CSS
H.L. HUNLEY/Shortened Terry L. Coats C.S.S.
H.L. Hunley
The
day is August 8, 2000, all is ready. The platform is set, the crane in place,
and all involved looked toward the murky depths of Charleston Bay. The beaches
of Sullivan Island, Charleston Harbor and all along the banks of the Cooper
River are abuzz. Everyone wants to
see it; the CSS. H.L. Hunley is
coming home today. One hundred thirty six years ago on Feb 17,1864, nine
Confederate heroes set out in a small submariner vessel; a converted locomotive
boiler from a small cove on Sullivan Island called Beach Inlet. Little did they
know on that momentous night they were cranking their hand-propelled craft into
maritime history?
Early
Development
The
concept of submarine navigation was not new in the 1860 s. As early as the
Revolutionary War, Americans had produced a small submarine for use in a
military objective. The first submarine to be used in war was invented in 1776
by American inventor David Bushnell. The Bushnell Turtle was egg shaped and
carried one person. It was used in an unsuccessful attack on a British ship in
New York harbor during the Revolution. In 1800 Robert Fulton, who two years
later would invent the steamboat, finally struck upon a workable platform for
underwater navigation. Fulton’s vessel The Nautilus introduced two important
innovations, rudders for vertical and horizontal control, and compressed air as
an underwater supply for oxygen.
Between
1814 and 1861 improvements were made on Fulton’s design. But the task of
finding a viable propulsion system remained unresolved. It would be almost the
turn of the 20th century before gasoline engines for surface cruising and
electric motors for underwater power would be perfected.
The
Pioneer
On
May 6 1861 the Confederate Congress had passed an act recognizing the existence
of a state of war between the Confederate States and the United States. Section
one of that act authorized President Davis to use any force necessary both on
land and sea to repel the armies of the invading northern government. The act
included issuing commissions to privately armed vessels for waging war against
the invading hordes from Lincolns North. These new commissions sparked markets
for those who saw an opportunity to both supply a need and to do their patriotic
duty to for the South. Two
men to enter this market were New Orleans machine shop owners, James McClintock
and Baxter Watson. McClintock had developed an electromagnetic motor, which had
been tried without success in submariner boats. McClintock and Watson had also
designed and sold to the Confederate government a patented bullet making
machine. It must have been a natural step for these men to begin construction on
the submersible boat which would then be used as a privateer.
Sometime
during the construction the South’s first submersible, a native Tennessean
from Gallatin, Sumner Co. would invest $400.00 in the project. This wealthy rice
planter, attorney and inventor named Horace L. Hunley. Hunley a deputy collector
of New Orleans customs, realized early in the War that it was imperative for the
South to keep open supply lines through her seaports, and that the submarine
could be just the implement of war to achieve that task. The first attempt at
fabrication of such a vessel was in the Leeds foundry in New Orleans. By February 1862 that
boat the Pioneer had been built.
More
than likely the trial run of the Pioneer was witnessed only by the investors and
a few military officials. Remarkably this three man submarine proved to be quite
seaworthy! During her trial run she was able to destroy a schooner and two
target barges.
With
a Confederate commission as a privateer in hand, co-investor and pilot John K.
Scott and two other crew members were no doubt eager to place their little boat
in action against the enemy ship blockade of New Orleans harbor. Unfortunately,
the opportunity never materialized. On April 24, 1862, Captain David G.
Farraguts armada of warships fought their way past Fort Jackson and St. Phillips
and steamed up the Mississippi River to capture the city.
To keep it from being captured, the owners were forced to scuttle the
Pioneer in a local canal. They then rushed back to the Leeds Foundry gathered
their drawings, plans and notes and joined the refugees clogging the roads from
New Orleans.
A
short time later, located by Federal sailors, the Pioneer was drug to shore and
soon naval engineers from the north were dispatched to study the newfound prize.
On
February 15, 1868 an article appeared in an New Orleans newspaper announcing the
auction sale of a torpedo boat which had been built in the late war. The boat
was sold by United States authorities for the machinery and the iron it
contained. The boat sold for $43.00; it had cost Hunley and the other five
investors $2600.00 to build.
The
American Diver and Mobile
Hunley,
Watson and McClintock arrived in Mobile Ala. shortly after the fall of New
Orleans. Mobile was humming with wartime activities. A major railway hub, it
also contained several industries including foundries and machine shops. It was
a perfect place for this trio to start anew building a new submarine.
Near the harbor on Waters Street stood the machine shop of Thomas Park
and Thomas Lyons. Hunley, Watson, and McClintock entered the establishment with
orders from commanding General Dabney Maury. Maury’s orders were to suspend
the foundry’s work of rifling the barrels of outdated Mississippi rifles and
to immediately turn their attentions to the construction of what would be the
second in the series of boats built by Hunley.
Records are scarce so we are not sure whether the second boat ever had a
name but this boat may have been named the Pioneer II or the American Diver.
Working
in the Park and Lyon shop at this time was a British born 2nd Lt. from the 21st
Ala. named William Alexander, a
mechanical engineer by profession, Alexander joined Hunley, Watson, and
McClintock in the design of a new machine and soon took control of its
construction. It was not long after Hunley had reveled his ideas for the boat
that the small craft began to take shape on the floor of the shop.
This four-man design team encompass several innovations into the second
boat which were improvements over its predecessor.
First the vessel was made larger and much heavier than had been the
Pioneer, an innovation which would later prove its downfall. Given that the boat
was so large it was decided that they should install an engine to propel the
craft. An electromagnetic motor (probably McClintock’s design) and then a
steam engine were tried but both power sources proved to be unworkable and were
soon abandoned. Reverting back to hand power for propulsion it was soon
discovered that the four men aboard could not achieve a sufficient attack speed
to make the boat practical to operate. Convinced
that this boat would not function as intended, she was taken out into Mobile Bay
and it too was scuttled. (Though another account said that it sank accidentally
while being towed across the Mobile harbor.) Today this little machine still
lies in its watery grave.
It
is unfortunate that the American Diver never got the opportunity to prove its
merits against the enemy Yankee ships blockading the harbor; but lessons learned
from her brief existence would soon be incorporated into a third submarine, this
one would bear the name CSS. H.L. Hunley.
The
CSS Hunley at Mobile
The
lost of the American Diver must have been devastating both emotionally and
financially, it is thought that Hunley had paid the entire construction cost of
the American Diver; but these were determined men and they vowed to build yet
another boat. Fortunately, at about this time a group of engineers sympathetic
to the Confederate cause formed in Mobile. The group organized
During
the Spring of 1863 the third boat began to take shape in the same Parks and
Lyons shop which had produced the American Diver. From the start this boat was designed to be hand propelled by
a crew seven. An eighth man would help crank and control the rear components of
the boat while a ninth man would act as her captain and helmsman. This time they
started with a 48 dia. 25 foot long locomotive boiler. This boiler was split in
half and a 12 inch iron strip was inserted between the halves.
Extensions were installed fore and aft which formed ballast tanks.
Unfortunately, these tanks were left open on the top. An iron ballast strip was
attached to the belly of the craft. This strip was held in place by four bolts,
which extended through stuffing boxes into the interior of the boat and secured
with tee nuts, which were designed to be used as a quick release system in the
case of an emergency. Sea-cocks were fitted to flood the ballast tanks for diving,
and pumps were placed at the base of the tanks to eject the water back to the
sea. A mercury gauge open to the pressure of the sea was used as a depth gauge.
Running the entire length of the interior of the boat was a articulated
hand crank which was turned by the seven sailors to provide power to the three
blade propeller. A large
steering wheel controlled a rudder located just behind the propeller. Navigation
was accomplished by the use of a compass mounted in the fore section. The
navigation system was crude at best. Because the boat was of a solid metal
construction, and because these were the days before the invention of gyroscope
compasses, a reading had to be taken and then at some point later the craft
would have to come to the surface for additional site readings.
Completing the interior equipment were two levers which were controlled
by the helmsman. These levers operated five foot long, eight inch wide fins or
planes. As the boat moved in the water, the angle of these fins were changed to
control the drive and surfacing of the boat. Interior illumination for the
entire craft was from a single candle. This candle would burn for approximately
20 to 25 minutes, when the candle started to flicker for lack of air it was an
indication that it was time to come to the surface so the hatch could be opened
and the oxygen renewed.
On
the morning of July 31, 1863, a trial run of the vessel was conducted on
the Mobile River. On hand for this demonstration were the financial contributors
and Confederate Naval Commander Admiral Franklin Buchanan. Records do not
indicate who was captaining the Hunley but it was either piloted by James
McClintock or a new member of the Hunley crew, Lt. George E. Dixon. Dixon, like
Alexander had been assigned to the 21st Ala. before being reassigned to the
submarine project.
Though
the tests on the Mobile River went well, it was soon decided that this new
little boat would not serve well if it had to perform in the rough swells of the
Gulf of Mexico. It was decide to transport the vessel to more tranquil waters.
The blockaded harbor of Charleston SC. seemed to be the place in the most need
and with calmer waters.
The
cigar boat Moves to Charleston
A
meeting was arranged with Charleston’s Commanding General P.G.T. Beauregard.
At the start of hostilities, Lincoln had called for the building of 200 ships to
supply the Federal Navy. These ships were to be used as the backbone of the
Navies Anaconda plan, a plan to, like an anaconda stretch like a snake around
the seaports and up the Mississippi River to choke off the supply ports of the
Confederacy. Beauregard eager to improved the defenses of Charleston bay
and to strike a blow against the Yankee blockade ship in his harbor wasted
little time in approving the transfer of the little boat to SC. On August 12,
1863 the submarine was mounted on two railroad cars and transported from Mobile.
At
this point I need to break from the story of the Hunley and tell you about the
War happenings in Charleston.
Because
of a defensive ring of forts and batteries around the harbor, the Confederates
had made Charleston a very difficult nut to crack. (SEE HANDOUT) The harbor
defenses were laid out much like a wagon wheel with Fort Sumter being its center
axis. In clock wise directions around the harbor were, to the southwest, (1)
Fort Johnson (from which the first shots at Yankee held Ft. Sumter had been
fired), then (2) Charleston, (3) Castle Pinckney, & (4) Fort Ripley. On
Mount Pleasant were the (5) Mount Pleasant batteries. Then on Sullivan Island,
were (6) Battery Bee, (7) Fort Moultrie, and (8) Battery Beauregard, and (8a)
Battery Marshall. Across the bay in Morris Island was (9) Battery Wagner and
(10) Battery Gregg. Wagner had been attacked in July 1863 by Federal forces and
those boys made so famous in the movie Glory. Col. Shaw and his 54th Mass. never
took the fort but about the time of the submarine s arrival, Rebel forces
quietly just slipped out of the parapets and abandoned the place to the enemy.
Charleston
never fell to the Yankees during the War but from the opening guns of the War in
April 1861, Charleston had been the center of Yankee aggression. As soon as the
War began the sea channel of the Atlantic Ocean had been blocked by a ring of
Federal ships. These ships were anchored from 4 to 15 miles off shore.
By August 1863 duels between Federal iornclads and Ft. Moultrie and Ft.
Sumter were beginning to be a daily occurrence, Morris Island was in Federal
hands, and Battery Wagner was about to be the target of 47 heavy siege guns and
mortars. The submarine, if effective against these ships, could
be cloned and could be the answer the South needed to break the back of the
blockade which held all ports in the South in check.
All
military authorities were eager for McClintock and his crew most of which had
been volunteers brought with him from the Park and Lyons shop in Mobile, to take
some action again the enemy. But
first a proper mooring would have to be found close enough to the anchored
Federal ships for the crew to make an effective assault. A cove located behind
Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan Island would be the first home for the Hunley.
On
August 21st Horace Hunley finally arrived in Charleston. He had been detained in
Mobile. His first order of business was to order from the quartermaster nine
Confederate uniforms. The thought at this time was that submarines and
underwater mines were inhuman methods of attack. The catchword for such devises
was infernal machines. By clothing these men in Confederate uniforms, Hunley
hoped to convey a sense of legitimacy for the boat and its crew. Also, he was
sure that if these men were captured, they could be shot as spies if not in
uniform.
The
second week of August 1863 was a traumatic period in Charleston. Federal gunners
were making sand dust of Ft. Sumter. In a one weeks time span, 6800 round were
poured into the fort. More over on the night of August 21-22 at 1:30 AM the
citizens of Charleston were awakened by the tremendous explosion of a 150 pound
shell. Before daylight, 14 more shells would land directly in the city. These
shells were launched not at Battery Wagner or Fort Sumter but with the implicit
intent of killing the citizens of the city. The Federals had brought up a gun
they called the Swamp Angel a huge
8 inch Parrot which could throw a 200 lb shell the distance of 4 miles. It was
very obvious the Federals were waging war on the citizens of the cradle of the
Confederacy and they had every intent of leveling the city.
This
was this atmosphere in which the Hunley entered. The submarine, referred to
locally as the Porpoise, the Fish Boat and the cigar boat soon made numerous
sorties again Federal ships but all were without success. With each failure of
the submarine, the commanders in Charleston; nerves worn to a frazzle by the
constant bombardment of the forts and of Charleston, lost all patients with
McClintock and his Mobile crew. Two stinging letters dated Aug 23rd and 24th
were sent from Sullivan Islands commander General Thomas Clingman to General
Beauregard stating that in his opinion the sub crew lacked the fortitude they
needed to perform the task at hand. With these two dispatches the fate of the
submarine crew was sealed. Within twenty four hours the machine was seized by
authorities and turned over to the Confederate Navy. McClintock and his crew
were sent back to Mobile