Thus ended what was arguably the South's most peculiar military experiment of the Civil War. Submarine and crew both sank on its inaugural mission, and this time the hulk couldn't be found and brought to the surface. The blast sent the Union warship straight to the bottom of Charleston Harbor, but the Hunley never made it back to port. February 17, 1864, the Hunley took aim at the USS Housatonic, sidling close to deliver the torpedo before speeding away. Conducting test after test, the Hunley's newest crew learned to glide underwater unnoticed by Union soldiers in Charleston Harbor. Beauregard hesitated to okay another crew of soldiers risking their lives on the Hunley, but he authorized it as long as strict safety conditions were adhered to.
Convinced the gambit could still work if they identified why the Hunley sank, Dixon led an investigation that seemed to yield good answers. Dixon, an engineer and Confederate soldier, spoke with William Alexander, who helped build the submarine. Not everyone was prepared to give up on the Hunley. Confederate General Beauregard decided the submarine was not a feasible plan to eliminate the Union blockade. This time Hunley himself was a passenger, but another failed test run killed everyone aboard. Hunley enlisted Sprague to join a second crew on an improved version of the submarine. The submarine, which used hatches, valves, and heavy weights to rise and submerge on command, sank during a test run, killing all but one of its crew, torpedo specialist Charles Sprague. A tiny vessel that somehow fit eight men inside, the Hunley responded well in test dives, but met an awful fate August 29, 1863. Their first two attempts at a workable submarine-the Pioneer and the American Diver-failed, but the Hunley showed more promise. An engineer from New Orleans, McClintock had the ability to design a submarine Hunley was a rich plantation owner from the same city, with the resources to fund an ambitious project.
Horace Lawson Hunley and James McClintock were two such men. Who could build such a vessel, and train soldiers to operate it in time to breach the blockade of Charleston Harbor? Primitive submarines had existed for hundreds of years, but the South needed one that could hold several men and sail smoothly beneath the harbor's surface to deposit the torpedo right into a warship's underbelly. Their only chance to sink the warships was torpedoes, and that would require submarine technology. The plan worked as the Confederacy's ability to wage war at an elite level waned, breaking through the blockade became essential, but the South had no ships capable of harming the Union fleet. With the war raging in the early 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union warships to sit in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor and prevent shipments of supplies to the Confederate army. Equal parts forensic science, archaeology, and history, the book documents how twentieth-century scientists worked as a team to partially solve one of the American Civil War's enduring mysteries. Hunley is different from most juvenile nonfiction of its era. Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H. Overall my expectations for action-packed intensity were sunk. If you're interested in the U.S.'s first attempts at submarine construction, this might float your boat.
#CIVIL WAR SUBMARINE HUNLEY MOVIE FULL#
still had to stretch it a bit to fill the pages of a full length book, and as I'd imagine a submarine tour would be, some of those stretches felt long and boring, while being occasionally punctuated by sudden flashes of excitement. Short and compact as a submarine, Secrets of. However, it did manage to sink another ship in its short life-span. It wasn't very large, it didn't fully submerge, and it kept sinking and killing its crew. I had no idea that there were submarines as far back as the 1860s! The one detailed in this book, the Hunley was made in Mobile, AL in 1863 and bought into the Southern Confederacy during the American Civil War. Honestly, it's smarter than some many adults I know. Sure Secrets of a Civil War Submarine is made for kids, but it's smart enough for adults.
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