Mechanical Engineer. James McClintock gained recognition for his part of designing submarines for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Born in Ohio, he left home at an early age to become a crew member on the boats on the Mississippi River, eventually, becoming one of the youngest riverboat captains. While on the boat, he had on-the-job experiences with the mechanical workings of the boat, becoming a self-taught mechanical engineer. Before the war in the 1850s, he became business partners with another mechanical engineer, Baxter Watson. The two men had a successful business, McClintock & Watson, in a three-story New Orleans building still standing in the 21st century. They manufactured and shipped steam valves and other mechanisms for industries. Later, their facility would make ammunition for the Confederate Army until Union Forces invaded New Orleans in late April of 1862. He and Watson joined with H.L. Hunley, a wealthy plantation owner with the idea of building a submarine for the Confederate Navy. Hunley did the financing of the project with thousands of dollars of his own money, while McClintock led the design process. They were not the first to have the idea of a submarine. The first submarine was conceived by British mathematician William Bourne in 1578, but the first one built was that of Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel, which dove under the River Thames in London in 1620. Even the American Revolution had a submarine, the "Turtle," in the battle against the British, but not successful. McClintock and his colleague's initial prototype hand-powered submarine was the "CSS Pioneer," which was intentionally sunk to prevent capture by the Union invasion of New Orleans. At that point, the project of building a submarine was relocated to Messrs. Park & Lyons in Mobile, Alabama. Their second submarine, "The American Diver," sank in Mobile Bay during a maneuver in January of 1863; though no lives were lost, the vessel was never recovered. Their third submarine was a vessel of 40 feet of hammered iron, which was eventually named "H.L. Hunley" in Hunley's honor. On August 29, 1863, the first maneuver with the "Hunley" resulted in the death of five crew members when the submarine sank after gaining water from a passing vessel's wave. On October 15, 1863, during a second test run, the 39-year-old Captain Hunley died with his seven-man crew when the "H.L. Hunley" was accidentally trapped on the bottom of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. After the submarine was raised from the harbor, refurbished, and given a new crew, the "H.L. Hunley" is credited with being the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy's ship during the war: the "USS "Housatonic" was sunk off the Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864, by the "Hunley." Shortly after this victory, the "Hunley" sank along with the crew. After the war, McClintock and Watson joined with the United States War Department on projects, producing at least 13 submarines with McClintock being lauded as a mechanical genius. According to McClintock's grandson, Henry Loughmiller's statement during a 1960 interview, James R. McClintock was killed in "Boston Harbor when he was experimenting with his newly invented submarine mine" on October 13, 1879". A co-worker, Edward Swain, also died during the explosion. McClintock's body was never found after the fiery explosion. Since the police were not notified in a timely matter, other men involved in the incident left Boston before questioning. Since no inquest was held about the incident, the actual documentation of the entire event is poor. His family was wired from Boston about his death. At his death, McClintock would have been closer to 60 years of age than 50. There has been folklore, supported by American newspaper articles dated years later after the incident, that he lived through this ordeal, traveling to England and offering his service to Queen Victoria. He is claimed to have helped the Royal Navy with their submarines, dying in Scotland in 1908 after producing his last design. If James McClintock helped the British with their submarines, was it the same James McClintock that was the designer of the "CSS H.L. Hunley"? McClintock married Isabelle Jackson of Mobile in 1857, and the couple had at least three children with two daughters living to adulthood. Little is known about the remaining life of Baxter Watson. In 1962 Loughmiller donated his grandfather's photograph to the Navy Historical Project. The TBS made-for-television film "CSS H.L. Hunley" aired in 1999.