H . L . Hunley ( submarine ) H . L . Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War , but a large role in the history of naval warfare . The " Hunley " demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare . It was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship , although the " Hunley " was not completely submerged and was lost at some point following her successful attack . The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of the " Hunley " during her short career . The submarine was named for her inventor , Horace Lawson Hunley , shortly after it was taken into service under the control of the Confederate Army at Charleston , South Carolina . The " Hunley " , nearly 40 feet ( 12 m ) long , was built at Mobile , Alabama , and launched in July 1863 . It was then shipped by rail on August 12 , 1863 to Charleston , South Carolina . " Hunley " ( then called " Fish Boat " ) sank on August 29 , 1863 , during a training exercise , killing five members of her crew . It sank again on October 15 , 1863 , killing all eight of her second crew , including Horace Hunley himself , who was aboard at the time , even though he was not enlisted in the Confederate armed forces . Both times the " Hunley " was raised and returned to service . On February 17 , 1864 , " Hunley " attacked and sank the 1240 - short ton ( 1124 metric tons ) screw sloop USS " Housatonic " on Union blockade duty in Charleston ' s outer harbor . Soon after , " Hunley " sank , killing all eight of her third crew . This time , the innovative ship was lost . Finally located in 1995 , the " Hunley " was recovered in 2000 and is on display in Charleston . Examination in 2012 of recovered " Hunley " artifacts suggests that the submarine was as close as 20 feet to its target , the " Housatonic " , when its deployed torpedo exploded , which eventually caused the sub ' s own demise . Predecessors . " Hunley " and two earlier submarines were privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley , James McClintock , and Baxter Watson . Hunley , McClintock , and Watson first built a small submarine named " Pioneer " in New Orleans , Louisiana . " Pioneer " was tested in February 1862 in the Mississippi River and was later towed to Lake Pontchartrain for additional trials . But the Union advance towards New Orleans caused the men to abandon development and scuttle " Pioneer " the following month . The poorly documented " Bayou St . John " Confederate submarine may have been constructed about the same time as " Pioneer " . The three inventors moved to Mobile and joined with machinists Thomas Park and Thomas Lyons . They soon began development of a second submarine , " American Diver " . Their efforts were supported by the Confederate States Army ; Lieutenant William Alexander of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment was assigned oversight duty for the project . The men experimented with electromagnetic and steam propulsion for the new submarine , before falling back on a simpler hand - cranked propulsion system . " American Diver " was ready for harbor trials by January 1863 , but it proved too slow to be practical . One attempted attack on the Union blockade was made in February 1863 but was unsuccessful . The submarine sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay during a storm later the same month and was not recovered . Construction and testing . Construction of " Hunley " began soon after the loss of " American Diver " . At this stage , " Hunley " was variously referred to as the " fish boat , " the " fish torpedo boat , " or the " porpoise . " Legend long held " Hunley " was made from a cast - off steam boiler — perhaps because a cutaway drawing by William Alexander , who had seen the real boat , showed a short and stubby machine . In fact , " Hunley " was purpose - designed and built for her role , and the sleek , modern - looking craft shown in R . G . Skerrett ' s 1902 drawing is an accurate representation . " Hunley " was designed for a crew of eight : seven to turn the hand - cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat . Each end was equipped with ballast tank s that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps . Extra ballast was added through the use of iron weights bolted to the underside of the hull . 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 . " Hunley " was equipped with two watertight hatches , one forward and one aft , atop two short conning tower s equipped with small portholes and slender , triangular cutwater s . The hatches were very small , measuring 14 by 15¾ inches ( 36 by 40 centimeters ) , making entrance to and egress from the hull very difficult . The height of the ship ' s hull was 4 feet 3 inches ( 1 . 2 m ) . " Hunley " was ready for a demonstration by July 1863 . Supervised by Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan , " Hunley " successfully attacked a coal flatboat in Mobile Bay . Following this demonstration , the submarine was shipped to Charleston , South Carolina , by rail , arriving August 12 , 1863 . The military seized the vessel from its private builders and owners shortly after its arrival in Charleston , turning it over to the Confederate Army . " Hunley " would operate as a Confederate Army vessel from this point forward , although Horace Hunley and his partners remained involved in the submarine ' s further testing and operation . While sometimes referred to as CSS " Hunley " , the Confederate government never officially commissioned the vessel into service . Confederate Navy Lieutenant John A . Payne of CSS " Chicora " volunteered to be " Hunley ' s " skipper , and a volunteer crew of seven men from " CSS Chicora " and CSS " Palmetto State " was assembled to operate the submarine . On August 29 , 1863 , " Hunley ' s " new crew was preparing to make a test dive to learn the operation of the submarine when Lieutenant Payne accidentally stepped on the lever controlling the sub ' s diving planes while the boat was running . This caused " Hunley " to dive with her hatches still open , flooding the submarine . Payne and two others escaped , while the remaining five crewmen drowned . On October 15 , 1863 " Hunley " failed to surface during a mock attack , killing Hunley and seven other crewmen . In both cases , the Confederate Navy salvaged the vessel and returned her to service . Armament . " Hunley " was originally intended to attack by means of a floating explosive charge with a contact fuse ( a torpedo in Civil War terminology ) towed behind it at the end of a long rope . " Hunley " would approach an enemy vessel , dive under it , and surface beyond . As it continued to move away from the target , the torpedo would be pulled against the side of the target and explode . However , this plan was discarded as impractical due to the danger of the tow line fouling " Hunley " ' s screw or drifting into " Hunley " herself . The floating explosive charge was replaced with a spar torpedo , a copper cylinder containing 90 pounds ( 41 kilograms ) of black powder attached to a 22 - foot ( 6 . 7 m ) - long wooden spar , as seen in illustrations of the submarine made at this time . The spar was mounted on " Hunley ' s " bow and was designed to be used when the submarine was some 6 feet ( 1 . 8 m ) or more below the surface . The spar torpedo had a barbed point , and would be stuck in the target vessel ' s side by ramming . The spar torpedo as originally designed used a mechanical trigger attached to the attacking vessel by a cord , so that as the attacker backed away from her victim , the torpedo would explode . However , archaeologists working on " Hunley " have discovered evidence , including a spool of copper wire and components of a battery , that it may have been electrically detonated . Following Horace Hunley ' s death , General Beauregard issued an order that the submarine was no longer to attack her target underwater . In response to this order , an iron pipe was attached to the bow of the submarine and angled downwards so the explosive charge would still be delivered under sufficient depth of water to make it effective . This was the same method developed for the earlier " David " type surface craft so successful against the USS " New Ironsides " . " The Confederate Veteran " of 1902 printed a reminiscence authored by an engineer stationed at Battery Marshall who , with another engineer , made adjustments to the iron pipe mechanism before " Hunley " left on her last mission on the night of February 17 , 1864 . A drawing of the iron pipe spar , confirming its " David " type configuration , was published in several early histories of submarine warfare . Attack on " Housatonic " . " Hunley " made her first and only attack against a live target on the night of February 17 , 1864 . The vessel was the USS " Housatonic " . " Housatonic " , a 1240 - ton ( 1 . 1 million - kilogram ) steam - powered sloop - of - war with 12 large cannons , was stationed at the entrance to Charleston , South Carolina harbor , about 5 miles ( 8 kilometers ) out to sea . In an effort to break the naval blockade of the city , Lieutenant George E . Dixon and a crew of seven volunteers attacked " Housatonic " , successfully embedding the barbed spar torpedo into her hull . The torpedo was detonated as the submarine backed away , sending " Housatonic " and five of her crew to the bottom in five minutes . Years later , when divers examined the wreck of the " Housatonic " they found her tiny assailant a few yards away , with eight skeletons still onboard . Disappearance . After the attack , the " H . L . Hunley " failed to return to her base . There is evidence that the " Hunley " survived as long as one hour following the attack - at about 8 : 45 p . m . The commander of " Battery Marshall " reported on the day after the attack that he had received " the signals " from the submarine indicating it was returning to her base . The report did not state what manner of signals were observed . A postwar correspondent stated that " two blue lights " were the prearranged signals , and a lookout on the " Housatonic " reported that he saw a " blue light " on the water after his ship sank . " Blue light " in 1864 referred to a pyrotechnic signal in long use by the U . S . Navy . It has been falsely represented in published works as a blue lantern , even though the lantern found on the recovered " H . L . Hunley " had a clear , not a blue , lens . Pyrotechnic " blue light " can be seen easily over the four mile distance between Battery Marshall and the site of the Hunley ' s attack on the " Housatonic " . After signaling , Dixon would have taken his submarine underwater to attempt to return to Sullivan ' s Island . What happened next is unclear . The finders of the " Hunley " suggested that she was unintentionally rammed by the USS " Canandaigua " when that warship was going to the aid of the crew of the " Housatonic " . One possibility is that the torpedo was not detonated on command , but rather it malfunctioned because of some damage suffered during the underwater attack . The intention was that the torpedo would be detonated when the " Hunley " had retreated to about 150 feet ( 46 meters ) away . However , witnesses aboard the " Housatonic " stated that the submarine was no more than about 100 feet ( 30 meters ) away when her torpedo detonated . In October 2008 , scientists reported that they had found that the crew of the " Hunley " had not set her pump to remove water from the crew ' s compartment , and this might indicate that it was not being flooded . " It now really starts to point to a lack of oxygen making [ the crew ] unconscious , " the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission said . " They may have been cranking and moving and it was a miscalculation as to how much oxygen they had . " Although there is no conclusive evidence as to the cause of the sinking of the " H . L . Hunley " , the head archeologist of Clemson University , Maria Jacobsen , and George Wunderlich , the executive director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine , conducted experiments with modern castings of the forward conning tower of the " H . L . Hunley " . The original one had shown damage at one viewing port . The experiments used replica U . S . Navy firearms , and they showed that a . 58 caliber Minie ball , fired from the U . S . S . " Housatonic " , could have penetrated at the viewing ports , hence producing a breach to let water enter . This result corresponds with the findings of Jaime Downs , an FBI forensic pathologist , which show variations in the preserved brain tissue from the forward crewmen to the aft crewmen of the " Hunley " . It has been conjectured that a ramming by the U . S . S . " Canandaigua " could have caused damage to the " Hunley " , but no such damage was found when the " Hunley " was raised from the bottom of the harbor . In January 2013 , it was announced that conservator Paul Mardikian had found evidence of a copper sleeve at the end of the " Hunley " ' s spar . This indicated that the torpedo had been attached directly to the spar , meaning the submarine may have been less than 20 feet from the " Housatonic " when the torpedo exploded . The " Hunley " crew may therefore have been knocked unconscious by the explosion and died without awakening . Her crew perished , but the " H . L . Hunley " had earned a place in the history of undersea warfare by being the first submarine to sink any ship . Recovery of wreckage . The " Hunley " discovery was described by Dr . William Dudley , Director of Naval History at the Naval Historical Center as " probably the most important [ American underwater archaeological ] find of the [ 20th ] century . " The tiny sub and its contents have been valued at more than $ 40 million , making its discovery and subsequent donation one of the most important and valuable contributions ever to South Carolina . The " Hunley " discovery is claimed by two different individuals . Underwater Archaeologist E . Lee Spence , president , Sea Research Society , reportedly discovered " Hunley " in 1970 . and has a collection of evidence claiming to validate this , including a 1980 Civil Admiralty Case . On September 13 , 1976 , the National Park Service submitted Sea Research Society ' s ( Spence ' s ) location for " H . L . Hunley " for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places . Spence ' s location for " Hunley " became a matter of public record when " H . L . Hunley " ' s placement on that list was officially approved on December 29 , 1978 . Spence ' s book " Treasures of the Confederate Coast " , which had a chapter on his discovery of " Hunley " and included a map complete with an " X " showing the wreck ' s location , was published in January 1995 . Diver Ralph Wilbanks found the wreck in April 1995 while leading a NUMA dive team led by novelist Clive Cussler , who announced the find as a new discovery and first claimed that it was in about 18 feet ( 5 m ) of water over a mile inshore of the " Housatonic " , but later admitted to a reporter that that was false . The wreck was actually 100 yards away from the " Housatonic " in 27 feet ( 8 m ) of water . The submarine was buried under several feet of silt , which had concealed and protected the vessel for more than a hundred years . The divers exposed the forward hatch and the ventilator box ( the air box for the attachment of a snorkel ) to identify her . The submarine was resting on her starboard side at about a 45 - degree angle and was covered in a ¼ - to ¾ - inch ( 0 . 6 - to 1 . 9 - centimeter ) encrustation of rust bonded with sand and seashell particles . Archaeologists exposed part of the ship ' s port side and uncovered the bow dive plane . More probing revealed an approximate length of 37 feet ( 11 m ) , with all of the vessel preserved under the sediment . On September 14 , 1995 , at the official request of Senator Glenn F . McConnell , Chairman , South Carolina " Hunley " Commission , E . Lee Spence , with South Carolina Attorney General Charles M . Condon signing , donated the " Hunley " to the State of South Carolina . Shortly thereafter NUMA disclosed to government officials Wilbank ' s location for the wreck , which , when finally made public in October 2000 , matched Spence ' s 1970s plot of the wreck ' s location well within standard mapping tolerances . Spence avows that he not only discovered the " Hunley " in 1970 he revisited and mapped the site in 1971 and again in 1979 , and that after he published his location in his 1995 book that he expected NUMA ( which was actually part of a SCIAA expedition directed by Dr . Mark M . Newell and not Cussler ) to independently verify the wreck as the " Hunley " , not to claim that NUMA had discovered it . Interestingly , Dr . Newell has sworn under oath that he used Spence ' s maps to direct the joint SCIAA / NUMA expedition and credits Spence with the original discovery and credits his expedition only with the official verification . The " in situ " underwater archaeological investigation and excavation culminated with the raising of " Hunley " on August 8 , 2000 . A large team of professionals from the Naval Historical Center ' s Underwater Archaeology Branch , National Park Service , the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology , and various other individuals investigated the vessel , measuring and documenting it prior to removal . Once the on - site investigation was complete , harnesses were slipped underneath the sub and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering International . After the last harness had been secured , the crane from the recovery barge " Karlissa B " hoisted the submarine from the sea floor . It was raised from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean , just over from Sullivan ' s Island outside of the entrance to Charleston Harbor . Despite having used a sextant and hand - held compass , thirty years earlier , to plot the wreck ' s location , Dr . Spence ' s 52 meters accuracy turned out to be well within the length of the recovery barge , which was 64 meters long . On August 8 , 2000 , at 8 : 37 a . m . , the sub broke the surface for the first time in more than 136 years , greeted by a cheering crowd on shore and in surrounding watercraft , including author Clive Cussler . Once safely on her transporting barge , " Hunley " was shipped back to Charleston . The removal operation concluded when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center , at the former Charleston Navy Yard in North Charleston , in a specially designed tank of fresh water to await conservation . The exploits of the " Hunley " and its final recovery were the subject of an episode of the television series " " , called " Hunley : First Kill " . This program is based on a chapter in Clive Cussler ' s novel by the same name . In June 2011 , a conservation lab rotated the sub upright for the first time since it sank . Crew . The crew was composed of Lieutenant George E . Dixon ( Commander ) , Frank Collins , Joseph F . Ridgaway , James A . Wicks , Arnold Becker , Corporal C . F . Carlsen , C . Lumpkin , and Augustus Miller . Apart from the commander of the submarine , Lieutenant George E . Dixon , the identities of the volunteer crewmen of the " Hunley " had long remained a mystery . Douglas Owsley , a physical anthropologist working for the Smithsonian Institution ' s National Museum of Natural History , examined the remains and determined that four of the men were American born , while the four others were European born , based on the chemical signatures left on the men ' s teeth and bones by the predominant components of their diet . Four of the men had eaten plenty of corn , an American diet , while the remainder ate mostly wheat and rye , a mainly European one . By examining Civil War records and conducting DNA testing with possible relatives , forensic genealogist Linda Abrams was able to identify the remains of Dixon and the three other Americans : Frank G . Collins of Fredericksburg , Va . , Joseph Ridgaway , and James A . Wicks . Identifying the European crewmen has been more problematic , but was apparently solved in late 2004 . The position of the remains indicated that the men died at their stations and were not trying to escape from the sinking submarine . On April 17 , 2004 the remains of the crew were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston , South Carolina . Tens of thousands of people attended including some 6 , 000 reenactors and 4 , 000 civilians wearing period clothing . Color guards from all five branches of the U . S . armed forces — wearing modern uniforms — were also in the procession . Even though only two of the crew were from Confederate States all were buried with full Confederate honors , including being buried with the 2nd Confederate national flag , known as the Stainless Banner . Another surprise occurred in 2002 , when a researcher examining the area close to Lieutenant Dixon found a misshapen $ 20 gold piece , minted in 1860 , with the inscription " " Shiloh April 6 , 1862 My life Preserver G . E . D . " " on a sanded - smooth area of the coin ' s reverse side , and a forensic anthropologist found a healed injury to Lt . Dixon ' s hip bone . The findings matched a legend , passed down in the family , that Dixon ' s sweetheart , Queenie Bennett , had given him the coin to protect him . Dixon had the coin with him at the Battle of Shiloh , where he was wounded in the thigh on April 6 , 1862 . The bullet struck the coin in his pocket , saving his leg and possibly his life . He had the gold coin engraved and carried it as a lucky charm . Tours . Visitors can obtain tickets for guided tours of the conservation laboratory that houses the " Hunley " at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center on weekends . The Center includes artifacts found inside the " Hunley " , exhibits about the submarine and a video .