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The Hunley |
During the Civil War the civilians suffered hardships, and many
came from the blockade of their coast by the Union navy. They could
not export their cotton to the world, and could not import many
things they needed from the outside. There were several people in the
Confederacy who tried to invent new weapons to break this blockade,
and the work of several of these men produced the
H. L. Hunley, the
world's first successful combat submarine.
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James McClintock, one of the boat's designers |
The road to a successfully attack on a Union ship was long and
costly. The
Fish Boat, as the
Hunley was originally
was called, was the third submarine built by Horace Hunley, James
McClintock and Baxter Watson. Their previous failures had
helped refine the design. She had a crew of eight one steered and the
other seven worked at a crank which turned a propeller. More problems
were encountered in Charleston -
the boat sunk twice and many
of the crew were drowned, including Hunley.
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Plan of the Hunley |
The
Hunley was recovered, and George Dixon, a member of the
crew who happened to be absent when she sunk, was appointed her
commander. After many days of waiting, they went out on the night of
February 17, 1864. They had selected as their target the USS
Housatonic, a 12 gun wooden steamer. It was five miles off the
coast, and it took the crew of the
Hunley much effort to get
there. At around 8:45 pm they approached the
Housatonic, and
the officer on watch sighted what looked like a ripple in the water
100 yards out. But looking again he saw an object moving very fast
toward the ship. The ship went into an uproar, and they tried to move
forward, while the crew fired at the strange
object with anything they could lay their hands on. The
Hunley
dove and attached its torpedo in an area that happened to be just
near the magazine. Seconds later there was a huge explosion, throwing
smoke, water, and debris high into the air. A huge hole was ripped in
the side of the
Housatonic. It sunk in less than five minutes,
and the survivors were picked up by boats from other ships. Five men
had been killed, and the rest survived. The
Housatonic was the
first ship in military history to be sunk by a submarine. But the
Hunley never returned to port. Not long after the attack a
light was seen by the men watching on shore, a prearranged signal for
success, but she never returned.
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USS Housatonic |
The
Hunley's disappearance
was one of the most puzzling mysteries of the Civil War. After
many years of speculation, she was finally located in the late 20th
century lying under 3 feet of mud, and in 2000 the wreck was brought
to the surface, and investigated by archaeologists. Inside were found
the bones of the crew and many artifacts they carried with them. The
ongoing work on the
Hunley has answered some questions
regarding the boat's fate. None of the men had left the ship. They
were 1000 feet away from the wreck of the
Housatonic. There
was no structural damage from the explosion.
|
The Hunley underwater |
But many questions still remain. Why did they sink? Did they
intentionally dive to wait for the incoming tide and for some reason
not surface? Or did the
Hunley sink immediately and the wreck
gradually move the 1000 feet? Whatever the
Hunley's fate, it
was unique. Safe and usable submarines were far in the future, and
the next successful military use occurred in 1914, during World War
I. With the
Hunley's sinking, the war was almost over for
Charleston. New weapons had been developed and used successfully, but
none were powerful enough to break the blockade and turn the war
around.
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