Courtesy of Barbara Voulgaris
Courtesy of The Friends of Hunley
The H. L. Hunley successfully sank the U. S. S. Housatonic. This broke a barrier in naval warfare because no underwater ship had ever sunk an enemy ship. Panic was spread across all of the Union. Captain Joseph Foster Green arrived at the scene roughly one day after the event. Unfortunately for the Hunley, it sank too and remained underwater for over a century. On the other hand, the sunken U. S. S. Housatonic had been found, and it was badly damaged. A decent amount of parts were completely obliterated, while others were covered in mud, sand, and pollution. This further demonstrates the capability of the H. L. Hunley.
"SIR: I am directed by the commanding general to inform you that it was the torpedo boat H. L. Hunley that destroyed the Federal man-of-war Housatonic, and that Lieutenant Dixon commanded the expedition, but I regret to say that nothing since has been heard either of Lieutenant Dixon or the torpedo boat. It is therefore feared that that gallant officer and his brave companions have perished."
~Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General H. W. Feilden
Courtesy of Sam Willis
On May 3rd, 1995, Clive Cussler and his team finally found the Hunley after 15 years of searching. It was raised in 2000 and taken to Warren Lasch Conservation Center. The next step was to figure out how the Hunley had sunk. Barriers were broken in research because of the many studies conducted to find out how the Hunley sank. Many studies have been done that have recreated the scenario in order to figure out how the crew had died. One study conducted by Carderock ended with no answer to how the crew died. However, another study by the University of Florida ended with the conclusion that the crew died immediately from the explosion caused by the torpedo. Other studies also arrived at this conclusion and it has become widely accepted that the crew died immediately from air-blast injuries. This barrier break in naval warfare led to a great amount of research years later.
.Courtesy of The Friends of Hunley
“In 2000, the H.L. Hunley was officially removed from its century-old resting place. In the end, archeologists discovered that it had sunk just 100 yards from the Housatonic, leading them to believe that it had in fact been its own blast that took the H.L. Hunley down.”
~Katie Serena