First Successful Submarine Attack

                    H. L. Hunley (Confederate submarine)

When the American Civil War was raging a Confederate inventor came upon the idea of converting a steam boiler into a submerged vessel to stealthily sneak up close to a Union vessel and sink it, using a torpedo fixed to a long pole, which could be ramed into the ship's hull, exploding upon contact and blowing a hole below the waterline.

Although the daring attempt did little to help the lost Confederate cause, and the small victory was short-lived; the repercussions of this event were to be colossal. It was the first-ever successful submarine attack and from this bold act came the birth of the submarine as we know it today - the underwater predator that would become the scourge of ships in future wars.

This Confederate Submarine was named H.L. Hunley after Horace Lawson Hunley - the inventor. The small moment of glory came with a successful underwater attack, against the USS Housatonic. Eight men turned the propeller using a hand crank and got a maximum speed of 4 knots. Air was provided by two four-foot pipes, but the hull contained enough air for approximately half an hour of submerged operations. As you can well imagine, it was a most primitive vessel indeed and the crewmen would have to men of a very special metal.

During trials, the submarine sank twice in Charleston harbour, South Carolina. The first accident cost the lives of two crews. In the second sinking, the submarine was stranded on the bottom of the river bed. Horace Lawson Hunley, the inventor, was asphyxiated along with eight other crew members. When the Submarine was raised again, it was renamed the Hunley in honour of the inventor.

Then came the day of action and a chance to prove the H.L. Hunley's worth. The year was 1864 and armed with a 90-pound charge of powder on a long pole, the Hunley stealthily floated forward beneath the river surface and ramed her torpedo into the hull of the new Federal steam sloop, USS Housatonic, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The USS Housatonic sank and the Hunley disappeared. Perhaps she was too close to the Housatonic's hull when the charge, at the end of the pole, exploded. It is believed she limped away beneath the water and sank some way off.

Her wreck was found in 1995 and she was raised in the year 2000, one hundred and thirty-six years later, her eight-man crew were buried with proper ceremony. This strange little vessel changed the face of naval warfare.



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http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blogspot.com/2010/11/hans-langsdorff-of-admiral-graf-spee.html

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http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blogspot.com/2011/04/hms-hecate-1871-cyclops-class-coastal.html

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http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blogspot.com/2011/04/hms-thunderer-victorian-battleships.html

HMS Devastation - first battle steamship without sails.
http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blogspot.com/2010/05/hms-devastation-1871-1908-first-steam.html

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