The "HUNLEY" CSS Submarine and the Torpedo

**kz11gr** · 22nd February 2012, 09:41 PM

Hello

Again a post about the American Civil War , hope you'll find interesting.

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From Wikipedia
H. L. Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played

a small part in the American Civil War, but a large role in the history of naval warfare.
The Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare.
It was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, although theHunley was
not completely submerged and was lost at some point following her successful attack.
The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of theHunley during her short career.
The submarine was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after it was
taken into service under the control of the Confederate Army at Charleston, South Carolina.

1863- photo of the Hunley submarine crew
The Hunley, nearly 40 feet (12 m) long, was built at Mobile, Alabama, and launched in July 1863.
It was then shipped by rail on August 12, 1863 to Charleston, South Carolina.
Hunley (then called Fish Boat) sank on August 29, 1863, during a training exercise, killing five
members of her crew.
It sank again on October 15, 1863, killing all eight of her second crew, including Horace Hunley himself,
who was aboard at the time, even though he was not enlisted in the Confederate armed forces.

Both times the Hunley was raised and returned to service.
On February 17, 1864, Hunley attacked and sank the 1240-short ton (1124 metric tons)
screw sloop USS Housatonic on Union blockade duty in Charleston's outer harbor.
Soon after, Hunley sank for unknown reasons, killing all eight of her third crew.
This time, the innovative ship was lost.

Armament

Hunley was originally intended to attack by means of a floating explosive charge with a contact fuse
(a torpedo in Civil War terminology) towed behind it at the end of a long rope. Hunley would approach an
enemy vessel, dive under it, and surface beyond. As it continued to move away from the target, the torpedo
would be pulled against the side of the target and explode. However, this plan was discarded as impractical
due to the danger of the tow line fouling Hunley's screw or drifting into Hunley herself.
The floating explosive charge was replaced with a spar torpedo, a cask containing 90 pounds (41 kilograms)
of black powder attached to a 22-foot (6.7 m)-long wooden spar, as seen in illustrations of the submarine made
at this time. The spar was mounted on Hunley's bow and was designed to be used when the submarine was
some 6 feet (1.8 m) or more below the surface.

The spar torpedo had a barbed point, and would be stuck in
the target vessel's side by ramming. The spar torpedo as originally designed used a mechanical trigger attached
to the attacking vessel by a cord, so that as the attacker backed away from her victim, the torpedo would explode.
However, archaeologists working on Hunley have discovered evidence, including a spool of copper wire and
components of a battery, that it may have been electrically detonated. Following Horace Hunley's death,
General Beauregard issued an order that the submarine was no longer to attack her target underwater.
In response to this order, an iron pipe was attached to the bow of the submarine and angled downwards
so the explosive charge would still be delivered under sufficient depth of water to make it effective.
This was the same method developed for the earlier "David" type surface craft so successful against
the USS New Ironsides. The Confederate Veteran of 1902 printed a reminiscence authored by an engineer
stationed at Battery Marshall who, with another engineer, made adjustments to the iron pipe mechanism
before Hunley left on her last mission on the night of February 17, 1864.
A drawing of the iron pipe spar, confirming its "David" type configuration, was published in several early
histories of submarine warfare.

Attack on Housatonic

Main article: Sinking of USS Housatonic
Hunley made her first and only attack against a live target on the night of February 17, 1864.
The vessel was the USS Housatonic. Housatonic, a 1240-ton (1.1 million-kilogram) steam-powered sloop-of-war
with 12 large cannons, was stationed at the entrance to Charleston, South Carolina harbor, about 5 miles (8 kilometers)
out to sea. In an effort to break the naval blockade of the city, Lieutenant George E. Dixon and a crew of seven
volunteers attacked Housatonic, successfully embedding the barbed spar torpedo into her hull.
The torpedo was detonated as the submarine backed away, sending Housatonic and five of her crew to the bottom
in five minutes, although many survived by boarding two lifeboats or by climbing the rigging until rescued.

complete page here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunley_(submarine)

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Replica today

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**kz11gr** · 22nd February 2012, 09:45 PM

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The Hunley was the first successfully built submarine, constructed for the Confederates in 1864.
No one knows why, but the submarine vanished suddenly not long after it was completed
and was not found again until 1995 where it was discovered near Sullivan’s Island.
The submarine was raised from the waters in the year 2000 and is now preserved in a large tank.
We recommend purchasing tickets in advance if you want to see this amazing site.

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torpedo

Some links :

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