On 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine made a daring late night attack on USS Housatonic, a 1,240-ton (B) sloop-of-war with 16 guns, in Charleston Harbor off the coast of South Carolina. H.L. Hunley rammed Housatonic with spar torpedo packed with explosive powder and attached to a long pole on its bow. The spar torpedo embedded in the sloop's wooden side was detonated by a rope as Hunley backed away. The resulting explosion that sent Housatonic with five crew members to the bottom of Charleston Harbor also sank Hunley with its crew of eight. H.L. Hunley earned a place in the history of undersea warfare as the first submarine to sink a ship in wartime.

Just sharing and remembering,

Skipper

Hi Skipper
I saw a documentry about it, quite a recent one about how they brought it up from the sea bed bit of a twist is that they found remains.. but it would appear that one of the crew was a unoin seaman.
They apparantly found sound something on the remains to surrgest that..perhaps he was a deserter who new about the boat that they were attacking..the plot thickens.
Cheers Chris

Hi Rui !
Good bit of history there for this day, thanks for sharing mate!

Garry

Hi all

Chris - ever since the remainings were recovered and started to be analyzed, the Union member aboard was a know fact! But it still is missing the reason or purpose of him beeing there.... God only knows!

Garry, it's only sharing information!!

By the way, this is History that you can Model



Skipper

It's unclear about the union guy. Among the remains was a "dogtag" from one Ezra Chamberlain a Connecticut infantryman. There is no evidence in the records that this man was on any of the three ill fated crews of the Hunley.
Two crews drowned training exercises, including Hunley himself. The boat was recovered each time.
Also, the exact cause of the sinking has not been determined. Deposits from the ceiling suggest that the Hunley was not flooded but may have run aground and been stuck on the bottom. The crew would have suffocated, rather than having drowned as depicted in the movie.
The most moving artifact recovered was the Lt. Dixon's (who had been in the Conferate infantry before vlunteering for this assignement) damaged $20 gold piece , given to him by his "girlfriend. " The coin stopped a bullet at Shiloh (IIRC) that would have likely shattered his leg.

Thank you for your input Al LaFleche!

It's also curious to mention that the gold piece replica is sold and would make an interesting layout/ display
$20 Gold Piece

Skipper

The Union ID tag quite possibly could have been a souvenir, with a story behind it we;ll never know.

The sub may have flooded, but an airspace could have remained at the top. The fact that all the men were found at their posts suggests they died of asphyxiation rather than drowning.

The hole in the front conning tower has yet to be explained as far as i know.