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from the issue of April 27, 2006
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Saga of the Explorer
Abandoned off the coast of San Telmo Island, Panama on the Archipelago of the Pearls, the Sub Marine Explorer has a rich history that started in the Civil War shipyards of New York.
Built in 1865, the Explorer was originally to be used by the Union in the fight against the Confederate States. However, construction of the vessel was completed toward the end of the conflict and Union officials opted not to purchase the sub.
Julius H. Kroehl, a German immigrant and engineer who worked with the forges and foundries of New York's shipyards and ironworks, designed the Explorer. Instead of abandoning the sub, Kroehl and a group of investors purchased the sub, had it disassembled and shipped to Panama for use in pearl retrieval efforts.
"As the story goes, divers and Julius Kroehl lost their lives because no one knew about the bends at that time," said Don Johnson, a UNL emeritus professor in mechanical engineering who is helping assess the condition of the Explorer. "So, it was abandoned and remains at that exact location to this day."
The sub was abandoned 1869 after a group of pearl divers died in the days after a four-hour dive. Kroelh died after a dive in 1867.
Inhabitants of the island knew of the location of the craft as it has been exposed at low tide for 137 years.
The most common tale related to the sub, posted on a German Wed site, identifies it as a Japanese craft built for war, perhaps to attack the Panama Canal during World War II.
James Delgado of the Vancouver Maritime Museum rediscovered the sub in 2001. Follow-up studies in 2001 and 2002 gathered dimensions and pictures of the sub, which were used to identify it as the Explorer. Archeologist Richard Wills - who worked on the recovery of the CSS Hunley, a Civil War-era sub built by the Confederates - positively identified the Explorer based on diagrams from 1866.
The Explorer is, as yet, the only Union-built submarine from the Civil War era to have survived.
Only five submarines built prior to 1870 are available for study today. The Explorer is one of two from the five surviving submarines that used a pressurized compartment to allow divers to enter and exit the craft at depth.
GO TO: ISSUE OF APRIL 27
NEWS HEADLINES FOR APRIL 27
Retirement at sea
New tower rings in end of semester
Saga of the Explorer
Biannual Gallup surveys gauge campus climate
FROM THE ARCHIVES
UCARE student learns nature, life lessons through camp experience
732428S35831X
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