MTFCA Forum

I just found out about this. T thought I would share this with ya'll.
At the Grand Gulf Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is a one-man submarine that was powered by a Model T Ford Engine and used during the early prohibition period to bootleg whiskey and rum from Davis Island to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

And here it is in the park:

I don't think so, not me man !!

Note the verbiage..."Model T Ford" engine.

The fact they used a T engine is the reason it still exists. All that leaking oil preseved it very well.

Good One Dallas ^^^^^^^^


FJ

Model T engines were used on many watercraft, because of their excellent fuel economy.

They get 22 miles per galleon.

Get it? Galleon?

I crack myself up.

I wonder if they ever had to "Get out and get under". Jim

I wonder how that worked.
They couldn't go too deep. There had to be intake and exhaust pipes above water. They almost had to be barely below the surface and still be able to see where they were going.

Anything for a drink !!

I was a submarine sailor. I am a Model T enthusiast. Both things, though very different, are very close to me. HOWEVER, the thought of actually submerging in that thing, even if only to a shallow depth, gives me the shivers. Some things are just not meant to be paired.

I suppose the lone sailor had to get out and get wet to crank it. Hahaha!!

I too was a submarine sailor. I doubt that thing ever had a T engine in it.

It probably started as a floater but became a submarine when put in the water.

I once had a boat like that.
It didn't last one trip.

Do a Google search for " drug smuggling submarine " and then click images. Plenty there like this of what they call subs. These were made to ride at the water line in clam water. Many went down and became a real submarine. The only thing above the water line was the snorkel and a view to see were your going. Just think of the risk people take to make money.

Well as a matter of fact it did have a model T engine in it. A 1915 to be exact.

I have taken great pride in the fact that in 1967 I designed a screen door for a submarine.
It had a slightly larger engine.
Rich
On second thought it may have been 1969 or '70

If it was a 15 engine it would have to be cranked? water pump or water cooled? lol, where did exhaust exit. This will have to be researched but very interesting to say the least. Thanks Sam

Sam,
Just as important as getting rid of the exhaust is having a supply of air. In the old diesel/electric boat I served on, we had a "main induction" connected to a snorkel mast. The head of the snorkel mast was fitted with a "head valve", which would slap shut when a wave washed over it, then pop open when it was above water. With one engine running (we had 3 FM-8's) on the snorkel, when the head valve slapped shut it took about 15 seconds to pull a 10" mercury vacuum. If you developed that much vacuum the engine would shut down.

Snorkeling was fun. Usually about 8 hours of suck your ear drums out like a balloon, then snap them back into place. In a moderately rough sea this went on continuously. Of course we didn't snorkel very often. Usually we'd just surface at night and charge batteries on the surface, which eliminated all the atmospheric pressure fluctuations snorkeling created.

Anyhow, the boat pictured may have been able to run even with the surface, but actually submerging was probably not possible. Well, more correctly, submerging and then surfacing was probably not possible.

I think all of the bootleg liquor was delivered by submarine during prohibition.

That's why they called the places that served it a . . .

wait for it . . .

a DIVE.

Man, I crack myself up. I'll be here all week.

Wait till I get to the part about running this sub on still water. Get it? Still?

I still got it!

Robert B.'s post reminded me of something I hadn't thought about for years. In 1970 we (the submarine and crew) stopped for a liberty call in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. We were allowed to bring back with us 1 U.S. gallon of hooch each, duty free. (Note that at that time and place the liquor was cheaper than the mix. Order a rum and coke and you got about 3 fingers of rum and a splash of coke.) So, being good little sailors we returned to Charleston, S.C. with #2 torpedo tube full of about 85 gallons, all in fifths (about 425 bottles).

After all, we had standards to maintain......

Boy, that number 2 torpedo tube was really loaded.

Get it? Loaded?

OK, I'm going to bed now. Sleep it off.

hpetrino wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 10, 2019 3:20 pm

Anyhow, the boat pictured may have been able to run even with the surface, but actually submerging was probably not possible. Well, more correctly, submerging and then surfacing was probably not possible.

Like the drug running subs mentioned above, I think calling this thing a submarine is a bit of a stretch. I suspect it’s more like a zero-freeboard boat and probably just had a small cockpit coaming sticking up above the surface.

" Well, more correctly, submerging and then surfacing was probably not possible."

Henry P, I love that line!

Related. Long ago, a working friend of mine had put in his service in the Navy. He had, shall we say, an aversion to "boats with a flotation factor of less than zero" (meaning submarines!). Being from a military family, he knew the rules for enlistment, and having already had some excellent training and potential got his contract to explicitly exclude submarine service (short of wartime demands). His aptitude was very high, so the Navy sent him to nuclear training school. After which, they tried to put him on a submarine. Now, he was a tough guy, really smart, and not afraid of much of anything. As long as it wasn't under water (hey, we all have some weird foible, don't we?). So he stood his ground, and said he would do anything but the excluded submarine service. The few other places for a nuclear engineer all had waiting lists for years, so he spent the rest of his seven years on a regular ship above water.

Thank you all you who did the submarine duty!