Armoredd.com

January 05, 2009
by Mark Whittington
Associated Content

Over eight years after she was raised from her watery grave, the Civil War submarine, CSS Hunley, is still presenting a mystery. Researchers are still not certain why she never returned froConfederate Submarine Hunley Continues to Fascinatem her mission against a blockading Union fleet.

The Hunley was an iron cylinder about forty feet in length with ballast tanks that could be filled or emptied with a hand pump to allow the vessel to submerge or surface. The Hunley was propelled by a hand cranked propeller by seven crew men seated inside with an eighth crewman to steer the vessel. There were two hatches, fore and aft, atop two conning towers with small portholes. The Hunley’s armament consisted of a ninety pound black powder explosive charge attached to a twenty two foot spar attached to the Hunley’s bow. The idea was that the Hunley would ram a sailing vessel, thus pushing the explosive to her hull, and then detonated as the Hunley backed away, likely with an electrical current.

The Hunley’s final mission took place in Charleston harbor in South Carolina on February 17th, 1864, when she set forth with a crew of eight commanded by Lt. George E. Dixon. The Hunley appears to have successfully completed her mission when she rammed the USS Housatonic, a steam powered sloop, and detonated the explosive charge, sending the Housatonic to the bottom.

Fifteen minutes later a lamp signal surmised to be from the Hunley was received from her base indicating that she had successfully fulfilled her mission and was headed back. What happened next has remained unclear for a hundred a forty five years.

The wreck of the Hunley was discovered in 1995 by an expedition financed by novelist and adventurer Clive Cussler. Hunley was raised five years later and was taken by transport barge to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Charleston Naval Yard for study and conservation. After forensic study, the members of the Hunley’s crew were buried with full military honors in what was described as “the last Confederate funeral”, attended by thousands of Civil War re-enactors.