Excavated Civil War sub is wonder

History, archaeology, genealogy, romance and courage are all part of the lore of the Civil War submarine, H.L. Hunley, as recounted last week in the Salt Lake Main Library.

The raising of the sunken Confederate sub from waters off Charleston, S.C., and its excavation are one of greatest archaeological feats in many years.

The hand-cranked Hunley was the world's first successful attack submarine, sinking a Union blockading ship, the USS Housatonic, on the night of Feb. 17, 1864. Although the Hunley signaled that it had carried out the attack, it never returned to Charleston.

Its location was a mystery until it was discovered in 1995 near the remains of the Housatonic, by a team of divers led by author Clive Cussler. After years of study, it was raised and returned to Charleston, where it is has been fully excavated. It and the many artifacts are undergoing conservation.

All eight crewmen were buried in a Charleston cemetery with military honors earlier this year. But researchers are still working to learn why it sank.

Robert Neyland, director of the Charleston, S.C.-based Hunley Project, brought the story of the submarine's recovery and excavation to Salt Lake City with a lecture in the Main Library, 210 E. 400 South.

The talk was hosted by the Utah Museum of Natural History, which scheduled several nautical archaeology lectures in conjunction with its sponsorship of the Titanic exhibit in the ZCMI Center. The last lecture in the series is slated for Dec. 7, when the topic will be the recovery of a fishing boat from the Sea of Galilee that dates from the time of Christ.

Almost a dozen Civil War re-enactors were on hand for the Hunley lecture, representing soldiers from both sides and women participants in the war.

The Hunley had sunk twice before during trial runs, killing some of one crew and all of the second. The third crew also died, vanishing without a trace — until the sub's recent discovery.

Asked to comment on the crew, Neyland said, "I think they were incredibly brave, to go out in the submarine after two other crews had died."

Conditions inside the small vessel must have been uncomfortable, he added. it was "a tight, claustrophobic submarine. It was probably very clammy, with moisture condensing, coming out of their breaths and running and dripping down the side of the sub. Not to mention the movement of the submarine."

The Hunley was a secret weapon, Neyland said, so many of the details of its construction were lost when the Confederate secret service archives were burned at the end of the Civil War. Until the ship was raised, nobody realized it had such sophisticated engineering and a sleek, knife-bow design.

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