Hunnelly being opened today!

Subject: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: InOBU
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 08:05 AM

For my fellow maritime history and archiology fans... I remember a thread about the Hunnelly last year, well at long last, they have the hatch opened and they are going to begin the escavation of the hunnelly's interior today.
For those who don't know, the Hunnelly was the first submarine to sink another vessel - during the American Civil War.
Larry

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Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 08:22 AM

Larry, I saw a friend during Christmas that was very much interested in this. I found a few links with pictures on the web (newspaper sites, etc). If you know of anything more, please let us know.

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: InOBU
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 11:34 AM

Hi Mary, I will do. My recollection is that in the previous Hunnelly post there were links to the two offical web pages...about: This might be one...blank

http://rc_submarines.tripod.com/ then this is called the mother of all maritime links, so should have links to Hunnelly information... http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 01:44 PM

Larry, I searched in vain for the article I saw earlier...and ya know what....it's spelled Hunley! An internet search for H. L. Hunley - Charleston - Civil War - submarine - etc. yields all kinds of interesting facts.

My friend that is so interested in this event, is 80+ years old, and friends from SC sent her a T-shirt with a picture of the Hunley on it. I think there was a big ceremony on Aug. 8 for the raising. Certainly interesting reading.

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: SeanM
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 01:48 PM

Here is the previous thread on the Hunley.

M

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: InOBU
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 02:40 PM

Good on ya SeanM... thanks. Larry

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 04:55 PM

Larry,
I have found all sorts of fascinating information but nothing on today's events. Just imagine what they'll find - a time capsule guarded by dead men. Clive Cussler has been involved in making this happen - buy a book. Dirk Pitt is worth the read. Other crew members died on the Henley and are supposed to be buried under a sports stadium. There are plans to disinter the ones who are accessible and rebury them with a ceremony. The recent loss of the Russian sub and its crew makes the Hunley opening all the more poignant. Strange, but I feel these men ought to have been left at peace.

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: InOBU
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 05:14 PM

Sinsull:
In an act of great bravery, I will tell you that once a year I buy a dirk Pitt book - and though I must say that they tend to be zenophobic inspite of including multi ethnic heroic charactors... Cussler tells a good story, even if it is the same story over and over again! But, there is always a good hook ghost train, airplane under a lake, that sort of thing. I read his book on underwater exploration, and there are two sides to the story about his help, but then again, it is also true that folks like the bunch of us who are not mainstream, are seldom thanked for the work they do, so it is possible he was as central in the finding as he clames.
Cheers,
Larrry

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 07:23 PM

Ah but the best was finding a mummified Lincoln in a submarine submerged in desert sand. Put your brain in neutral and lose yourself in fantasy for an hour or two. By the way Pitt has been replaced by a Dirk Wannabe complete with sidekick. Just doesn't have what it takes. Must be the blond hair.

Subject: RE: Hunley being opened today!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 07:40 PM

I am surprised that the Hunley isn't viewed as a sailor's grave and preserved intact where she lay for the last century and a half. I think that we could build a model that was equal to the task of being a museum and leave the ship where it is.

I've built too many boats in my life not believe that ships have hearts and souls. Maybe those of the men who sailed them, but souls none the less and when they are gone, let them rest.

Don

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: Sourdough
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 09:26 PM

As someone who got to know Clive Cussler on the Hunley expedition as well as being an anthropologist by training and a historian by profession, you won't be dsur[rised that i have an opinion.

Cussler has nothing but repsect for the crew of the Hunley. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money looking not just for the Hunley but for other of what he calls "ships of destiny" including The Bonhomme Richard. While in France, I did some investigation for him about what would be involved in a search for The Alabama.

He is fascinated by the sheer bravery of the men who sailed in these ships that changed the course of history. Although he has pride in finding the Hunley, his motivation, I am positive, is not one of personal achievement but more of paying tribute. I remember talking with him several times about the search for the Titanic. He felt that was a whole other kind of thing. He wasn;t interested in the notoriety of the vessel, but in its achievements.

THink of a crew, in the dark (light provided by a candle that was also the indicator of when the oxygen was running out) trying to navigate in three dimensions. Up until that time, movement was essentially a two dimensional affair. THese men had to learn how to do a controlled sinking and move underwater on a level course under some sort of control through all sorts of harbor currents when they had a top speed of three knots

I can understand why some people would feel as though an excavation of the Hunley is desecration of a grave but I really don't agree. I have tried to think of what I would feel for a father or brother who were aboard the Hunley and I've decided that I would like to see them united in a memorial ashore that reminded people of the bravery that p[eople are capable of when they believe in their cause.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 09:42 PM

I've been waiting for you 'Dough. Thanks for your always fine perspective. I knew you had some experience here and I appreciate the way you have of seeing things in a reasonable and fair light.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 10:05 PM

Sourdough has a very fine perspective indeed. And I generally do agree. Had we been trying to locate and raise the Hunley, or the Alabama, or the Main, the Vasa, the Titanic within the time of their sinking I would feel better about it. Restoration to the family of final remain and effects. But the immediate families are gone and all that remains is the history of these very brave and incredible men and ships. Let the ships lay.

Please know that I have long known of Clive Cussler's intent here and that I have never felt that he was acting through self interest. Its nice to know the location of someones final place, and they should be marked as such. Whether in Pearl Harbor or the North Atlantic that place should be charted and revered.

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: Sourdough
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 11:31 PM

I took a day off during the search for the Hunley and with the woman who was my wife then and a friend, we headed out across the Bay towards Fort Sumpter. Givcen that we had been looking for the Hunley, we were all acutely aware of the ships that had sialed in these waters and the battles fought here. In fact, our destination that day was Fort Sumter whose bombardment so outraged the North that they carried a special anger towards Charleston and its people. The "guilt" of Charleston was one of the reasons that Charleston was under such a heavy blockade by the Federal Navy and that in turn was why the Hunley had been brought to Charleston - to try to lift the blockade. We had already found the USS Housatonic, the steam frigate sunk by the Hunley and were doing a partial excavation of another ship, a Confederate blockade runner that as I remember was in a sandbar on Sullivan's Island near Fort Moultrie.

Subject: RE: Hunnelly being opened today!
From: Sourdough
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 11:52 PM

To continue:

All of this history was in our minds as we piloted the Zodiac from Sullivan's Island along the channel and over to Fort Sumpter. My wife who was facing the stern told us to turn around. A nuclear submarine was overtaking us. Here was a direct descendant of the Hunley - the newest sailing right over the oldest. What would those crews of the Hunley have thought of this sleek black hull running sumbmerged almost to the sail. The crew of this submarine was probably returning from a 90 day patrol, almost surely entirely submerged. The Hunley made voyaged of five or six miles and had on a number of occasions stayed submerged, at great physical cost, for several hours before returning.

I think though that at that moment we all shared a feeling of great sadness as we realized that we were surrounded by sites connected with such bravery but that that wonderful quality had to be brought out by war.