submarine stories, and had never heard this one. There was a lot of great information about how they tracked down the existence of the Alligator, and how the conducted their search. I wish there was more about the Alligator's missions, but maybe there just isn't much known.

Daniel J Basta, a former Director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries in the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration within the United States, tells us the history of the first nave submarine the USS Alligator. The USS Alligator was a lesser known submarine before the Navy decided to search for it at the bottom of the Cape Hatteras during the Civil War.
Built around the the time of the USS Monitor and Merrimac they would all suffer the same fate. Both the USS Monitor and Alligator were lost in the heavy seas off of Cape Hatteras. The Merrimac was lost during battle. Debris from the USS Monitor have been found but nothing of the USS Alligator has been found.
Basta describes the history of the USS Alligator and he identifies the designer and his blueprints. There are also a series of letters, paintings and pictures of their many missions to find anything left of the submarine. Many of the searches were document on the Discovery Science Channel. NOAA and the Navy have continued to research and look for the remains of the USS Alligator but so far to no avail.
The author present the material as if he was writing a documentary. He presents his findings and his research. He describes the many mission that were taken to find the submarine and throughout he inserted pictures from the documentary and other historical sources. One thing that stood out to me was how school systems created educational curriculum around trying to find the USS Alligator and they made it a game. This book seeks to revive the public's interest and hope of recovering the submarine and the future. It certainly sparked my interest.