![]() ![]() Hunley was equipped with two watertight hatches, one forward and one aft, atop two short conning towers equipped with small portholes and slender, triangular cutwaters. Inboard profile and plan drawings, after sketches by W.A. 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. Extra ballast was added through the use of iron weights bolted to the underside of the hull. Each end was equipped with ballast tanks that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. ![]() Hunley was designed for a crew of eight: seven to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Skerrett's 1902 drawing is an accurate representation. In fact, Hunley was purpose-designed and built for her role, and the sleek, modern-looking craft shown in R.G. 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 boiler-perhaps because a cutaway drawing by William Alexander, who had seen the real boat, showed a short and stubby machine. The submarine sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay during a storm later the same month and was not recovered.Ĭonstruction of Hunley began soon after the loss of American Diver. ![]() One attempted attack on the Union blockade was made in February 1863 but was unsuccessful. American Diver was ready for harbor trials by January 1863, but it proved too slow to be practical. The men experimented with electromagnetic and steam propulsion for the new submarine, before falling back on a simpler hand-cranked propulsion system. 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. They soon began development of a second submarine, American Diver. The three inventors moved to Mobile and joined with machinists Thomas Park and Thomas Lyons. John Confederate submarine may have been constructed about the same time as Pioneer. But the Union advance towards New Orleans caused the men to abandon development and scuttle Pioneer the following month. Pioneer was tested in February 1862 in the Mississippi River and was later towed to Lake Pontchartrain for additional trials. Hunley, McClintock, and Watson first built a small submarine named Pioneer in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hunley and two earlier submarines were privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson. Examination in 2012 of recovered Hunley artifacts suggests that the submarine was as close as 20 feet to its target, the Housatonic, when its deployed torpedo exploded, which eventually caused the sub's own demise. This time, the innovative ship was lost.įinally located in 1995, the Hunley was recovered in 2000 and is on display in Charleston. Soon after, Hunley sank, killing all eight of her third crew. 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. Both times the Hunley was raised and returned to service. 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. Hunley (then called Fish Boat) sank on August 29, 1863, during a training exercise, killing five members of her crew. It was then shipped by rail on Augto Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley, nearly 40 feet (12 m) long, was built at Mobile, Alabama, and launched in July 1863. 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 Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of the Hunley during her short career. 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 Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. 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. Based on a photograph taken in 1863 by George S. ![]()
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