The C.S.S. Hunley -- The First Military Submarine to Sink an Enemy Ship

[Puritanhead]

The Hunley Experience

The C.S.S. Hunley -- The First Military Submarine to Sink an Enemy Ship... Has anyone seen the DVD special which covers the funeral service for the recovered men that served on board the Hunley? The submarine was recently recovered from the silty bottom in deep waters off the Carolina coast. The Confederate crew were given a Christian burial and laid to rest with full military honors at the behest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Charleston, SC.

When the Hunley was recovered it was covered in silt, and preserved in a perfectly anaerobic environment (which meant no oxygen got to the ship) and it was left almost wholly intact without hardly any rust or decomposition.

TNT aired an interesting movie about the Hunley which is available on video...The Hunley, with Armand Assante as George Dixon and Donald Sutherland as General P.G.T. Beauregard, which presents the dramatic history of the Hunley accurately. The Hunley with its first crew originally sunk beneath the Charleston Harbor and Beauregard thought of the infernal machine as a tin-can deathtrap more dangerous to its crew than to the Union blockade ships. He did not think it should be utilized. Though, it was recovered, salvaged, and refitted with a new crew... The new crew succesfully sank the USS Husitania, in a dramatic pyrrhic victory.

There are quite a few informational web sites on the submarine:
Friends of the Hunley
The Hunley
Naval Historical Center - The Hunley in Historical Context
Wikipedia - CSS H. L. Hunley

[Edited on 7-18-2005 by Puritanhead]

 

[Puritanhead]

http://www.charlestonarea.com/Hunley_photos.htm

 

[RamistThomist]

I've stood on the deck of the USS Cairo, which was raised (I forgot how long ago).

 

[LawrenceU]

I saw the special. I've also sat in the 'Hunley'. Not the real one, but the replica that is in our museum. The Hunley was made in Mobile, my town. When you sit in that little tube you are overwhelmed with the courage those men possessed.

 

[Puritanhead]

Originally posted by LawrenceU
I saw the special. I've also sat in the 'Hunley'. Not the real one, but the replica that is in our museum. The Hunley was made in Mobile, my town. When you sit in that little tube you are overwhelmed with the courage those men possessed.

I just drove through your hometown of Mobile... and stopped in Alabama briefly... Mobile is a nice town... I stopped just on the outskirts of Mobile on the way to Franklin, LA for the Abbeville Institute seminar. I got a scholarship for their educational seminar... I got books signed by Thomas DiLorenzo, author of the Real Lincoln, From Union to Empire: Essays on the Jeffersonian Tradition by Clyde Wilson, and John Remington Graham, author of a Constitutional History of Secession... http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/

The Institute was even mentioned in that liberal rag Time Magazine, which ran Abe Lincoln on the cover issue this past July 4...

 

[LawrenceU]

Next time stop in for a spell.

 

[Plimoth Thom]

The first submarine was designed in 1578 by William Bourne, a British mathematician.

The first working submarine was built in 1620 by Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebbel. He wrapped a wooden rowboat in waterproofed leather and had air tubes with floats to the surface to provide oxygen. It was powered by oars that went through the hull at leather gaskets. He took the first trip with 12 oarsmen in the Thames River - staying submerged for 3 hours.

The first working combat submarine was the Turtle built by David Bushnell as an afterthought, a means to deliver is newly invented naval torpedo.

From the journals of my ancestor Dr. James Thacher, surgeon in the Continental Army:

"10th.-I have now obtained a particular description of the American Torpedo, and other ingenious submarine machinery, invented by Mr. David Bushnell, for the purpose of destroying shipping while at anchor, some account of which may be found in this Journal. The external appearance of the torpedo bears some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells, of equal size, placed in contact, leaving at that part which represents the head of the animal, a flue or opening, sufficiently capacious to contain the operator, and air to support him thirty minutes. At the bottom, opposite to the entrance, is placed a quantity of lead for ballast. The operator sits upright, and holds an oar for rowing forward or backward, and is furnished with a rudder for steering. An aperture at the bottom, with its valve, admits water for the purpose of descending, and two brass forcing pumps serve to eject the water within, when necessary for ascending. The vessel is made completely water-tight, furnished with glass windows for the admission of light, with ventilators and air-pipes, and is so ballasted, with lead fixed at the bottom, as to render it solid, and obviate all danger of oversetting. Behind the submarine vessel, is a place above the rudder for carrying a large powder magazine; this is made of two pieces of oak timber, large enough, when hollowed out, to contain one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, with the apparatus used for firing it, and is secured in its place by a screw turned by the operator. It is lighter than water, that it may rise against the object to which it is intended to be fastened. Within the magazine, is an apparatus constructed to run any proposed length of time under twelve hours; when it has run out its time, it unpinions a strong lock, resembling a gun-lock, which gives fire to the powder. This apparatus is so pinioned, that it cannot possibly move, till, by casting off the magazine from the vessel, it is set in motion. The skilful operator can swim so low on the surface of the water, as to approach very near a ship in the night, without fear of being discovered; and may, if he choose, approach the stern or stem, above water, with very little danger. He can sink very quickly, keep at any necessary depth, and row a great distance in any direction he desires without coming to the surface. When he rises to the surface, he can soon obtain a fresh supply of air, and, if necessary, he may then descend again and pursue his course. Mr. Bushnell found that it required many trials and considerable instruction to make a man of common ingenuity a skilful operator. The first person, his brother, whom he employed, was very ingenious, and made himself master of the business, but was taken sick before he had an opportunity to make use of his skill. Having procured a substitute, and given him such instruction as time would allow, he was directed to try an experiment on the Eagle, a sixty-four-gun ship, on board of which Lord Howe commanded, lying in the harbor of New York. He went under the ship, and attempted to fix the wooden screw into her bottom, but struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron which passes from the rudder hinge, and is spiked under the ship's quarter. Had he moved a few inches, he might have done without rowing, there is no doubt he would have found wood where he might have fixed the screw; or if the ship had been sheathed with copper, he might easily have pierced it. But not being well skilled in the management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place, he lost the ship. After seeking her in vain, for some time, be rowed some distance, and rose to the surface of the water, but found day-light had advanced so far, that he durst not renew the attempt. He says that he could easily have fastened the magazine under the stern of the ship, above water, as he rowed up to the stern and touched it before he descended. Had he fastened it there, the explosion of one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, the quantity contained in the magazine, must have been fatal to the ship. In his return from the ship to New York, he passed near Governor's Island, and thought he was discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in haste to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the magazine, as he imagined it retarded him in the swell, which was very considerable. After the magazine had been cast off one hour, the time the internal apparatus was set to run, it blew up with great violence, throwing a vast column of water to an amazing height in the air, and leaving the enemy to conjecture whether the stupendous noise was produced by a bomb, a meteor, a water-spout, or an earthquake. Some other attempts Were made in Hudson's river, in one of which the operator, in going towards the ship, lost sight of her and went a great distance beyond her, and the tide ran so strong as to baffle all his efforts. Mr. Bushnell being in ill health, and destitute of resources, was obliged to abandon his pursuit at that time, and wait for a more favorable opportunity, which never occurred."