The story is about the CSS Hunley, a submarine built by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The submarine was designed to break the Union's blockade of Southern ports and was the first to successfully sink an enemy ship. However, the Hunley sank three times during its development and testing, resulting in the loss of several lives.
After a series of failures, the submarine was finally ready for its first mission. On February 17, 1864, the Hunley successfully sank the Union ship Housatonic, but it did not return to port. The cause of its disappearance was a mystery for over a century.
In 1972, a search for the Hunley began, and in 1995, the submarine was finally found on the bottom of Charleston Bay. It was recovered in 2000 and underwent a seven-year restoration process. In 2017, a simulation was conducted to determine the cause of the Hunley's sinking, and it was concluded that a shockwave from the explosion that sank the Housatonic had likely caused the submarine to implode, killing its crew instantly.
The story of the Hunley is now preserved at a museum in North Carolina, and its legacy as a pioneering achievement in submarine warfare continues to fascinate people to this day.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. In 1861, the American Civil War began, and the Southern states (Confederates) wanted to separate from the rest of the country (Union).
2. The Union created a maritime blockade with over 150 ships around the Southern states to prevent supplies from Europe from arriving.
3. The Confederates offered up to $50,000 (approximately $4 trillion in today's money) to anyone who could sink an opposing ship.
4. Horace Hunley, a lawyer from the Southern states, became interested in this reward and built a submarine to try to sink Union ships without being detected.
5. The first prototype submarine, called Pioneer, was built in New Orleans but was sunk by the Union to prevent its discovery.
6. A second submarine was built in Alabama but sank while being towed into port.
7. In 1863, a third submarine, the CSS Hunley, was built and was 13 meters long, 1 meter wide, and only 4 feet high.
8. The CSS Hunley had two ballast tanks, a snorkel, and two hatches that served as lookouts.
9. The submarine was powered by seven people turning a giant crank.
10. The CSS Hunley was tested, but the first test resulted in the submarine sinking with the hatches open, killing three people.
11. The submarine was rescued, and a new commander, Lieutenant George Dixon, took charge.
12. The CSS Hunley was tested again, but it sank for the second time, and Hunley himself took command.
13. The submarine was rescued again, and Dixon convinced the general to use it one last time.
14. The CSS Hunley attacked the Union gunboat sloop Housatonic on February 17, 1864, using a torpedo made from a barrel of gunpowder.
15. The attack was successful, and the Housatonic sank, but the CSS Hunley did not return, and its fate was unknown.
16. In 1972, a search began for the CSS Hunley in Charleston Bay.
17. In 1995, the submarine was found, and in 2000, it was rescued from the bottom of the sea.
18. The submarine spent seven years in a caustic bath to remove barnacles and other debris.
19. In 2017, a biomedical engineer carried out a simulation to understand what had happened to the Hunley and discovered that a shock wave from the explosion likely caused the hull to compress, leading to the deaths of the crew.
20. The CSS Hunley is now in a museum in North Carolina, and its story is considered important in American history.