Hunley and Dixon and Alexander reconditioned the submarine, but Beauregard refused to permit her to dive again. Hunley and his entire crew of seven men died, as the water was nine fathoms deep, preventing anyone from immediately aiding them. Hunley’s downward course, and she failed to surface. Following several successful dives, the submarine again went under Indian Chief but air bubbles traced H. In Dixon’s absence on 15 October 1863, however, Hunley took charge of the submarine for practice dives under receiving ship Indian Chief. He brought from Mobile men with previous experience in handling the submarine, to be commanded by Dixon. The Confederates raised the submarine, and on 21 September 1863, turned her over to Hunley for fitting out and manning. Five of Chicora’s crewmen drowned but Payne and two other men escaped. Hunley on her side and she filled and went down. The steamer unexpectedly moved away from the dock, drawing H. Īfter several dives about the harbor on 29 August 1863, the submarine moored by lines fastened to steamer Etiwan at the dock at Fort Johnson. Payne, CSN, of Confederate ironclad ram Chicora, soon commanded a volunteer crew. Hunley operated from Battery Marshall, Beach Inlet, Sullivan's Island, in Charleston Harbor, where the smooth waters of the interior channels proved particularly favorable to the operations of the under-powered submarine which could at best, make only about four knots in smooth water. The submarine would drive the torpedo into the target by ramming, back away, and by a line attached to the trigger, explode the charge from a safe distance. Watson, and others unknown. Whitney served as a member of the Secret Service Corps of the Confederate States Army, his compensation to be half the value of any Union property destroyed by torpedoes or submarine devices.įinding the intended target, Union blockader New Ironsides, in too shallow water for the submarine to pass beneath her keel, the Confederates abandoned the torpedo-on-a-towline in favor of a spar torpedo, consisting of a copper cylinder holding 90 pounds of powder and equipped with a barbed spike. She arrived in Charleston on two flat-cars and under the management of part-owners, B. Hunley to Charleston, S.C., in order to help defend that city. Beauregard, CSA, ordered railway agents to expedite the transportation of H. Hunley’s trials in Mobile Bay, and on 7 August 1863, Gen. Her original armament was a floating copper cylinder torpedo with flaring triggers which was towed some 200 feet astern, the submarine to dive beneath the target ship, surface on the other side, and continue on course until the torpedo struck the ship and exploded. Glass portholes in the combings of her two manholes were used to sight from when operating near the surface with only the manholes protruding above the water. When near the surface, two hollow pipes equipped with stop cocks could be raised above the surface to admit air. Hunley was equipped with a mercury depth gage, was steered by a compass when submerged, and a candle provided light - and its dying flame would also warn the crewmen of their dwindling air supply. Iron weights were bolted as extra ballast to the underside of her hull these could be dropped off by unscrewing the heads of the bolts from inside the submarine if she needed additional buoyancy to rise in an emergency. A true submarine, she had ballast tanks at each tapered end which could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. She was designed for a crew of 9 men - eight to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Hunley was fashioned from a cylindrical iron steam boiler as the main center section, with tapered ends added, and expressly built for hand-power. Dixon, 21 st Alabama Volunteer Regiment, from plans that Hunley, James R. The boat was privately built in the spring of 1863 in the machine shop of Park and Lyons, Mobile, Ala., under the direction of Confederate Army Engineers, Lt. Hunley then provided the entire means for building a third submarine, named H. The three men built a second submarine at Mobile, Ala., but she sank in Mobile Bay. McClintock and Baxter Watson in sponsoring the building of Confederate privateer submarine Pioneer, later scuttled to prevent her capture when New Orleans fell. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined James R. He early moved to New Orleans, La., where he practiced law and represented Orleans Parish in the Louisiana State Legislature. Horace Lawson Hunley was born on 29 December 1823, in Sumner County, Tenn. (Length 43' beam 3'7" draft 6' speed 4 knots complement 9 class H.
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