© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

"H" is for H.L. Hunley

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"H" is for H.L. Hunley. On the night of February 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley attacked and sank the USS Housatonic about four miles off Sullivan’s Island. This was the first successful sinking of an enemy ship by submersible in the history of the world. Constructed in Mobile, Alabama, and named for one of its owners, the iron vessel was forty feet long, five feet tall, and four feet wide. It was transported to Charleston with the hopes that it would help break the Union naval blockade of the port. The attack on the Union warship was successful, but the Confederate submarine and its crew of eight were also lost. Discovered in 1995, the H.L. Hunley was recovered in 2000 and is now housed in the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.