(HARRY’S EDITORIAL - You may ask why we are running an article by a New Zealander about the Confederate Navy on the page normally reserved for stories about the US Navy and her submarines. Well, in the first place, it is a good article and well-researched. We appreciate MIKE and other Members who did not ride the American boats for taking the time to research, write and send in their articles. But there is another reason for this article running on this page. Read on for the reason.)

In the summer of 1776, in the dead of night not long after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a British patrol keeping an eye on his Majesty’s warships anchored just off Staten Island in New York Harbour spotted a strange-looking object moving slowly along the surface of t he water. Rowing closer to investigate, the guard was startled by a deafening explosion. While this caused them no harm, the British were definitely shaken and decided to leave well enough alone. In any case, whatever it might be was moving away from the fleet and the unidentified but thoroughly sinister little engine of destruction was allowed to proceed on its way.

The first attack in the history of warfare by a submersible craft (TURTLE) against a surface craft (HMS EAGLE) had just come to its (unsuccessful) conclusion. The world would have to wait for another 88 years for the first ship to be sunk by a submersible craft.

The Submarine ‘DAVID’

By then, the American Civil War was into its third year and the blockade of the Southern ports by the Federal Navy was seriously crippling the Confederate war effort. Unable to match the Federal Navy in numbers or fire power, the Confederacy, looking for innovative ways of redressing the imbalance tried, amongst other things, submarine warfare. Charleston Harbour, one of the most important in the South, was to be the scene of the next attempts.

The first was in October, 1863 when a Confederate ‘DAVID’ steam powered semi-submersible attacked the Federal warship IRONSIDES. The resultant explosion probably did more damage to the crew’s underwear than it did to IRONSIDES as damage was only slight. There were other attempts by ‘DAVIDs’ as an undetermined number of these craft were built, on Federal warships (the MINNESOTA was also damaged by a ‘DAVID’) but no Federal ships were sunk. In fact, the ‘DAVIDs’ were a worse menace to themselves than to the enemy as basic design flaws allowed them to be easily swamped and sunk.

The weapon used by these craft was called a ‘spar torpedo’ which was in fact an explosive charge of up to 100 pounds on the end of a long wooden pole protruding from the front of the submersible, which detonated on contact with the target, which actually was just as hazardous to the attacker as it was to its intended victim.

However, the Confederacy persisted with these attempts and it was in the evening of February 17, 1864 that the Confederate submersible HUNLEY had its fateful meeting with the Federal warship USS HOUSATONIC. The HUNLEY was built by Messrs. Hunley, Watson and McClintock at Mobile, Alabama and transported to Charleston by railway (this was the first war in history to see the extensive use of railways for mass transportation of men and equipment) in August, 1863.

The HUNLEY differed from the ‘DAVIDs’ in that it was powered not by steam, but by the physical efforts of its eight crew members, turning by hand a large crankshaft that ran virtually the length of the boat’s interior which turned a propeller on the stern. This propulsion system enabled the boat to run, for short periods, completely submerged. It was the first true submersible.

C. S. S. HUNLEY

Illumination while submerged was provided by candles which had the added, but somewhat dubious, advantage of indicating when the oxygen level inside the boat was getting low.

Depth control was effected by use of ballast tanks and horizontal rudders. The HUNLEY did have one thing in common with the DAVID’s’, that being its tendency to fill with water and sink, which during trials it did four times, complete with crew each time, from which very few escaped. One of the men killed in the boat was Horace L. Hunley.

In spite of these setbacks, the HUNLEY finally went ‘on patrol’ on February 17, 1864 when it came upon the sloop HOUSATONIC at anchor just out of Charleston Harbour. Under the command of infantry Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the HUNLEY successfully attacked and sank the HOUSATONIC with its spar torpedo. Unfortunately for Lt. Dixon and his crew, the HUNLEY joined her victim on the seabed and so became the fifth crew of HUNLEY to be lost in the first submarine.

Thanks much to MIKE for this great piece of research. Now - why is there a piece on a Confederate submarine written by a New Zealander in this spot normally reserved for U. S. Navy submarine history?

Simply because, no matter how much I ask, beg and plead for you American sub veterans for your story, we never get any. Only if YOU, the veteran, give us your own story can we publish it; can we preserve it in our archives as well as those around the world; and only when you give us your story can we give our American ‘SILENT SERVICE’ the recognition it richly deserves. Please send your story today.