The H.L. Hunley is one of the lesser known warships from the Civil War, it was a submarine that served the purposes of the Confederate Forces. There are a lot of different ships that are known in the civil war, but one of the most daring yet unknown was the H.L Hunley Submarine.
The H.L. Hunley was commissioned by the Confederate Congress to be constructed by two machinists and engineers from New Orleans – Mr. Baxter Watson and James R. McClintock. They were told to build and construct a Confederate Submarine to fight against Union Forces. They built the submarine privately, and so it was never actually commissioned.
The H.L. Hunley was actually a manually powered submarine, many people do not know of this. It was powered by a single propeller on a shaft that passed down the center of the vessel, Eight men sat on the starboard side and operated the machinery at the command of the captain of the vessel.
The H.L. Hunley was the first submarine to actually sink a warship or another vessel, and it was built and named on behalf of the principal backer and designer. After being lost during the Civil War time period, the H.L. Hunley was located in the summer of 2000. The H.L. Hunley was recovered in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, and she was raised from her watery grave August 8th, 2000.
The H.L Hunley was a privately built, single submarine that had a very short career, but during its reign it proved what a small submersible can do. It was a vessel born from Condederate desperation and ingenuity and a vessel hand crafted and pressed into service in 1863, before it could be actively given into official service in the Confederate effort.
The only weapon that the H.L. Hunley had was a single spar torpedo, but even so it was a revolutionary type of weapon far beyond its time. The Wreck was raised in 2000 and is undergoing restoration and preservation in South Carolina.
The H.L. Hunley was never officially entered into the Confederate Navy forces, being privately built and constructed, but it was a vessel constructed far beyond its time and knowledge of the time period.