Css Hunley

CSS Hunley

CSS Hunley is remembered as the first true submarine. Hunley was built in 1863. It was designed and financed by Horace Lawson Hunley, James Mcclintock and Baxter Watson. She was also the first submarine to sink a warship. But she also sank during her follow of an engagement. Mr. Hunley actually first built a small submarine that named pioneer. Pioneer was followed by the American Driver. Due to the loss of American war Mr. Hunley started working on the design on CSS Hunley (Wikipedia, 2006). Hunley was 39.5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. There were two tanks attached at the front and back of the submarine to allow it to submerge and a force pump was installed to it to empty the tanks so that Hunley could come up on the surface. Hunley had a very short range and had a limitation of submerging time of only 25 minutes. Therefore the Hunley used to carry explosive behind it since it had to be towed by a ship, if the ship stopped, the explosives would keep moving towards the sub. There was a torpedo sort attached to the ship which had explosives attached to it. The same torpedo made the Housatonic sank (Shipwreck treasures, Inc.). it was February 17, 1863, when Hunley made her first attack. The ship on which Hunley attacked and sank was a 1800-ton steam powered sloop-of-war. The ship had 12 cannons on it and was present at Charleston, South Carolina harbor. Lieutenant George E. Dixon, with his 7 crew members was present in the submarine. They tried to break blockade of navy, for which they successfully attacked the ship with the torpedo attached to Hunley. After successfully leaving the torpedo into the ship and going back, they detonated the explosives. The explosion took Housatonic and its 5 crew member down to the bed of sea. Soon after signaling the news of a successful attack the submarine also sank and a commonly thought reason for its sinking was the explosion which also hurt Hunley (Wikipedia, 2006). The discovery of Henley's wreckage was first started

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