The Hunley

Ever since I began to study American History, especially the Civil War, I was always fascinated with weapons and technology, especially the C.S.S. Hunley. This is because the Hunley was the world’s first successful attack submarine. This to me is a pretty big deal, especially for the 19th century. The Hunley left on April 18th, 1864, bound for the U.S.S. Housatonic, which was a wooden-hulled Union warship on the blockade line. A few hours after it left, there was an explosion on the water’s surface, and the Housatonic was heading towards the bottom of the ocean. It had been predetermined that when successful, the crew of the Hunley, at that point under the command of Lieutenant George Dixon would flash a blue light towards Battery Marshal on the coast. In turn, Battery Marshal would shine a light towards the water, so the crew had a heading to head back home in the darkness. Reports go that the Hunley gave their signal, which was replied to by Battery Marshal, but after that, the submarine vanished. 130 years later, the Hunley was found, intact, with all 8 members of the crew still at their positions. Soon after, it was raised, and the crew was laid to rest with full military honors. Today, the Hunley sits in a 70,000 gallon holding tank in Charleston, South Carolina. It is still having scientific experiments done on it, and an attempt to preserve it is in place. To this day, nobody knows exactly why the Hunley sunk after its greatest success. What is known is that the Hunley was a technological feat that was years ahead of its time. In fact, the next ship to successfully sunk would be around 50 years later in World War I when a German U-Boat sunk an enemy ship.