On this day in Alabama history: Hunley destroyed test target with floating torpedo

Published On: 07.31.17 |

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On this day in Alabama history: Hunley destroyed test target with floating torpedo

July 31 feature

Painting of the submarine torpedo boat, H. L. Hunley, by artist Conrad Wise Chapman. (American Civil War Museum, Wikipedia)

July 31, 1863

The H.L. Hunley submarine successfully destroyed a test target in Mobile Bay with a floating contact torpedo. Built in Mobile, the iron-hulled submarine entered Confederate service in Charleston in August 1863, but sank twice during training exercises, killing 13 men. On the evening of Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley engaged the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship in combat after ramming the vessel with a spar-mounted torpedo. The Hunley, however, sank soon afterward, and its location was a mystery until 1995. Raised by archaeologists in 2000, the submarine is now on display at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, South Carolina.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Confederate submarine, H. L. Hunley, which sank the Housatonic. (From Popular Science Monthly, Volume 58; Wikipedia)

A diagram showing a cross-section of the H. L. Hunley illustrating the manual hand-cranking process by which the Confederate submarine was powered. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of U.S. Naval Historical Center)

A 1902 drawing of the USS Housatonic by R. G. Skerrett. The Housatonic was commissioned as a Union sloop of war in 1862 and was sunk in February 1864 by the Confederacy’s H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of U.S. Naval Historical Center)

Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley, suspended from a crane during recovery from Charleston Harbor, Aug. 8, 2000. (Barbara Vougaris, Naval Historical Center, Wikipedia)

Charleston, S.C. (Jan. 28, 2005) – Civil War Confederate submarine Hunley conservators Philippe de Vivies, left, and Paul Mardikian remove the first section of the crew’s bench at the Warren Lash Conservation Lab in the former Charleston Navy Shipyard, S.C. Archaeologists and conservators are hopeful that once the bench is removed, they will discover new Hunley artifacts. (Naval Historical Center, Wikipedia)