CSS H.L. Hunley

The first submarine to sink a warship in combat. She was fashioned from a steam boiler in 1863 and began service for the Confederate States of America on August 7th of that year in the defense of the port of Charleston. Originally, she carried a trailing torpedo, which was quickly abandoned in favor of a torpedo mounted on a spar, designed to be rammed into the hull of a vessel and detonated by means of pulling a rope from a safe distance. The CSS H.L. Hunley sunk twice, killing 12 men, including Horace L. Hunley, the designer of the ship and it's namesake. Each time, she was raised and returned to active duty.

On February 17th, 1864, she encounted the Union sloop-of-war, Housatonic, which she successfully sunk, resulting in the deaths of five sailors. However, the CSS H.L. Hunley never returned from her final mission, and it is speculated that the torpedo blast took her to the bottom as well.

The Hunley was finally discovered on May 4, 1995 by NUMA archeologists (Ralph Wilbanks, Wes Hall, and Harry Pecorelli), after fifteen years of searching.

On August 8, 2000, the Hunley was finally raised from the ocean floor.

Excavation of the Hunley continues; as of April 5, 2001, 6 crewmembers' remains had been discovered.

http://www.hunley.org/

The CSS H.L. Hunley submarine was the first submarine ever created to successfuly sink another war ship in battle, in the middle part of the 1800's as part of the war effort during the Civil War.

The Hunley was developed by the Confederates during the Civil War as a possible approach for the iron clads which were heavily armored above the water line. The Hunley was 40 feet long and was armed with a harpoon on which a torpedo was mounted. This harpoon was mounted on the bow of the ship. The design of this torpedo was such that it would be rammed into the wood hull of a ship and then the submarine would back off and detonate the explosives with a rope attached.

The first crew of the Hunley was civilian volunteers during an attach on Charleston. As the submarine was being prepared for its initial trials a large swell swamped her and eight of the crew of nine died. The only survivor was Lt. John Payne who was standing in the forward hatch at the time.

The first test run of the Hunley was on October 15, 1863 during which the Hunley sank (again) as it was performing a routine dive. The crew died of suffocation. The entire crew was lost including the designer, Horace Hunley. The cause was identified as pilot error.

After being raised from the bottom of Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was repaired, and modified to help avoid the error again. After many practice missions, the Hunley was again committed to battle.

The Hunley sank after her maiden attack on February 17, 1864 in which it rammed the Union warship USS Housatonic. The attack was successful and the Housatonic suck in minutes. The last sighting of the Hunley was was it reversed course and returned to the Charleston Harbor. In 1995 the Hunley was found off of Sullivan's Island, South Carolina.