The H. L. Hunley: The Confederate Submarine Created In Alabama

With the recent disappearance and tragedy of the Titan, a custom-made submersible created for tourists to explore the remains of the Titanic on the Atlantic Ocean floor. There has been a lot of talk about the construction of such underwater vehicles. With today's technology, it's definitely possible. What sounds impossible, however, is the construction of an underwater vehicle with the technology that existed in the mid-1800s. Against the odds of the era, that's exactly what happened, and the submarine, built in Alabama, proved to be a viable prototype for war submarines built today. This is the story of a man named H. L. Hunley and how he constructed the first succesful war submarine in the U.S.

H.L.Hunley Submarine, pen and ink drawingPhoto byR.G.Skerrit (US Naval History and Heritage Command)

Horace Lawson Hunley is usually listed in historical references as a marine engineer, although that wasn't his intended career. Hunley, born in Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1823, began his professional career as a lawyer. He passed the Louisiana bar at the young age of 26 after studying law at the University of Louisiana. He practiced law for many years in New Orleans and was also elected as a state legislator. The coming Civil War would soon put his life on a different course.

In 1861, at the age of 38, Hunley partnered with James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson to build his first submarine, the Pioneer. The Civil War was in full swing at this point, and the Union Blockade had shut down many southern ports. This prompted much public speculation about the building of submarines to defeat and sink Union warships. A chemist, inventor, and popular writer of the day, Reverend Franklin Smith wrote letters that appeared in several southern newspapers encouraging southern businessmen to invest and pursue the development of submersible vehicles to defeat union blockades. A huge bounty of $50,000 was also offered by the Confederate government to anyone who could successfully sink a Union ship. Hunley and his partners heeded the call, and it looked as if their hand-cranked submarine was a success. Unfortunately, when the Pioneer was being tested in Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans fell to Union forces. Hunley and his partners sank the Pioneer to prevent their new technology from falling into Union hands.

H L Hunley and American Diver plansPhoto byPublic Domain (wiki commons)

Hunley, McClintock, and Baxter moved their headquarters to Mobile, Alabama, where they quickly began construction of the Pioneer II, also known as the American Diver. They headquartered their build at the Park and Lyons Machine Shop. The partners experimented with several types of propulsion for their submarine, including electric motors and steam engines. They eventually returned to their original design, which used hand cranks. The Pioneer II was completed in 1863 and was ready to be tested. The first test, however, proved a failure.

Park and Lyons Machine Shop, Mobile, AlabamaPhoto byUS Naval History and Heritage Command

The Pioneer II had a crew of five men, four of whom operated the hand cranks that turned the propeller and one who steered the craft. Although the crew thought the submarine was too slow, Hunley and his partners decided to put the craft to the ultimate test: tow it to Fort Morgan and try to attack the Union ships, which now blocked Mobile Bay. The currents at the mouth of the bay and the bad weather turned out to be too much for the craft in February 1863, however. Although the crew managed to escape, the Pioneer II was lost and could not be recovered.

Hunley, undaunted by previous setbacks, still believed that he could build a submarine that could successfully sink a Union ship. He also hoped to win a hefty bounty offered by the Confederate Congress in 1862.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact That the first section of the above-titled Act be so amended that, in case any person or persons shall invent or construct any new machine or engine or contrive any new method for destroying the armed vessels of the enemy, he or they shall receive fifty percent of the value of each and every such vessel that may be sunk or destroyed by means of such invention or contrivance...

Hunley set out to find new partners who would help fund a third project at his headquarters in Mobile, Alabama. McClintock was still involved with the project, but out of money. Hunley himself funded one-third of the cost. He found another investor: E. C. Singer, nephew of Isaac Singer, inventor of the Singer Sewing Machine, and then two associates of Singer's funded the final third of the cost. Singer was from Texas and had been working to develop torpedoes to sink Union ships. It was the perfect combination. Hunley's partners chose to name this submarine The Hunley, in honor of Hunley's devotion to the build.

Although Hunley had been the driving force behind funding and building a submarine, McClintock was the main engineer and designer of the entire operation. Credit must also be given to Reverend Franklin Smith, whose description of a submarine vessel in his published letters gave the original inspiration for the shape and design of the craft. It was a sleek, cigar-shaped vessel. The Hunley was the largest of the three crafts the men built, made larger to accompany a crew of 8. On this design, seven men turned the hand cranks that powered the propeller, and one man steered the vessel. The Hunley was 40 feet long and 4 feet, 3 inches tall. It had two hatches installed on top of two towers with portholes with iron covers. The ballast tanks were located on each end of the submarine and equipped with hand pumps and valves for flooding. Extra weights were attached to the bottom hull of the craft that could be unbolted from the inside in case of an emergency for quicker buoyancy.

H L Hunley DrawingPhoto byPublic Domain (wiki commons)

In July 1863, the Hunley was demonstrated before Confederate Officers in Mobile Bay, where it successfully sank a coal flat boat. The submarine was promptly shipped by rail to Charlotte, and Hunley traveled with his invention. Theories as to how the torpedo worked differ, but Hunley.org believes the torpedo was a copper keg of black powder that worked in this way:

The Hunley used an innovative lanyard system to detonate the torpedo. The idea was to ram the spar torpedo into a target and then back away, causing the torpedo to slip off the spar. A rope from the torpedo to the submarine would spool out. Once the submarine was at a safe distance, the line would tighten and detonate the warhead.

When the Hunley arrived in Charlotte, it was promptly taken over by the Confederates. Her crew was made up of Confederate Navy Lieutenant John Payne of the CSS Chicora and other volunteers from the CSS Palmera. In August of 1863, during a test run, Payne accidentally stepped on the lever, which caused the Hunley to dive while she was running on the surface with a hatch open. Payne and two other men escaped, but five men were lost. Once again, the Hunley was recovered and set to be put back into service. This time, Hunley himself would pay the ultimate price to see his invention succeed.

Hunley persuaded the Confederates to let him bring in Lieutenant George Dixon to be in charge of the Hunley. Dixon had worked on the submarine in Mobile while recovering from a wound at Shiloh. He knew her inside and out. For unknown reasons, however, Hunley himself would be aboard the submarine for the next exercise to practice the attack maneuver. The Hunley failed to resurface. Horace Hunley and all seven other men aboard died. Hunley was buried with honors in Charlotte. His submarine, however, which bore his name, would go on to make history.

On the night of February 17, 1864, Lt. Dixon and a crew of seven volunteers successfully attacked the Union Ship Housatonic. The torpedo detonated and sank the ship in five minutes, killing five of her crew. Fires were lit along the bank to guide Hunley to safety, but she never appeared. Once again, the Hunley had claimed her entire crew. The Hunley, however, would go down in history as the first war submarine to sink a warship.

Wreckage of H L Hunley conservation effortsPhoto byWiki commons

The wreckage of the Hunley was discovered in the latter part of the 20th century, and in 2000, she was recovered from the ocean floor. Conservation efforts and research have been ongoing since then. The original Hunley can be seen at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charlston, where there is a large museum that honors the Hunley. In Mobile, Alabama, where H.L. Hunley labored over his invention and built the submarine that bears his name, a replica of the Hunley can be seen at the Battleship Memorial Park.

Click "follow" to catch my future articles about Alabama!  I write about events and travel in Alabama, folklore and the paranormal, and Alabama nature and wildlife. To see my past articles, click on my photo and scroll down. If you have a topic you'd like to see me write about, email me at: april.newsbreak@gmail.com 

As always, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed my article, help support my writing and buy me a coffee at this link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aprilmullix