Mr. Hunley’s Submarine (Article 104)
By mid-1861, the Union Navy had numerous warships enforcing a blockade of Southern ports, cutting off necessary supply lines. The Confederate Navy, however, had few ships to try to break the embargo, certainly not enough to engage in ship-to-ship battles with the Union fleet. Seeking alternatives, besides using blockade runners to dodge the blockades, the Confederate government offered a reward of $50,000.00 to anyone who caused the sinking of any Union warship engaged in the blockade of Southern ports. That reward, equivalent to several million dollars today, must have seemed like a business opportunity to certain capitalists. While some began to convert merchant ships which, manned by civilian crews, might successfully attack isolated Union Navy vessels, others thought that a small, silent, submersible craft could be effective.
Underwater craft had been designed and tried before. Usually, they accomplished the submerging test, but failed the equally important resurfacing test; as a result, not just a few inventors and sailors stayed down permanently with their submarine. The risks inherent in the development of underwater craft seem similar to the early days of manned flight and space travel. It is simply dangerous when men go where human life, on its own, cannot be sustained. Understanding the risks, however, both Union and Confederate Navies were considering a submarine, but ship architects and builders encountered significant problems; mainly how to get air for the crew when submerged and how to propel the ship? Then, if it was to be used in battle, what armament could it carry to harm enemy ships?
Although Horace Lawson Hunley was a successful lawyer in New Orleans, he had hobby-like curiosity interests in engineering and in small water craft. While not a slave-owner himself, he supported the Confederate cause and saw a way to both help his government and to make money while doing so. He proposed a partnership with James McClintock, a professional engineer, and agreed to fund the building of an underwater craft which could attack, and sink, Union warships.
Hunley and McClintock were not the only ones attempting to build such a vessel, but they had the most ambitious program. Several other teams were working on low-silhouette, semi-submerged, craft which might be able to approach a large ship without notice and then attack. But it would take two years of engineering, construction, tests (and failures of tests), and loss of life before any submersible vessel would attack a Union Warship.
Over the next year, Hunley and McClintock designed three submarines; which were similar but each would employ slightly different technologies. The first, the Pioneer, was built in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then later, the American Diver and the Hunley would be built in Mobile, Alabama. The Pioneer, had its first tests in February, 1862 in the Mississippi River, which were successful enough to progress to more extensive tests in nearby Lake Pontchartrain. From all indications, each new test was successful and the expectation was that the Pioneer would soon be able to begin attacks on Union ships. However, before the Pioneer could be moved to the gulf waters, the Union Army and Navy conquered New Orleans and took control the lower Mississippi River. As a result, Confederate officials decided to scuttle the Pioneer rather than have it fall into enemy hands.
Hunley and McClintock moved to Mobile to build the second planned submarine, American Diver. Although, there were original plans to incorporate either electric or steam propulsion, in the interest of time, Hunley decided to incorporate a much simpler, and readily available, hand crank system. Sailors on board would sit in a row with pivoting handles on a long rod and, in unison, spin the rod which then spun an external propeller. That solved the propulsion issue.
As to assuring sufficient oxygen for the crew, they calculated that the hull of the American Diver or the Henley would contain enough oxygen for the crew to survive underwater for up to two hours. There were only two ways to replenish the air; (1) through a tube which would extend to the surface if the ship were submerged at less than ten feet or (2) by resurfacing and opening a hatch. It is unclear if the tube method was ever tested, perhaps because Hunley believed the two hours of enclosed air in the hull would be sufficient for any planned mission. Trials began in January 1863, and they were successful enough that the vessel and crew were sent out into Mobile Bay to attack a nearby Union Ship. However, the weather turned violent and the American Diver sank in heavy waves. The crew survived, that time!
The loss of the American Diver was a set-back, but the builders learned from the experience, and incorporated changes that, they believed, would make the new submarine more seaworthy and viable when submerged. Similar to the first two vessels, the Hunley was designed for a crew of eight, with seven to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer. Each end of the forty foot long Hunley was equipped with ballast tanks that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps which would cause the vessel to rise and fall in the water as needed. In an ingenious design, additional weight was added by installing iron plates on the bottom of the hull which would help keep the craft submerged; but which could be released from inside the cabin if the ship needed to rise quickly.
The Hunley was equipped with two watertight hatches and a small porthole that allowed some visibility for the ship’s officer. The interior height of the hull was just slightly over four feet, and it was cramped, with all eight men in a sitting position and hunched over; so, it was very uncomfortable, even for a short cruise. As the ship was being built, the Confederate Navy became involved and oversaw the remaining tests of the new submarine’s functionality. In July 1863, a final test was conducted in which the Hunley was to attempt to sink an old barge in Mobile Bay. The test was a success and the Hunley and its crew were shipped by train to Charleston, South Carolina where she was expected to be used against Union ships blockading Charleston Bay. The vessel and crew arrived on August 12, 1863.
Although Horace Hunley and McClintock would remain in charge of preparing the Hunley for battle, Confederate military officials would determine the missions. Hunley insisted that more tests were necessary before deployment and won some concessions from the military officials; however, their impatience was evident. The local commanders wanted to strike a blow against the Union Navy and its blockade, and sooner, not later.
Confederate Navy Lieutenant John A. Payne volunteered to be Hunley's captain, and seven experienced sailors volunteered to comprise the crew. On August 29, 1863, Hunley's new crew was cruising on the surface when Lt. Payne accidentally caused the ship to begin to dive while one of the hatches was still open; and the Henley quickly sank. Payne and two others escaped, but the other five crewmen drowned. The Navy pulled the ship back to the surface and made necessary repairs. Lt. Payne admitted that the incident was caused by his error and not a defect with the Henley, so the vessel was again deemed seaworthy. Payne was subsequently removed from service and a new volunteer crew was assembled.
Then, Hunley learned that another Confederate craft, the semi-submersible David, had attacked a massive Union warship, USS New Ironsides by ramming it with a torpedo (the term used then for a water borne bomb) suspended on a long pole. The explosion barely damaged the formidable vessel, but the successful attachment of the explosive to the New Ironsides proved that the pole type delivery mechanism could work. It seemed to be a better idea than Hunley’s original plan.
As first designed, the Hunley would have towed a floating explosive device at the end of a long rope. As the submarine approached an enemy ship, it would dive under the ship and resurface on the other side pulling the torpedo against the hull of the warship where it would explode. While it worked in earlier tests, the concern with that design was that the tow rope might become caught in the submarine’s propeller. The experience of the David, proved that the torpedo could be attached to a long pole and rammed against the target; which became the method of delivery for the Hunley. In theory the Hunley would jam the torpedo into the hull of the target ship and then back away from the pending explosion. The operative words were “In theory” and “back away.”
But more testing was still needed and on October 15, 1863, Horace Hunley decided to command the Hunley himself on a mock attack run. The ship submerged but failed to resurface, killing all eight crewmen, including its namesake, Horace Lawson Hunley. Once again, the Confederate Navy salvaged the submarine, but no reason for the sinking could be found. The Hunley was again deemed seaworthy and returned to service for more testing; and again, a new crew of volunteers was assembled. For the men who now formed that new crew, it was indeed an act of unusual courage, since the survival rate of Hunley crewmen was abysmal.
After the death of Hunley, it was decided that it was not necessary for the submarine to be fully submerged, which would remove a dangerous element from the mission. Instead, similar to the David before her, a torpedo was placed at the end of a metal pipe which was attached to the Hunley’s bow with a downward angle; which would allow the torpedo to strike below the waterline of the target ship.
It was finally determined that the Hunley was battle ready and the date of the first real mission for the submarine was to be the night of February 17, 1864. Her target would be the USS Housatonic, a wooden-hulled heavily armed steam-powered warship, which was stationed about five miles off-shore at the entrance to Charleston Harbor as part of the Union blockade. Lieutenant George E. Dixon, and a crew of seven volunteers successfully attacked Housatonic, ramming Hunley's only torpedo against the enemy ship’s hull. When the torpedo detonated, the Housatonic sank in five minutes, but not before most of her crew jumped into the sea to be rescued by other Union ships. However, five Union sailors did not survive.
But what of the Hunley and her crew?
Naval historians are still unsure, except that they know the Hunley sank after the attack and her entire crew was lost. An extensive search at the time found no trace of the doomed submarine, probably because searchers were led away from the actual site by reports of a distant distress signal. There were many theories about what went wrong, but there were no definitive answers from Naval inquiries at the time. Before the attack, the submarine was referred to simply as the Hunley, as it was a contract vessel, not a commissioned Confederate ship; however, to honor its developer and the courageous crew members who perished, the submarine was posthumously named the CSS Hunley by the Confederate Navy. As to Mr. Hunley’s original impetus to build the submarines, it is unclear if anyone ever claimed the $50,000 reward for the sinking of the Housatonic!
But was the Hunley successful? If measured only in terms of her one mission, and considering the number of crewmen lost in that mission and during testing, the Hunley did not inflict enough damage on the Union blockade to be considered a success. However, if one looks at the historic impact of those innovative first steps on the future development of submarine warfare, the CSS Hunley was a successful pioneering effort.
POSTSCRIPT: The Hunley was located about one hundred years after it sank and was finally raised in 2000. Restoration is ongoing where it is on display in North Charleston, South Carolina. The location of the Hunley and nearby recovered artifacts suggest that the submarine was as close as 20 feet to her target, Housatonic, when both sank. The best assumption today is that her deployed torpedo prematurely exploded; however, researchers are still trying to discover with certainty what led to the loss of the Henley and her last crew. For more information, there are several official web-sites devoted to the Hunley, its restoration, and the possible causes of its demise.