H. L. Hunley (submarine)
Encyclopedia
H. L. Hunley was a submarine
of the Confederate States of America
that played a small part in the American Civil War
, but a large role in the history of naval warfare. The Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. It was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, although the Hunley was not completely submerged and was lost at some point following her successful attack. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of the Hunley during her short career. The submarine was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley
, shortly after it was taken into service under the control of the Confederate Army at Charleston
, South Carolina
.
The Hunley, nearly 40 feet (12 m) long, was built at Mobile, Alabama
, and launched in July 1863. It was then shipped by rail on August 12, 1863 to Charleston, South Carolina
. Hunley (then called Fish Boat) sank on August 29, 1863, during a training exercise, killing five members of her crew. It sank again on October 15, 1863, killing all eight of her second crew, including Horace Hunley himself, who was aboard at the time, even though he was not enlisted in the Confederate armed forces. Both times the Hunley was raised and returned to service. On February 17, 1864, Hunley attacked and sank the 1240-short ton (1124 metric tons) screw sloop
USS Housatonic
on Union blockade
duty in Charleston's outer harbor. Soon after, Hunley sank for unknown reasons, killing all eight of her third crew. This time, the innovative ship was lost.
, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson.
in New Orleans, Louisiana
. Pioneer was tested in February 1862 in the Mississippi River
and was later towed to Lake Pontchartrain
for additional trials. But the Union advance towards New Orleans caused the men to abandon development and scuttle Pioneer the following month. The poorly documented Bayou St. John Confederate submarine
may have been constructed about the same time as Pioneer.
The three inventors moved to Mobile and joined with machinists Thomas Park and Thomas Lyons. They soon began development of a second submarine, American Diver
. Their efforts were supported by the Confederate States Army
; Lieutenant
William Alexander
of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment was assigned oversight duty for the project. The men experimented with electromagnetic
and steam propulsion
for the new submarine, before falling back on a simpler hand-cranked propulsion system. American Diver was ready for harbor trials by January 1863, but it proved too slow to be practical. One attempted attack on the Union blockade
was made in February 1863 but was unsuccessful. The submarine sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay
during a storm later the same month and was not recovered.
—perhaps because a cutaway drawing by William Alexander, who had seen the real boat, showed a short and stubby machine. In fact, Hunley was purpose-designed and built for her role, and the sleek, modern-looking craft shown in R.G. Skerrett's 1902 drawing is an accurate representation. Hunley was designed for a crew of eight: seven to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Each end was equipped with ballast tank
s 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.
Hunley was equipped with two watertight hatches, one forward and one aft, atop two short conning tower
s equipped with small portholes and slender, triangular breakwaters. The hatches were very small, measuring 14 by 15¾ inches (36 by 40 centimeters), making entrance to and egress from the hull very difficult. The height of the ship's hull was 4 feet 3 inches (1.2 m).
Hunley was ready for a demonstration by July 1863. Supervised by Confederate Admiral
Franklin Buchanan
, Hunley successfully attacked a coal flatboat in Mobile Bay. Following this demonstration, the submarine was shipped to Charleston
, South Carolina
, by rail, arriving August 12, 1863.
The military seized the vessel from its private builders and owners shortly after its arrival in Charleston, turning it over to the Confederate Army. Hunley would operate as a Confederate Army vessel from this point forward, although Horace Hunley and his partners remained involved in the submarine's further testing and operation. While sometimes referred to as CSS Hunley, the Confederate government never officially commissioned the vessel into service.
Confederate Navy Lieutenant John A. Payne of CSS Chicora
volunteered to be Hunley's skipper, and a volunteer crew of seven men from CSS Chicora
and CSS Palmetto State
was assembled to operate the submarine. On August 29, 1863, Hunley's new crew was preparing to make a test dive to learn the operation of the submarine when Lieutenant Payne accidentally stepped on the lever controlling the sub's diving planes while the boat was running. This caused Hunley to dive with her hatches still open, flooding the submarine. Payne and two others escaped, while the remaining five crewmen drowned.
On October 15, 1863 Hunley failed to surface during a mock attack, killing Hunley and seven other crewmen. In both cases, the Confederate Navy salvaged the vessel and returned her to service.
with a contact fuse
(a torpedo
in Civil War terminology) towed behind it at the end of a long rope. Hunley would approach an enemy vessel, dive under it, and surface beyond. As it continued to move away from the target, the torpedo would be pulled against the side of the target and explode. However, this plan was discarded as impractical due to the danger of the tow line fouling Hunleys screw or drifting into Hunley herself.
The floating explosive charge was replaced with a spar torpedo
, a cask containing 90 pounds (41 kilograms) of black powder attached to a 22-foot (6.7 m)-long wooden spar, as seen in illustrations of the submarine made at this time. The spar was mounted on Hunley's bow and was designed to be used when the submarine was some 6 feet (1.8 m) or more below the surface. The spar torpedo had a barbed point, and would be stuck in the target vessel's side by ramming. The spar torpedo as originally designed used a mechanical trigger attached to the attacking vessel by a cord, so that as the attacker backed away from her victim, the torpedo would explode. However, archaeologists working on Hunley have discovered evidence, including a spool of copper wire and components of a battery, that it may have been electrically detonated. Following Horace Hunley's death, General Beauregard issued an order that the submarine was no longer to attack her target underwater. In response to this order, an iron pipe was attached to the bow of the submarine and angled downwards so the explosive charge would still be delivered under sufficient depth of water to make it effective. This was the same method developed for the earlier "David
" type surface craft so successful against the USS New Ironsides
. The Confederate Veteran of 1902 printed a reminiscence authored by an engineer stationed at Battery Marshall who, with another engineer, made adjustments to the iron pipe mechanism before Hunley left on her last mission on the night of February 17, 1864. A drawing of the iron pipe spar, confirming its "David" type configuration, was published in several early histories of submarine warfare.
Hunley made her first and only attack against a live target on the night of February 17, 1864. The vessel was the USS Housatonic
. Housatonic, a 1240-ton (1.1 million-kilogram) steam-powered sloop-of-war
with 12 large cannons, was stationed at the entrance to Charleston, South Carolina harbor, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) out to sea. In an effort to break the naval blockade
of the city, Lieutenant George E. Dixon
and a crew of seven volunteers attacked Housatonic, successfully embedding the barbed spar torpedo into her hull
. The torpedo was detonated as the submarine backed away, sending Housatonic and five of her crew to the bottom in five minutes, although many survived by boarding two lifeboats or by climbing the rigging until rescued.
After signalling, Dixon would have taken the sub underwater to try to make it back to Sullivan's Island. What happened next is unclear. The finder of the Hunley suggested that the submarine was unknowingly rammed by the USS Canandaigua, which was coming to the rescue of the Housatonics crew.
One possibility is that the torpedo was not detonated on command, but rather malfunctioned due to damage incurred during the attack. It was intended that the torpedo be detonated when Hunley had retreated, playing out its detonation rope, to approximately 150 feet (46 m) from the target, to minimize damage to the sub. However, witnesses aboard Housatonic uniformly stated that the submarine was no more than about 100 feet (31 m) away when the torpedo detonated. This is because the crew of the Hunley were fighting the waves, so they stopped one hundred feet away from the Housatonic to wait until the current could carry them away. The crew of the Housatonic fired on the Hunley, and one man hit the detonation box with his pistol. This caused the explosion that sank the Housatonic and may have damaged the Hunley.
In October 2008, scientists reported that they had found that Hunleys crew had not set the pump to remove water from the crew compartment, which might indicate that it was not being flooded. "It now really starts to point to a lack of oxygen making [the crew] unconscious," the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission said. "They may have been cranking and moving and it was a miscalculation as to how much oxygen they had."
Although there is no conclusive evidence as to the cause of the sinking of the H. L. Hunley, Head Archeologist, Maria Jacobsen, of Clemson University and George Wunderlich, Executive Director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, conducted experiments with modern castings of the H. L. Hunley's forward conning tower, the original of which showed damage at one viewing port. The experiments used replica U. S. Naval firearms, and showed that a .58 caliber minie ball, fired from the U.S.S. Housatonic, could have penetrated at the viewing ports, producing a breach sufficient to admit water. This comports with the findings of Dr. Jaime Downs, FBI Forensic Pathologist, which show variations of the preserved brain tissue from front to rear Hunley crewmen. It is conjectured that ramming by the U.S.S. Canandaigua would have caused severe damage to the sub, but no such damage was evidenced when the H. L. Hunley was raised.
Her crew perished, but H.L. Hunley had earned a place in the history of undersea warfare as the first submarine to sink a ship in wartime.
as "probably the most important [American underwater archaeological] find of the [20th] century." The tiny sub
and its contents have been valued at over $40 million, making its discovery and subsequent donation
one of the most important and valuable contributions ever to South Carolina.
The Hunley discovery is claimed by two different individuals. Underwater Archaeologist E. Lee Spence
, president, Sea Research Society
, reportedly discovered Hunley in 1970. and has a collection of evidence claiming to validate this, including a 1980 Civil Admiralty Case.
On September 13, 1976, the National Park Service submitted Sea Research Society's (Spence's) location for H.L. Hunley for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places
. Spence's location for Hunley became a matter of public record when H.L. Hunleys placement on that list was officially approved on December 29, 1978. Spence's book Treasures of the Confederate Coast, which had a chapter on his discovery of Hunley and included a map complete with an "X" showing the wreck's location, was published in January 1995.
Diver Ralph Wilbanks found the wreck in April 1995 while leading a NUMA
dive team led by novelist Clive Cussler
, who announced the find as a new discovery and first claimed that it was in about 18 feet (5 m) of water over a mile inshore of the Housatonic, but later admitted to a reporter that that was false. The wreck was actually 100 yards away from the Housatonic in 27 feet (8 m) of water. The submarine was buried under several feet of silt, which had concealed and protected the vessel for over a hundred years. The divers exposed the forward hatch and the ventilator box (the air box for the attachment of a snorkel) to identify her. The submarine was resting on her starboard side at about a 45-degree angle and was covered in a ¼- to ¾-inch (0.6- to 1.9-centimeter) encrustation of rust bonded with sand and seashell particles. Archaeologists exposed part of the ship's port side and uncovered the bow dive plane. More probing revealed an approximate length of 37 feet (11 m), with all of the vessel preserved under the sediment.
On September 14, 1995, at the official request of Senator Glenn F. McConnell, Chairman, South Carolina Hunley Commission, E. Lee Spence, with South Carolina Attorney General Charles M. Condon signing, donated the Hunley to the State of South Carolina. Shortly thereafter NUMA disclosed to government officials Wilbank's location for the wreck, which, when finally made public in October 2000, matched Spence's 1970s plot of the wreck's location well within standard mapping tolerances. Spence avows that he not only discovered the Hunley in 1970 he revisited and mapped the site in 1971 and again in 1979, and that after he published his location in his 1995 book that he expected NUMA (which was actually part of a SCIAA expedition directed by Dr. Mark M. Newell
and not Cussler) to independently verify the wreck as the Hunley, not to claim that NUMA had discovered it. Interestingly, Dr. Newell has sworn under oath that he used Spence's maps to direct the joint SCIAA/NUMA expedition and credits Spence with the original discovery and credits his expedition only with the official verification.
The "in situ" underwater archaeological investigation and excavation culminated with the raising of Hunley on August 8, 2000. 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 removal. Once the on-site investigation was complete, harnesses were slipped underneath the sub and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering International
. After the last harness had been secured, the crane from the recovery barge Karlissa B hoisted the submarine from the sea floor. It was raised from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just over 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) from Sullivan's Island outside of the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Despite having used a sextant and hand-held compass, thirty years earlier, to plot the wreck's location, Dr. Spence's 52 meters accuracy turned out to be well within the length of the recovery barge, which was 64 meters long. On August 8, 2000, at 8:37 a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in over 136 years, greeted by a cheering crowd on shore and in surrounding watercraft, including author Clive Cussler
. Once safely on her transporting barge, Hunley was shipped back to Charleston. The removal operation concluded when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center
, at the former Charleston Navy Yard in North Charleston
, in a specially designed tank of fresh water to await conservation.
The exploits of the Hunley and its final recovery were the subject of an episode of the television series The Sea Hunters
, called Hunley: First Kill. This program is based on a chapter in Clive Cussler's novel by the same name.
In June 2011, a conservation lab rotated the sub upright for the first time since it sank.
(Commander), Frank Collins, Joseph F. Ridgaway, James A. Wicks, Arnold Becker, Corporal C. F. Carlsen, C. Lumpkin, and Agustus Miller.
Apart from the commander of the submarine, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the identities of the volunteer crewmen of the Hunley had long remained a mystery. Douglas Owsley, a physical anthropologist
working for the Smithsonian Institution
's National Museum of Natural History
, examined the remains and determined that four of the men were American born, while the four others were European born, based on the chemical signatures left on the men's teeth and bones by the predominant components of their diet. Four of the men had eaten plenty of maize, an American diet, while the remainder ate mostly wheat and rye, a mainly European one. By examining Civil War records and conducting DNA
testing with possible relatives, forensic genealogist Linda Abrams was able to identify the remains of Dixon and the three other Americans: Frank Collins, Joseph Ridgaway, and James A. Wicks. Identifying the European crewmen has been more problematic, but was apparently solved in late 2004. The position of the remains indicated that the men died at their stations and were not trying to escape from the sinking submarine.
On April 17, 2004 the remains of the crew were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. Tens of thousands of people attended including some 6,000 reenactors and 4,000 civilians wearing period clothing. Color guards from all five branches of the U.S. armed forces—wearing modern uniforms—were also in the procession. Even though only two of the crew were from Confederate States all were buried with full Confederate honors including being buried with a version of the Confederate national flag.
Another surprise occurred in 2002, when a researcher examining the area close to Lieutenant Dixon found a misshapen $20 gold piece, minted in 1860, with the inscription "Shiloh April 6, 1862 My life Preserver G. E. D." and a forensic anthropologist
found a healed injury to Lt. Dixon's hip bone. The findings matched a legend, passed down in the family, that Dixon's sweetheart, Queenie Bennett, had given him the coin to protect him. Dixon had the coin with him at the Battle of Shiloh
, where he was wounded in the thigh on April 6, 1862. The bullet struck the coin in his pocket, saving his leg and possibly his life. He had the gold coin engraved and carried it as a lucky charm.
on weekends. The Center includes artifacts found inside the Hunley, exhibits about the submarine and a video.
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
that played a small part in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, but a large role in the history of naval warfare. The Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. It was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, although the Hunley was not completely submerged and was lost at some point following her successful attack. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of the Hunley during her short career. The submarine was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley , was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was posthumously named for him, H. L...
, shortly after it was taken into service under the control of the Confederate Army at Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
.
The Hunley, nearly 40 feet (12 m) long, was built at Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, and launched in July 1863. It was then shipped by rail on August 12, 1863 to Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. Hunley (then called Fish Boat) sank on August 29, 1863, during a training exercise, killing five members of her crew. It sank again on October 15, 1863, killing all eight of her second crew, including Horace Hunley himself, who was aboard at the time, even though he was not enlisted in the Confederate armed forces. Both times the Hunley was raised and returned to service. On February 17, 1864, Hunley attacked and sank the 1240-short ton (1124 metric tons) screw sloop
Screw sloop
A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws...
USS Housatonic
USS Housatonic (1861)
The first USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, named for the Housatonic River of New England which rises in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and flows southward into Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound a little east of Bridgeport, Connecticut...
on Union blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...
duty in Charleston's outer harbor. Soon after, Hunley sank for unknown reasons, killing all eight of her third crew. This time, the innovative ship was lost.
History
Hunley and two earlier submarines were privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson HunleyHorace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley , was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was posthumously named for him, H. L...
, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson.
Predecessors to Hunley
Hunley, McClintock, and Watson first built a small submarine named PioneerPioneer (submarine)
Pioneer was the first of three submarines privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock and Baxter Watson.Hunley, McClintock and Watson built Pioneer in New Orleans, Louisiana...
in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Pioneer was tested in February 1862 in the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and was later towed to Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
for additional trials. But the Union advance towards New Orleans caused the men to abandon development and scuttle Pioneer the following month. The poorly documented Bayou St. John Confederate submarine
Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine
The Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine is an early military submarine built for use by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.-Description:...
may have been constructed about the same time as Pioneer.
The three inventors moved to Mobile and joined with machinists Thomas Park and Thomas Lyons. They soon began development of a second submarine, American Diver
American Diver
American Diver, also known as the Pioneer II, was a prototype submarine built for the Confederate States of America military. It was the first successor to the Pioneer. The Diver was invented and built by the same consortium that built the Pioneer in New Orleans. It was composed of Horace Lawson...
. Their efforts were supported by the Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
; Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
William Alexander
William Alexander
William Alexander , who claimed the disputed title of Earl of Stirling, was an American major-general during the American Revolutionary War.-Life:...
of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment was assigned oversight duty for the project. The men experimented with electromagnetic
Electromagnetic propulsion
Electromagnetic propulsion , is the principle of accelerating an object by the utilization of a flowing electrical current and magnetic fields. The electrical current is used to either create an opposing magnetic field, or to charge a fluid, which can then be repelled...
and steam propulsion
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
for the new submarine, before falling back on a simpler hand-cranked propulsion system. American Diver was ready for harbor trials by January 1863, but it proved too slow to be practical. One attempted attack on the Union blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...
was made in February 1863 but was unsuccessful. The submarine sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
during a storm later the same month and was not recovered.
Construction and testing of Hunley
Construction of Hunley began soon after the loss of American Diver. At this stage, Hunley was variously referred to as the "fish boat," the "fish torpedo boat," or the "porpoise." Legend long held Hunley was made from a cast-off steam boilerBoiler (steam generator)
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more...
—perhaps because a cutaway drawing by William Alexander, who had seen the real boat, showed a short and stubby machine. In fact, Hunley was purpose-designed and built for her role, and the sleek, modern-looking craft shown in R.G. Skerrett's 1902 drawing is an accurate representation. Hunley was designed for a crew of eight: seven to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Each end was equipped with ballast tank
Ballast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...
s that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps
Pump
A pump is a device used to move fluids, such as liquids, gases or slurries.A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into three major groups: direct lift, displacement, and gravity 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.
Hunley was equipped with two watertight hatches, one forward and one aft, atop two short conning tower
Conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
s equipped with small portholes and slender, triangular breakwaters. The hatches were very small, measuring 14 by 15¾ inches (36 by 40 centimeters), making entrance to and egress from the hull very difficult. The height of the ship's hull was 4 feet 3 inches (1.2 m).
Hunley was ready for a demonstration by July 1863. Supervised by Confederate Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Franklin Buchanan
Franklin Buchanan
Franklin Buchanan was an officer in the United States Navy who became an admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War, and commanded the ironclad CSS Virginia.-Early life:...
, Hunley successfully attacked a coal flatboat in Mobile Bay. Following this demonstration, the submarine was shipped to Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, by rail, arriving August 12, 1863.
The military seized the vessel from its private builders and owners shortly after its arrival in Charleston, turning it over to the Confederate Army. Hunley would operate as a Confederate Army vessel from this point forward, although Horace Hunley and his partners remained involved in the submarine's further testing and operation. While sometimes referred to as CSS Hunley, the Confederate government never officially commissioned the vessel into service.
Confederate Navy Lieutenant John A. Payne of CSS Chicora
CSS Chicora
CSS Chicora was a Confederate ironclad ram that fought in the American Civil War. She was built under contract at Charleston, South Carolina in 1862. James M. Eason built her to John L...
volunteered to be Hunley's skipper, and a volunteer crew of seven men from CSS Chicora
CSS Chicora
CSS Chicora was a Confederate ironclad ram that fought in the American Civil War. She was built under contract at Charleston, South Carolina in 1862. James M. Eason built her to John L...
and CSS Palmetto State
CSS Palmetto State
CSS Palmetto State, an ironclad ram, was built by Cameron and Co., Charleston, South Carolina in January 1862, under the supervision of Flag Officer D. N. Ingraham, CSN. She was readied for service by September 1862 when Lieutenant Commander John Rutledge, CSN, was placed in command. Her armor was...
was assembled to operate the submarine. On August 29, 1863, Hunley's new crew was preparing to make a test dive to learn the operation of the submarine when Lieutenant Payne accidentally stepped on the lever controlling the sub's diving planes while the boat was running. This caused Hunley to dive with her hatches still open, flooding the submarine. Payne and two others escaped, while the remaining five crewmen drowned.
On October 15, 1863 Hunley failed to surface during a mock attack, killing Hunley and seven other crewmen. In both cases, the Confederate Navy salvaged the vessel and returned her to service.
Armament
Hunley was originally intended to attack by means of a floating explosive chargeExplosive material
An explosive material, also called an explosive, is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure...
with a contact fuse
Contact fuse
A contact fuze, percussion fuze or direct-action fuze is the fuze that is placed in the nose of a bomb or shell so that it will detonate on contact with a hard surface....
(a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
in Civil War terminology) towed behind it at the end of a long rope. Hunley would approach an enemy vessel, dive under it, and surface beyond. As it continued to move away from the target, the torpedo would be pulled against the side of the target and explode. However, this plan was discarded as impractical due to the danger of the tow line fouling Hunleys screw or drifting into Hunley herself.
The floating explosive charge was replaced with a spar torpedo
Spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls...
, a cask containing 90 pounds (41 kilograms) of black powder attached to a 22-foot (6.7 m)-long wooden spar, as seen in illustrations of the submarine made at this time. The spar was mounted on Hunley's bow and was designed to be used when the submarine was some 6 feet (1.8 m) or more below the surface. The spar torpedo had a barbed point, and would be stuck in the target vessel's side by ramming. The spar torpedo as originally designed used a mechanical trigger attached to the attacking vessel by a cord, so that as the attacker backed away from her victim, the torpedo would explode. However, archaeologists working on Hunley have discovered evidence, including a spool of copper wire and components of a battery, that it may have been electrically detonated. Following Horace Hunley's death, General Beauregard issued an order that the submarine was no longer to attack her target underwater. In response to this order, an iron pipe was attached to the bow of the submarine and angled downwards so the explosive charge would still be delivered under sufficient depth of water to make it effective. This was the same method developed for the earlier "David
CSS David
CSS David was a Civil War-era torpedo boat built as a private venture by T. Stoney at Charleston, South Carolina in 1863, and put under the control of the Confederate States Navy. The cigar-shaped boat carried a 60- or 70-pound explosive charge on the end of a spar projecting forward from her bow...
" type surface craft so successful against the USS New Ironsides
USS New Ironsides (1862)
USS New Ironsides was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina in 1863–65...
. The Confederate Veteran of 1902 printed a reminiscence authored by an engineer stationed at Battery Marshall who, with another engineer, made adjustments to the iron pipe mechanism before Hunley left on her last mission on the night of February 17, 1864. A drawing of the iron pipe spar, confirming its "David" type configuration, was published in several early histories of submarine warfare.
Attack on
HousatonicHunley made her first and only attack against a live target on the night of February 17, 1864. The vessel was the USS Housatonic
USS Housatonic (1861)
The first USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, named for the Housatonic River of New England which rises in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and flows southward into Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound a little east of Bridgeport, Connecticut...
. Housatonic, a 1240-ton (1.1 million-kilogram) steam-powered sloop-of-war
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
with 12 large cannons, was stationed at the entrance to Charleston, South Carolina harbor, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) out to sea. In an effort to break the naval blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
of the city, Lieutenant George E. Dixon
George E. Dixon
George E. Dixon was a first lieutenant in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. He is best known as the commander of the Confederate submarine H.L...
and a crew of seven volunteers attacked Housatonic, successfully embedding the barbed spar torpedo into her hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
. The torpedo was detonated as the submarine backed away, sending Housatonic and five of her crew to the bottom in five minutes, although many survived by boarding two lifeboats or by climbing the rigging until rescued.
Loss of
Hunley After the attack, Hunley failed to return. There is evidence that Hunley survived as long as an hour after the attack, which took place at approximately 8:45 p.m. The commander of Battery Marshall reported the day after the attack that he had received "the signals" from the submarine indicating it was returning to her base. The report did not state what manner of signals were observed. A postwar correspondent stated that "two blue lights" were the prearranged signals, and a Housatonic lookout reported that he saw a "blue light" on the water after his ship sank. "Blue light" in 1864 referred to a pyrotechnic signal in long, common use by the US military. It has been falsely represented in published works as a blue lantern, even though the lantern found on the recovered Hunley had a clear, not a blue, lens. Pyrotechnic "blue light" can be seen easily over the four mile distance between Battery Marshall and the site of the Hunley's attack on the Housatonic.After signalling, Dixon would have taken the sub underwater to try to make it back to Sullivan's Island. What happened next is unclear. The finder of the Hunley suggested that the submarine was unknowingly rammed by the USS Canandaigua, which was coming to the rescue of the Housatonics crew.
One possibility is that the torpedo was not detonated on command, but rather malfunctioned due to damage incurred during the attack. It was intended that the torpedo be detonated when Hunley had retreated, playing out its detonation rope, to approximately 150 feet (46 m) from the target, to minimize damage to the sub. However, witnesses aboard Housatonic uniformly stated that the submarine was no more than about 100 feet (31 m) away when the torpedo detonated. This is because the crew of the Hunley were fighting the waves, so they stopped one hundred feet away from the Housatonic to wait until the current could carry them away. The crew of the Housatonic fired on the Hunley, and one man hit the detonation box with his pistol. This caused the explosion that sank the Housatonic and may have damaged the Hunley.
In October 2008, scientists reported that they had found that Hunleys crew had not set the pump to remove water from the crew compartment, which might indicate that it was not being flooded. "It now really starts to point to a lack of oxygen making [the crew] unconscious," the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission said. "They may have been cranking and moving and it was a miscalculation as to how much oxygen they had."
Although there is no conclusive evidence as to the cause of the sinking of the H. L. Hunley, Head Archeologist, Maria Jacobsen, of Clemson University and George Wunderlich, Executive Director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, conducted experiments with modern castings of the H. L. Hunley's forward conning tower, the original of which showed damage at one viewing port. The experiments used replica U. S. Naval firearms, and showed that a .58 caliber minie ball, fired from the U.S.S. Housatonic, could have penetrated at the viewing ports, producing a breach sufficient to admit water. This comports with the findings of Dr. Jaime Downs, FBI Forensic Pathologist, which show variations of the preserved brain tissue from front to rear Hunley crewmen. It is conjectured that ramming by the U.S.S. Canandaigua would have caused severe damage to the sub, but no such damage was evidenced when the H. L. Hunley was raised.
Her crew perished, but H.L. Hunley had earned a place in the history of undersea warfare as the first submarine to sink a ship in wartime.
The wreck
The Hunley discovery was described by Dr. William Dudley, Director of Naval History at the Naval Historical CenterNaval Historical Center
The Naval History & Heritage Command is the official history program of the United States Navy and is located at the historic Washington Navy Yard in the District of Columbia.-Mission :...
as "probably the most important [American underwater archaeological] find of the [20th] century." The tiny sub
Sub
Sub may refer to:* Submarine* Submarine sandwich* Subscription* Substitute * Substitute teacher* Subtitle * Bottom , also called "sub" * Subwoofer loudspeaker* Sub...
and its contents have been valued at over $40 million, making its discovery and subsequent donation
Donation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
one of the most important and valuable contributions ever to South Carolina.
E. Lee Spence
Edward Lee Spence is a pioneer in underwater archaeology who studies shipwrecks and sunken treasure. He is also a published editor and author of non-fiction reference books; a magazine editor , and magazine publisher ; and a...
, president, Sea Research Society
Sea Research Society
The Sea Research Society is a non-profit educational research organization founded in 1972. Its general purpose is to promote scientific and educational endeavors in any of the marine sciences or marine histories with the goal of obtaining knowledge for the ultimate benefit to mankind...
, reportedly discovered Hunley in 1970. and has a collection of evidence claiming to validate this, including a 1980 Civil Admiralty Case.
On September 13, 1976, the National Park Service submitted Sea Research Society's (Spence's) location for H.L. Hunley for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Spence's location for Hunley became a matter of public record when H.L. Hunleys placement on that list was officially approved on December 29, 1978. Spence's book Treasures of the Confederate Coast, which had a chapter on his discovery of Hunley and included a map complete with an "X" showing the wreck's location, was published in January 1995.
Diver Ralph Wilbanks found the wreck in April 1995 while leading a NUMA
National Underwater and Marine Agency
The National Underwater and Marine Agency , originally an organization within the fiction of author Clive Cussler, is a private non-profit organization in the United States...
dive team led by novelist Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
, who announced the find as a new discovery and first claimed that it was in about 18 feet (5 m) of water over a mile inshore of the Housatonic, but later admitted to a reporter that that was false. The wreck was actually 100 yards away from the Housatonic in 27 feet (8 m) of water. The submarine was buried under several feet of silt, which had concealed and protected the vessel for over a hundred years. The divers exposed the forward hatch and the ventilator box (the air box for the attachment of a snorkel) to identify her. The submarine was resting on her starboard side at about a 45-degree angle and was covered in a ¼- to ¾-inch (0.6- to 1.9-centimeter) encrustation of rust bonded with sand and seashell particles. Archaeologists exposed part of the ship's port side and uncovered the bow dive plane. More probing revealed an approximate length of 37 feet (11 m), with all of the vessel preserved under the sediment.
On September 14, 1995, at the official request of Senator Glenn F. McConnell, Chairman, South Carolina Hunley Commission, E. Lee Spence, with South Carolina Attorney General Charles M. Condon signing, donated the Hunley to the State of South Carolina. Shortly thereafter NUMA disclosed to government officials Wilbank's location for the wreck, which, when finally made public in October 2000, matched Spence's 1970s plot of the wreck's location well within standard mapping tolerances. Spence avows that he not only discovered the Hunley in 1970 he revisited and mapped the site in 1971 and again in 1979, and that after he published his location in his 1995 book that he expected NUMA (which was actually part of a SCIAA expedition directed by Dr. Mark M. Newell
Mark M. Newell
Mark M. Newell, Ph.D. is a British/American underwater archaeologist, the director of the Georgia Archaeological Institute. He received his doctorate from St. Andrews University, Scotland. Newell began diving in Bermuda in 1963...
and not Cussler) to independently verify the wreck as the Hunley, not to claim that NUMA had discovered it. Interestingly, Dr. Newell has sworn under oath that he used Spence's maps to direct the joint SCIAA/NUMA expedition and credits Spence with the original discovery and credits his expedition only with the official verification.
The "in situ" underwater archaeological investigation and excavation culminated with the raising of Hunley on August 8, 2000. A large team of professionals from the Naval Historical Center
Naval Historical Center
The Naval History & Heritage Command is the official history program of the United States Navy and is located at the historic Washington Navy Yard in the District of Columbia.-Mission :...
's Underwater Archaeology Branch
Underwater Archaeology Branch, Naval History & Heritage Command
The Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Naval History & Heritage Command is a unit of the United States Department of the Navy. It was formally founded in 1996 as a consequence of the emerging need to manage, study, conserve, and curate the U.S...
, National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology
The UCL Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London , England. It is one of the largest departments of archaeology in the world, with over 80 members of academic staff and 500 students...
and Anthropology, and various other individuals investigated the vessel, measuring and documenting it prior to removal. Once the on-site investigation was complete, harnesses were slipped underneath the sub and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering International
Oceaneering International
Oceaneering International Inc. is an applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments...
. After the last harness had been secured, the crane from the recovery barge Karlissa B hoisted the submarine from the sea floor. It was raised from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just over 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) from Sullivan's Island outside of the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Despite having used a sextant and hand-held compass, thirty years earlier, to plot the wreck's location, Dr. Spence's 52 meters accuracy turned out to be well within the length of the recovery barge, which was 64 meters long. On August 8, 2000, at 8:37 a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in over 136 years, greeted by a cheering crowd on shore and in surrounding watercraft, including author Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
. Once safely on her transporting barge, Hunley was shipped back to Charleston. The removal operation concluded when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center
Warren Lasch Conservation Center
The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is a building located at 1250 Supply Street at the former Charleston Navy Yard, in North Charleston, South Carolina. It is being used to excavate, examine, and preserve the submarine H. L. Hunley. The name sake of this building is Warren F. Lasch, who was...
, at the former Charleston Navy Yard in North Charleston
North Charleston, South Carolina
North Charleston is the 3rd largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina with incorporated areas in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties. On June 12, 1972 the city of North Charleston incorporated and was the 9th largest city in South Carolina. According to the 2010 Census, North...
, in a specially designed tank of fresh water to await conservation.
The exploits of the Hunley and its final recovery were the subject of an episode of the television series The Sea Hunters
The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks
The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks is a nonfiction work by adventure novelist Clive Cussler published in the United States in 1996. This work details the authors search for famous shipwrecks with his nonprofit organization NUMA. There is also a television series titled The...
, called Hunley: First Kill. This program is based on a chapter in Clive Cussler's novel by the same name.
In June 2011, a conservation lab rotated the sub upright for the first time since it sank.
The crew
The crew was composed of Lieutenant George E. DixonGeorge E. Dixon
George E. Dixon was a first lieutenant in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. He is best known as the commander of the Confederate submarine H.L...
(Commander), Frank Collins, Joseph F. Ridgaway, James A. Wicks, Arnold Becker, Corporal C. F. Carlsen, C. Lumpkin, and Agustus Miller.
Apart from the commander of the submarine, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the identities of the volunteer crewmen of the Hunley had long remained a mystery. Douglas Owsley, a physical anthropologist
Physical anthropology
Biological anthropology is that branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in paleoanthropology and in forensic anthropology...
working for the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
, examined the remains and determined that four of the men were American born, while the four others were European born, based on the chemical signatures left on the men's teeth and bones by the predominant components of their diet. Four of the men had eaten plenty of maize, an American diet, while the remainder ate mostly wheat and rye, a mainly European one. By examining Civil War records and conducting DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
testing with possible relatives, forensic genealogist Linda Abrams was able to identify the remains of Dixon and the three other Americans: Frank Collins, Joseph Ridgaway, and James A. Wicks. Identifying the European crewmen has been more problematic, but was apparently solved in late 2004. The position of the remains indicated that the men died at their stations and were not trying to escape from the sinking submarine.
On April 17, 2004 the remains of the crew were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. Tens of thousands of people attended including some 6,000 reenactors and 4,000 civilians wearing period clothing. Color guards from all five branches of the U.S. armed forces—wearing modern uniforms—were also in the procession. Even though only two of the crew were from Confederate States all were buried with full Confederate honors including being buried with a version of the Confederate national flag.
Another surprise occurred in 2002, when a researcher examining the area close to Lieutenant Dixon found a misshapen $20 gold piece, minted in 1860, with the inscription "Shiloh April 6, 1862 My life Preserver G. E. D." and a forensic anthropologist
Forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification of deceased...
found a healed injury to Lt. Dixon's hip bone. The findings matched a legend, passed down in the family, that Dixon's sweetheart, Queenie Bennett, had given him the coin to protect him. Dixon had the coin with him at the Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
, where he was wounded in the thigh on April 6, 1862. The bullet struck the coin in his pocket, saving his leg and possibly his life. He had the gold coin engraved and carried it as a lucky charm.
Tours of the Hunley
Visitors can obtain tickets for guided tours of the conservation laboratory that houses the Hunley at the Warren Lasch Conservation CenterWarren Lasch Conservation Center
The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is a building located at 1250 Supply Street at the former Charleston Navy Yard, in North Charleston, South Carolina. It is being used to excavate, examine, and preserve the submarine H. L. Hunley. The name sake of this building is Warren F. Lasch, who was...
on weekends. The Center includes artifacts found inside the Hunley, exhibits about the submarine and a video.
In popular culture
- The first episode of the 1963 TV CBS series, The Great AdventureThe Great Adventure (TV series)The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, hosted each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented each week a one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important...
, featured a dramatization loosely based on the events leading up to and including the Hunleys last mission. It starred Jackie CooperJackie CooperJackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
as Lt. "Dickson". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0592453/ - The original TNT Network made-for-cable movie "The HunleyThe HunleyThe Hunley is a 1999 television movie directed by John Gray and starring Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, Alex Jennings, Michael Dolan and Christopher Bauer. The film is based on the true story of the H. L. Hunley submarine and the Action of 17 February 1864....
" (1999) tells the story of the H. L. Hunleys final mission while on station in Charleston, SC. It stars Armand AssanteArmand Assante-Personal life:Assante was born in New York City and raised in Cornwall, New York, the son of Katherine , a music teacher and poet, and Armand Anthony Assante, Sr., a painter and artist. His father was Italian and his mother was Irish, and was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family...
as Lt. Dixon and Donald SutherlandDonald SutherlandDonald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
as General Beauregard, Dixon's direct superior on the Hunley project. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162897/ - The Hunley is the inspiration of the Sons of Confederate VeteransSons of Confederate VeteransSons of Confederate Veterans is an American national heritage organization with members in all fifty states and in almost a dozen countries in Europe, Australia and South America...
H. L. Hunley JROTC AwardH. L. Hunley JROTC AwardThe H. L. Hunley JROTC Award is awarded to cadets of the United States Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps who have demonstrated strong corps values, honor, courage and commitment to their unit during the school year...
presented to cadets on the basis of strong corps values, honor, courage and commitment to their unit during the school year.
External links
- US Navy
- Friends of the Hunley - includes visiting information
- Sea Research Society links to Hunley
- "H. L. Hunley, Confederate Submarine" at the U.S. Naval Historical CenterNaval Historical CenterThe Naval History & Heritage Command is the official history program of the United States Navy and is located at the historic Washington Navy Yard in the District of Columbia.-Mission :...
- Hunley history
- Pre-Hunley - Confederate Submarines
- The Hunley (TV movie)
- Rootsweb
- - Archaeological Interpretation and 3D Reconstruction
- Hunley Related Items
- HNSA Web Page: H.L. Hunley
- H.L. Hunley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
- Find A graves on the CSS Hunley crew