Wreck Sites USS Housatonic & CSS Hunley

Confederate States Ship (C.S.S.) H.L. Hunley, named after its inventor Horace Lawson Hunley, was an early submarine used during the American Civil War and is accredited as the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship. Built in Alabama in 1863, she was transferred by rail to Charleston for trials on 12 Aug 1863. On the 29 August 1963 she sank with the loss of 5 crew. She was raised and yet again sank with the loss of all crew including her inventor. Raised again and returned to service, she sailed and sank the USS Housatonic, on blockade duty in Charleston's outer harbour, by use of a spar torpedo on 17 February 1864. After the torpedo was detonated the Housatonic sank with the loss of 5 lives. The Hunley also disappeared after the attack and was probably sunk as a result of its proximity to the explosion. 1n 1995 an expedition lead by the author Clive Cussler located the wreck and it was subsequently raised and is now exhibited at the Warren Lasch Conservation Centre in Charleston. The remains of the crew of Hunley were interred in Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery on 17 April 2004 with full Confederate honours. A crowd of tens of thousands attended with an estimated 6,000 re-enactors and 4,000 civilians in period dress,
USS Housatonic was as Screw Sloop of war launched in 20 November 1861 and commisioned ion 29 August 1862.

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Source

• Text: Sharky Ward
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward (1), R.G. Skerrett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (2), W.A. Alexander, U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph (3), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (4), Waud, William, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (5)