Naval history was made on this day in 1864, when Confederate ship H.L. Hunley became the first submarine to sink a warship in combat. Born out of a time of rapidly advancing naval technology in the Civil War, Hunley was built by a group of Louisiana businessmen which included Horace L. Hunley—who would later drown captaining his namesake sub in an 1863 training run. The goal was to break the Union blockade and keep the Confederate’s seaports open to trade through naval warfare by going underwater.
Off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, Hunley encountered USS Housatonic, a 205-foot sloop-of-war which played a key role in protecting the Union blockade. Hunley stealthily approached Housatonic, lodging a torpedo in the warship’s hull before any countermeasures could be taken. The torpedo detonated moments later, sinking Housatonic in a matter of minutes, resulting in the loss of all five crew members.
What exactly befell Hunley remains a mystery. Perhaps damaged by its own torpedo, Hunley and its crew of eight were never heard from again. The ship did not see the light of day for 136 years, when a 1995 expedition rediscovered it in 30 feet of water in Charleston Harbor. In 2000, the ship was delicately lifted off the sea floor and placed in a 75,000-gallon freshwater tank at Charleston’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center. Conservators continue to examine the wreckage, gathering more evidence about the fate of Hunley and its crew.
Your group too can make its own discoveries today. In addition to seeing the real Hunley, guests at the Friends of the Hunley museum can see artifacts from the sea floor excavation, facial reconstructions of the eight crew members—whose remains, found in the submarine, were buried in 2004—and a replica of Hunley to explore. The museum is only open to the public on weekends, but private group tours can be arranged seven days a week for a fee, depending on group size.
Main Image: 1864 drawing of H.L. Hunley; Credit: Adobe/Archivist
