The Confederate States secret weapon, Submarine H.L. Hunley, recovered.

The Hunley was the secret weapon of the Confederacy and the world's first submarine to sink an enemy ship (1863-1864) . It attacked and sank the Union warship, the USS Housatonic, on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, and then disappeared. The submarine was found 131 plus years later, and several miles off Charleston, S.C., in the 1990s and recovered in 2000.
The submarine H.L. Hunley, a small, hand-powered submarine, was privately built in Mobile, Alabama, in 1863, based on plans furnished by Horace Lawson Hunley, James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson.

After she received a series of failed tests and killed two sets of crews, she was ordered to only operate on the surface. She once again began a series of attempts to attack United States Navy ships on blockade duty off Charleston and on 17 February 1864, these efforts were successful. H.L. Hunley approached the steam sloop of war USS Housatonic and was able to detonate a spar torpedo against her side. The Federal ship sank rapidly, becoming the first warship to be lost to a submarine's attack.

However, H.L. Hunley did not return from this mission, and was presumed lost, with all hands on board, again. Her fate remained a mystery for more than 131 years, until May 1995, when a search led by author Clive Cussler located her wreck.
In the following collage of recent pictures a conservation crew member walks beside the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley at Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, S.C.

Read and see actual work drawings at the >  DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD -- WASHINGTON D.C..

Orbis Historie Congregatio
Prof. Reginald R. Malarky