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While the American Revolutionary War era Turtle is often credited as the first application of a submarine design in combat, it is not considered the first US Navy submarine because at the time the US Navy did not yet exist. By the time of the American Civil War, the relatively young United State Navy revisited the submarine concept for a new age of warfare.

The USS Alligator was a Union Navy design developed because of reports of the Confederate Navy making an iron clad ship out of the salvaged hulk of the burned USS Merrimac to be used as a ram against the wooden ships of the Union blockade. The craft was about 30 ft (9 m) long and 6 ft (1.8 m) or 8 ft (2.4 m) in diameter. Her crew consisted of one officer, one helmsman, one or two divers, and 8 oarsmen. Her armament was to be two limpet mines.

She was launched in Philadelphia in July of 1862 and underwent several test trials before being lost in rough seas in March in 1963 of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, never seeing operational service unlike her Confederate counterpart, C.S.S Hunley.

This kit (No. FM17219) represents the craft as she was at the time of her initial launch with 16 paddles manually operated before being converted to a hand driven screw type of propulsion. This kit is resin, measures 7 inches (17.75 cm) when complete and listed for $60.00 plus shipping and can be orderd direct from Flagship Models.