How the Hunley was Found: The
story that appeared in Blue & Gray Magazine:

The Search for the Hunley
A Twenty Three Year Mission Ends in Success


Christopher Chase

litespdcom@aol.com

The story of the CSS H.L. Hunley has been well told in books and the popular press. Untold, until now, are the details of the early search for the submarine by the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization, and the information that led to its discovery.
Throughout most of the 131 years since the Hunley failed to return home from its historic mission, authorities assumed it had sunk with its victim, the Federal blockade ship USS Housatonic. In 1973 writer/researcher Mark Newell chose to believe otherwise, accepting at face value the report of a Confederate officer who stated that he had exchanged pre-arranged signals with the submarine some time after the attack. Lieutenant Colonel O. M. Danztler reported from Headquarters, Battery Marshall on February 17th, 1864 "...The signals agreed upon to be given in case the boat wished a light to be exposed at this post as a guide for its return were observed and answered."1
At the time there was no independent confirmation of this exchange of signals. Confederate States Army Captain Gray of the Office of Submarine Defenses appeared to be unaware of Danztler's report. In April of that same year, he advised Major-General Maury, "I am of the opinion that..she went into the hole made in the Housatonic by the explosion of torpedoes and did not have sufficient power to back out."2
Both these reports led to misconceptions on the part of future historians and researchers. Many assumed that Dantzler's language meant that the submarine wished to be guided back to Breach Inlet by the signal light. Others assumed that Gray's opinion was valid, and that the submarine did in fact sink with its victim and was scrapped when the wreckage of the Housatonic was salvaged after the war.3
Newell's decision to rely on Dantzler's report was confirmed as correct when some years later archival research revealed the records of the Court of Inquiry into the sinking of the Housatonic.4 The eye witness accounts of the survivors clearly confirmed that the Hunley left the scene of the attack. Some time later signal lights were observed being exchanged between a point in the ocean and another on Sullivan's Island. These facts were first published in Kleoppel's book Danger Beneath the Waves in 1987.5
In 1972, Newell brought his conclusions to the head of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in South Carolina.6 He joined forces with the SCV to begin what was to be a 23 year search for the submarine with the aim of recovering it and providing an honorable burial for its gallant crew.
Simple observation led Newell to the probable location of the submarine in 1973. It is known that Lt. George Dixon took his submarine out of Breach Inlet each time he launched an attack on the blockade fleet.7 The reason is obvious enough even today. As the tides begin to turn from slack to ebb in the Back Bay behind Sullivan's Island, a huge volume of water forces its way through Breach Inlet. The strong current must have provided a free ride to the crew of eight who sat behind Dixon at a hand crank used to propel the craft. As the tides turn again to flood, the incoming current is not as strong. Clearly the Back Bay filled from other sources that provided the incoming tide with readier access. The obvious next choice was the huge entrance to Charleston Harbor on the south end of Sullivan's Island. In escaping the scene of the attack, the crew of the Hunley would have taken full advantage of their knowledge of local tides. Newell believed that Dixon signaled Battery Marshall from a location along a route from the wreck of the Housatonic to Charleston Harbor mouth where the strongest tidal flow would have lent speed to their escape.
The route led to Maffitt's Channel, which was closed in 1880 when massive granite jetties were built to aid navigation.8 Dives made in the area proved that the channel had silted in. These conditions meant that the area had to be searched with sensitive ship-towed metal detectors if the Hunley were to be found.
After several abortive attempts,9 this was not accomplished the summer of 1994, when Newell succeeded in encouraging author Clive Cussler to support a search of the area.10 Cussler had made brief and unsuccessful searches in 1980 and 1981 for the submarine.11 By 1994 , Newell was completing a Ph.D. in underwater archaeology at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
The project searched almost fifty square miles of ocean off Charleston Harbor mouth in the first weeks of August, 1994. In the last days of the field work, an object matching the size and mass of the Hunley was found in the spot Newell had predicted, in the approaches to Maffitt's Channel, one of several 'targets' found in the general area.12
A day was spent in September of 1994 carefully probing and mapping the object with volunteers who were able to determine that the object was within 30 to 40 feet long, within five feet wide and had a curved upper surface. Newell had been authorized by the Federal Government to dig small test pits in order to uncover and hopefully identify any objects found during the search.13 Rather than prematurely disturb a possible national treasure, Newell decided to examine the object with high resolution sonar in the Spring of 1995.
The time consuming conduct of such non-invasive science evidently tested the patience of the University's partner. In May of 1995, a month before sonar testing was scheduled, Clive Cussler ordered his own divers to excavate targets found in Maffitt's Channel area, revealing the Hunley.14 Clearly, Cussler's intention was to pre-empt Newell's confirmation of the discovery and reap the benefits of the publicity for himself alone.
Evidently, the theory developed in 1973 was correct. Once Dixon had rammed the Hunley into the side of the Housatonic, his crew reversed the submarine, unreeling the lanyard attached to the trigger on their 90 pound torpedo. When the line played out, it triggered the explosion with devastating effect. As the witnesses in the rigging of the Housatonic confirmed, the Hunley continued to back away. At some point, Dixon would have turned the bow to shore. According to his usual plan, the attack was timed for the change of tides. As the crew of the submarine cranked for their lives to escape a counter attack from other Federal ships, the flood tide would have sped their way into Maffitt's Channel and the main harbor mouth. Dixon had arranged to give a signal to Battery Marshal to confirm that he had survived the attack. These were the lights observed by the survivors in the rigging of the Housatonic some 45 minutes after the sinking.
With the Hunley safely on its way home -- what could have happened to send it to the bottom so close to the completion of its mission? This is the last detail to remain a mystery, one that will most likely be solved when the submarine is closely examined. Two of the three crews lost in the Hunley during its trials in Charleston Harbor were drowned when accidents caused sea water to wash over the open hatches.15 To signal Battery Marshall from the submarine, Dixon would have to have opened the forward hatch to extend a carbide gas lantern. Those same big ocean waves that buffeted Newell as he hovered over the Hunley's grave in 1994, might also have been the cause of its final sinking. With perilously little positive buoyancy, the submarine most likely was swamped as Dixon was completing the exchange of signals. We do know now that it came to rest on the coarse gravels of Maffitt's Channel with a slight list to starboard. The bow, carrying the iron rod on which the torpedo had been mounted (the pine spar had been removed a few days before the last mission16) pointed toward the south end of Sullivan's Island less than a mile away. They were that close to home, safety -- and a very different ending in the story of The War Between the States.

About the Author:
Christopher Chase is a freelance writer covering the southeastern US and South America. A special interest is historical material on the Southeast and especially the War Between the States. He has been following Newell's search for the CSS H.L. Hunley since the project began in 1972. His work has appeared in Nautical Collector, American Heritage, Naval History, and American History magazines.

Notes
1Lt. O.M. Danztler to Beauregard, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume p 262, GPO, Washington 1894.
2Cpt. M.M. Gray to Mjr. Gen Maury, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume 1 p 337-8, GPO, Washington 1894.
3Q.A. Gilmore, salvage contract advertisement of August 3rd, 1872. Corps of Engineers Records, Federal Records Repository East Point Georgia.
4National Archives, Proceedings of the Naval Court of Inquiry, Case # 4345.
5 James E. Kloeppel, "Danger Beneath the Waves" Adele Enterprises, College Park Ga. 1987.
6Mark Newell "Outline Presentation: The Search for the Hunley" October 29th, 1972. Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) files.
7W. A. Alexander, "The Confederate Submarine Torpedo Boat Hunley" The Gulf States Historical Magazine, Vol. 1 No. 2 PP 81-91, September 1902.
8Corps of Engineers Records, Federal Records Repository East Point Georgia.
9Correspondence, Norman Scott to Mark Newell, November 17th, 1973, SCV files.
10Clive Cussler to Mark Newell, May, 1992 USC files. Letter accepts invitation to assist Newell in new search.
11Bob Browning & Wilson West, "The Search for the Hunley", 13th Annual Conference on Underwater Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, USC files.
12Newell field notes, Hunley Search 1994, on file at South Carolina Institute of Archaeology & Anthropology (SCIAA), University of South Carolina.
13Dr. William Dudley, Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center, official correspondence to Mark Newell, June 2nd 1994, on file at SCIAA.
14Naval History Magazine, In Contact Section "If it's Lost..." p7, November/December 1995, Naval Institute Press.
15Alexander, W. A. "The Confederate Submarine Torpedo Boat Hunley": The author states that when in the charge of Lt. Payne, five members of the first crew were drowned. He then states that eight members of the second crew drowned in similar accident. The Inventor, H.L. Hunley, then took over command of the submarine - and drowned in a third accident.
16Confederate Veteran Magazine, August 1916 p. 328 "South Carolina Confederate Twins."

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Recovery of One of the Hunley Crews
A Diver Account:

In 1901 The Paducah Daily Democrat published a brief account of the exploits of John Patrick, a commercial diver who had recently been involved in the recovery of bodies from a shipping disaster in the area. In the article, Patrick reveals, somewhat inaccurately, that he was the diver that recovered the bodies from one of the sinkings of the CSS H.L. Hunley. The article led to further research which has revealed detailed accounts of this episode. It appears that Patrick was called to the scene of the first or sencond Payne sinking, in which the submarine lay on the bottom for some time before recovery attempts were made. In his newspaper article, Patrick is quoted as saying,"She went to the bottom takling with her a crew of 16 and one young lieutenant. After several days I was sent down to rescue the bodies. It was an awful job, and I hated it, especially as it was my first experience of the sort. The bodies were all so decomposed that each one had to be wrapped in a sack before it could be sent to the surface."

Full details of the Patrick account can be found in the upcoming Final Report on the Search for the Hunley.

The Search For the Hunley:
The Final Report

by
Mark M. Newell, Ph.D.
Project Principal Investigator

Research Manuscript No. 4
from the Official
SCV CSS H.L. Hunley Project

Orders are being taken for the Technical
Research Manuscript which is the final report of the search phase of the project. Written
by the researcher who began the search in 1972 and who provided the final
locational data for his NUMA supported University of South Carolina field season in 1995
Second Edition Publication Price $30.00

Send Email Reservation with Name & Surface Mail address to:

Where Did the Hunley Sink?

Artist's rendering of attack in Oceans Magazine (1978)
article on the Hunley - not the way it happened!

The Hunley finally sank 45 minutes after the sinking of the USS Housatonic. By that time the submarine had turned away from its victim, as witnesses later reported, and was heading back to shore. Both Federal Navy and Confederate Army forces reported seeing signals from the submarine. The Confederate report was known at the time. This was the convincing evidence, that the Hunley would be found somewhere along its return route, that started the SCV search in 1972. Federal reports came to light in 1980 that confirmed the exchange of signals long after the sinking, further proof that the submarine did not sink with its victim.

Civil War Regiments Publisher
creates T-Shirt offer

Savas-Woodbury Publishing of Campbell Ca, publishers of the prestigious Civil War Regiments, A Journal of the American Civil War has created the above t-shirt design in co-operation with the E. Porter Alexander Camp, SCV as a fund raiser for the Official SCV Hunley Project. The shirts are printed on high quality 100% white cotton in Black and Red ink and sell for $15.00 each plus $3.00 postage for up to four shirts to one address. Shirts can be ordered from Savas-Woodbury by mail at 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Suite 204, Campbell, Ca. 95008 or by FAX to 1-408-879-9327
or by toll free call to 1-800-848-6585
The t-shirt created by Mark Newell in 1993 with the legend "The LAST search for the Hunley" now sell among collectors for $50.00 each. The shirt featured the artwork used as a background for the home page.

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The number of times the Hunley sank,

killing its crew, is inaccurately reported to this very day despite clear accounts from its lone survivor that details every sinking! W.A. Alexander was one of the two engineers who helped Hunley's investment group build their submarines in Mobile, Al. The other was George Dixon who sank the USS Housatonic. At the turn of the century Alexander wrote a number of accounts of the history of the Hunley. They appeared in magazines, newspapers and at least one historical journal, The Gulf States Historical Magazine. From these accounts, here is what we know about the sinkings:

• First sinking was under Lieutentant John Payne, CSN shortly after the CSA siezed the submarine from the first crew under McClintock. The submarine was readied to leave its dock for trials when a swell swamped it. Eight men inside the sub drowned. Payne, who was standing in the forward hatch, was the only survivor.
  
  
• Second sinking was also under Payne. The submarine was swamped by the wake from a passing vessel. Payne and two men in or near the rear hatch escaped, six men drowned.
  The diver's account of the recovery of these bodies is in SCV files.
  
  
• Third sinking was under the command of Horace Hunley and Thomas Parks. After successfully testing the submarine with a new crew, Hunley attempted a steep dive in the harbor and never surfaced. Seven men drowned, Hunley and Parks suffocated in the fore and aft hatches. It was later discovered Hunley had been unable to close a sea cock, flooding the sub.
  
  
• Fourth sinking was the final one. It is known that its Commander, George Dixon exchanged signals with Battery Marshall on Sullivan's Island, probably from a point in or near Maffitt's Channel. To signal with a carbide lantern of the day, Dixon would have had to open the forward hatch an in area noted for powerful ocean swells.

The Torpedo

An engineer's depiction of the actual delivery method of
Hunley's torpedo

The torpedo that sank the USS Housatonic was delivered to its victim on the end of an iron rod which had been fitted to the Hunley shortly after it had been raised for the third time. Civil War artist Chapman painted the submarine when it was still fitted with its 22 foot pine spar -- a famous view which all artists since have used to depict the Hunley on its final mission. In fact, the iron rod was fitted to deliver the explosive below the waterline -- since the Hunley had been ordered by Beauregard only to attack on the surface. This was revealed in the reports of an engineer writing at the turn of century. He was asked to make adjustments to the iron rod hours before the Hunley left on its historic mission. A full report on the torpedo and how 90lbs of explosive was able to blow the stern off the USS Housatonic can be downloaded via ftp from the Hunley Project File library at America Online.