H.L. Hunley
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
History
H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submersible that demonstrated the advantage and danger of undersea warfare. Although not the first submarine, it was the first to engage and sink a warship.
Named after its Tennessee financier, Horace Hunley, and designed by Cincinnati-born James McClintock, the submarine was built for two reasons: to sink Union ships and to turn a profit. Private investors who gave money for the Hunley hoped to get bounties from the Confederate government.
Privately built in 1863 by Park and Lyons of Mobile, Alabama, the Hunley was fashioned from a cylindrical iron steam boiler, which was deepened and also lengthened through the addition of tapered ends. It was designed to be hand powered by a crew of nine: eight to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. As a true submarine, each end was equipped with ballast tanks that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. Extra ballast was added through the use of iron weights bolted to the underside of the hull. In the event the submarine needed additional buoyancy to rise in an emergency, the iron weight could be removed by unscrewing the heads of the bolts from inside the vessel.
On 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine made a daring late night attack on USS Housatonic, a 1,240-ton sloop-of-war with 16 guns, in Charleston Harbor off the coast of South Carolina. The Hunley rammed the Housatonic with spar torpedo packed with explosive powder and attached to a long pole on its bow. The spar torpedo embedded in the sloop's wooden side was detonated by a rope as Hunley backed away. The resulting explosion that sent Housatonic with five crew members to the bottom of Charleston Harbor also sank the Hunley with its crew of eight.
The search for the Hunley ended 131 years later when best-selling author Clive Cussler and his team from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) discovered the submarine after a 14-year search. At the time of discovery, Cussler and NUMA were conducting this research in partnership with the South Carolina Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology (SCIAA). The team realized that they had found the Hunley after exposing the forward hatch and the ventilator box (the air box for the attachment of a snorkel). The submarine rested on its starboard side at about a 45-degree angle and is covered in a 1/4 to 3/4-inch encrustation of ferrous oxide bonded with sand and shell particles. Archaeologists exposed a little more on the port side and found the bow dive plane on that side. More probing revealed an approximate length of 34 feet with most, if not all, of the vessel preserved under the sediment.
In August 2000 archaeological investigation and excavation culminated with the resurrection of Hunley from its watery grave. A large team of professionals from the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology Branch, National Park Service, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and various other individuals investigated the vessel, measuring and documenting it prior to preparing it for removal. Once the on-site investigation was complete, harnesses were slipped underneath the sub one by one and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering, International, Inc. Then after the last harness had been secured, the crane from Karlissa B began hoisting the submarine from the mire of the harbor. On August 8 at 8:37 AM the sub broke the surface for the first time in over 136 years where it was greeted by a cheering crowd in hundreds of nearby watercraft. Once safely on its transporting barge, Hunley finally completed its last voyage back to Charleston, passing by hundreds of spectators on Charleston's shores and bridges. The removal operation reached its successful conclusion when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in a specially designed tank of freshwater to await conservation.
Key Dates
Early 1863: The Hunley is built and tested in Mobile, Alabama.
15 August 1863: The Hunley arrives in Charleston at the request of General P.G.T. Beauregard. He wants it to sink Union ships blockading the city.
29 August 1863: The Hunley sinks in Charleston Harbor. Five crewmen drown.
15 October 1863: The Hunley sinks again. All eight crewmen die, including financier Hunley.
18 February 1864: The Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic off Charleston. It is a 200-foot Union warship with a crew of 155. Five Housatonic crewmen die. The sub doesn’t return from its mission.
1970: A South Carolinian named Lee Spence apparently found the Hunley in the 1970s, locating the correct longitude and latitude. Spence pursued his claim, but nothing official came of it. His claim today is the subject of legal dispute.
January 1995: Researchers, including underwater adventurer and author Clive Cussler, find a metal object off Sullivan’s Island. It lies in a channel that silted over in 1880. Like the Hunley, the object is 40 feet long and 6 feet wide.
May 1995: Divers confirm the Hunley’s discovery under 18 feet of water and 12 feet of sand and silt. The bodies of the crewmen are suspected to still be on board.
8 August 2000: The 10-ton Hunley is raised, placed on a barge and moved up the Cooper River to North Charleston. A crane lifts it and swings it into a tank at a conservation facility.
16 April 2004: The crewmen are buried in Charleston.
