"The Traveling Coffin"

It had already been two long years since the naval blockade had been established in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. The Union leadership, anxious to end the Civil War, believed that if key ports of the Confederacy were blocked off, the eventual shortage of food and supplies would bring the Confederates to their knees. But on the night of February 17, 1864, a loud explosion sounded throughout the city of Charleston. Moments later, the union warship the U.S.S. Housatonic, part of the Union naval blockade, sank to the bottom of the harbor. But in the midst of the chaos and confusion, there loomed a bigger question. What caused the Housatonic to suddenly blow up and sink?

Later eyewitness accounts described something like a large log racing towards the Yankee ship. But in fact, an extraordinary weapon would later take the credit. The Confederate submarine, the H. L. Hunley, had rammed a 135-pound torpedo into the Housatonic's hull. It was the first time a submarine had sunk an enemy ship. But the Confederate victory was short-lived. Minutes later, the Hunley disappeared, its crew and sub never to be heard from again.

Finally in 1995, the remains of the submarine were discovered resting under a thick blanket of silt, thirty feet of water near the entrance to the harbor. Then, on the morning of August 8, 2000, the Confederate submarine returned to the world she had left more than 136 years ago. As hundreds of eager onlookers watched, a giant crane mounted on a 600-ton barge gently lifted the legendary submarine from its watery grave. When the submarine broke the surface of the water, the audience erupted in cheers. Still, as exciting as the recovery of the submarine was, there were still some puzzling questions waiting to be solved by the archaeologists, historians, and scientists.

The discovery of the submarine is one of the greatest archaeological finds ever, and its history is as fascinating as its recovery. The Hunley was built to challenge the Union ships guarding Southern ports during the Civil War. The submarine was not created by the Confederate Navy, but was in fact, the brainchild of New Orleans businessman Horace L. Hunley. Fascinated by the possibilities of submarines, he had already financed two experimental vessels. Neither had proven successful, but Hunley tried once more and finally met with success.

Built in Mobile, Alabama, in the spring of 1863 and christened in honor of its benefactor, the H.L. Hunley was essentially a 40-foot-long iron tube. Measuring four feet wide and four feet wide, the South's secret weapon was powered by crew members, who, while sitting hunched over, turned a crank that ran through the ship. A lighted candle on board told the crew when oxygen was running out. The sub had enough air for the crew to stay underwater for 2 1/2 hours, though the crew had never been underwater longer than 25 minutes. The sub's weaponry consisted of a 90-pound torpedo attached to a 20-foot spar, or special pole, protruding from the bow. Hunley had no doubts about his submarine's potential to destroy an enemy ship. What he and others wanted to know was whether his invention would drive the blockaders from Charleston.

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