![]() As Dixon led his men on the daring attack on Housatonic, he carried with him his good luck charm, a bent gold coin that had saved his life by slowing a bullet that wounded him two years before at the Battle of Shiloh.Īlthough Confederate P.G.T. Once again, the submarine was pulled to the surface, and even though he knew its tragic history, Lieutenant George Dixon agreed to take command of the vessel in November 1863 and raised a crew of courageous volunteers. The submarine was salvaged, but less than two months later, a second training accident killed the eight-member crew, including H.L. ![]() Shortly after testing began in Charleston Harbor, five of Hunley’s nine crewmembers drowned when a ship officer accidentally caused the vessel to dive while the hatches were still open. After successful tests on the Mobile River, the submarine was transported to Charleston in August 1863 amid hopes by the Confederate navy that it could be a secret weapon in breaking the Union blockade. It was constructed out of a 40-foot-long cylindrical iron steam boiler with a tapered bow and stern. Although Crosby initially thought he spotted a porpoise, the submarine more closely resembled a whale. The undersea vessel had been privately constructed in Mobile, Alabama, based on the plans of marine engineer Horace Lawson Hunley. ![]() Even if they hadn’t been bearing down on a mighty warship, the eight men were already undertaking a dangerous mission simply by being inside the submarine that had already claimed the lives of 13 men, including its inventor, during training exercises. ![]() Hunley.Īs all hands raced to their stations on Housatonic, seven Confederate sailors inside the primitive submarine turned a handcrank that powered the propeller as another man steered toward the 1,240-ton sloop-of-war. Only four months before, USS New Ironsides had been partially damaged in an attack by the semi-submersible CSS David, and this windless, moonlit winter night offered perfect conditions for operating the approaching submarine, H.L. But as the murky shadow rippled closer to the warship, the Navy officer sounded the alarm as he realized that the strange object closing in on Housatonic was actually a cutting-edge naval weapon-a submarine.īased on information gleaned from Confederate deserters, Union ships had been on alert for undersea vessels lurking in Charleston Harbor. At first, Crosby thought it could be a surfacing porpoise or perhaps a log. The moonlight shimmered on Charleston Harbor’s still surface as Housatonic patrolled the South Carolina waters as part of the Union naval blockade that was slowly strangling the Confederacy.Īs Crosby gazed out at the placid harbor around 8:45 p.m., Housatonic’s officer of the deck suddenly saw something shatter the water’s glassy surface only 100 yards away on the starboard side. Length 20 inches.On the clear but chilly night of February 17, 1864, John Crosby stood on the deck of USS Housatonic a little less than six miles and three years removed from the launching point of the Civil War, Fort Sumter. Hunley earned a place in the history of undersea warfare as the first submarine to sink a ship in wartime. The resulting explosion that sent Housatonic with five crew members to the bottom of Charleston Harbor probably also sank Hunley with its crew of nine although this is not certain. The torpedo embedded in the sloop's wooden side was detonated by a rope as Hunley backed away. Hunley rammed Housatonic with a torpedo packed with explosive powder attached to a long spar on its bow. On February 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine made a night attack on the USS Housatonic, a 1800-ton sloop-of-war with 23 guns, in Charleston Harbor off the coast of South Carolina. Octothe Hunley sank during another attempt, killing its inventor Horace Lawson Hunley and seven other crewmen. Then on Augfive of a crew of nine were killed during an attempted attack when the skipper accidentally dived with the hatches open. Three of the Hunley's night missions failed against the Union ironclads blockading the harbor. The Confederate Navy seized the boat from its private builders and owners a few weeks after its arrival in Charleston, South Carolina. In the event the submarine needed additional buoyancy to rise in an emergency, the iron weight could be removed by unscrewing the heads of the bolts from inside the vessel. Extra ballast was added through the use of iron weights bolted to the underside of the hull. As a true submarine, each end was equipped with ballast tanks that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. Hunley was designed to be hand powered by a crew of nine: eight to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Privately invented by Horace Lawson Hunley and built in 1863 by Park and Lyons of Mobile, Alabama, Hunley was fashioned from a cylindrical iron steam boiler, which was deepened and also lengthened through the addition of tapered ends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |