Editing CSS David (section)

==Construction==
Based upon a design by [[St. Julien Ravenel]], ''David'' was built as a private venture by T. Stoney at Charleston, [[South Carolina]], in 1863, and was put under the control of the [[Confederate States Navy]] (CSN).<ref name="NHHC">{{cite web |title=David |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/david.html |website=Ship Histories - Confederate Ships |publisher=Naval History and Heritage Command, US Navy |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129102709/https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/david.html |archive-date=29 January 2022}}</ref> The cigar-shaped boat carried a {{convert|32|by|10|in|adj=on}} explosive charge of {{convert|134|lb|kg}} gunpowder on the end of a spar projecting forward from her bow.<ref name="NHHC" /> CSS ''David'' operated as a semi-submersible: water was taken into ballast tanks so that only the length of the open-top [[conning tower]] and the stack for the boiler appeared above water.<ref>Tony Gibbons, "Warships and Navy Battles of the Civil War", Gallery Books, W.H. Smith Publishers, 1989. {{ISBN|0-8317-9301-5}}.</ref> Designed to operate very low in the water, ''David'' resembled in general a submersible [[submarine]]; she was, however, strictly a surface vessel.<ref name="NHHC" />  Operating on dark nights, and using [[anthracite]] coal (which burns without smoke), ''David'' was nearly as hard to see as a true submarine.{{citation needed|date = August 2012}}