H.L. Hunley Disappears
Discovering the Hunley
(Side One):H.L. Hunley DisappearsTo break the blockade of Charleston Harbor, the Confederate submarine the H.L. Hunley set out to attack the Union warship Housatonic on the night of February 17, 1864. After ramming a 135-pound torpedo into the ship's wooden hull, the submarine quickly backed away.
Seconds later a massive explosion shook the Housatonic, killing five crew members and sinking the vessel in 27 feet of water. The H.L. Hunley became the first submarine in history to destroy an enemy ship, but the Hunley and its crew never made it back to shore.
(Caption on the Right): William Alexander's 1902 drawings of the H.L. Hunley. The Hunley was the third in a series of experimental submarines. The Hunley sank twice during tests, killing thirteen crew members. Built from an iron steamboiler, the Hunley was 40 feet long and carried a crew of nine men. The captain navigated while the other crew members worked the crank that turned the propeller shaft. The torpedo was attached to a long wooden spar on the bow.
(Side Two):Discovering the HunleySince the night of the attack, the H.L. Hunley and its crew escaped detection by amateur and professional divers. In 1980, novelist Clive Cussler and a team of underwater archeologists began to search for the submarine in the outer Charleston Harbor. Fifteen years later they found what they believed to be the lost sub, buried in sediment in thrity feet of water four miles southeast of Fort Moultrie.
Researchers from the National Park Service, the South Carolina institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Naval Historical Center soon confirmed the discovery of the Hunley and partially uncovered and mapped the vessel. Test revealed that the Hunley has sufficient hull strength to allow for recovery, conservation, and eventual display at the Charleston Museum.
(Side Three):The Hunley Recovery ProjectFederal, state, and private sector underwater archeologists teamed with engineers and divers from Oceaneering International to excavate and recover the H.L. Hunley. Oceaneering, a marine engineering company, has done recovery work on the USS Monitor and NASA's Liberty Bell 7 space capsule.
In mid-summer 2000, the team excavated the sub and supported it with a continuous series of slings attached to a specifically built recovery frame. Each sling had a load cell to provide constant computerized monitoring of the hull stresses during recovery operations. Finally the Hunley was raised from its resting place and transported to a conservation facility in North Charleston, where the delicate work of conservation and preservation will continue for years.
Marker can be reached from Poe Avenue, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
