by Tucker Koch

Contributing Writer

The US Civil War, you might have heard about it. The time the South broke away to continue practicing slavery. I wonder which side was the bad one? Anyways, I’m here to talk about one particular boat that was made during this time of civil unrest. I want to talk about the H.L. Hunley, the Confederate ship that … Certainly existed.

Now, let’s take a step back and ask the question, “What was the H.L. Hunley, anyway?” And that is a very good question. Invented by Horace Lawson Hunley, it was a ship designed to float beneath the water and sink enemy ships with explosives; Essentially it became one of the world’s first submarines. Its way of blowing people up, though, was a bit silly. Attached to the rear end of the ship was a 22-foot pole with a bomb at the end of it. I, too, love poking at my enemies with a metaphorical 6-foot pole of death. The idea was to swing the ship around and bash this bomb into the enemy vessel, bowling a big hole near the bottom. Keep note of this, as it will be important later. The ship was also able to float 6 feet below the water’s surface, allowing it to remain undetected by the Union ships as it sailed in for the kill.

Now, with all those specifications, you’d think I was talking about it as if it were some great invention; however, I haven’t talked about the test runs yet. During the first test run, they were going to see if it would even float, and … five of the crew already drowned inside, with the other three members barely making it out of there with their lives. You want to know why this happened? The captain accidentally stepped on a lever before submerging, which opened one of the hatches, leading to water gushing into the vessel. Great design choice, guys. The Confederate army, undeterred by the ship’s failure, sent out a group of 15 soldiers to conduct a second test run; this time, with Mr. Hunley himself aboard. IT soon met the same fate as the last test run, this time killing all 15 people inside. As you can see, it was very successful.

Now, the H.L. Hunley actually did go into battle once, against the Union ship USS Housatonic. The Confederate vessel actually managed to sneak up on the Union ship and struck its bomb (I told you it would come up again) against the ship. Thus causing the USS Housatonic to sink, and it injured 1 Union soldier. Afterwards, the H.L. Hunley was never heard from again. When we did find it years later, we figured out what happened to it. Apparently, the reverberations from the blast of the bomb just popped every single person inside the ship. Essentially, the blast’s pressure caused the air inside the ship to act like a Sedan, crushing the soft tissue of everyone inside (i.e., lungs, heart, brain, etc.).

Today, the surviving wreckage of the submarine sits as a tourist attraction in South Carolina for some reason. I’m gonna be frank here, besides people who love the weird parts of history like me, who’s taking a trip to visit the Confederate submarine that failed at every step of the way. Either way, this has been Tucker Koch, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this.