A tour of the H.L. Hunley Submarine is available at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at 1250 Supply Street in North Charleston. This location is an old Navy base by the Cooper River. While the Hunley is undergoing preservation work tours are only available on the weekends, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturdays and 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Sundays. All tickets are $12 each except for children under five years old, who can see the Hunley for free. Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance as tours are limited in size.
The Hunley was a submarine for the Confederacy during the Civil War that had already sank twice before and killed more than thirty previous crew members. It was the first submarine to successfully sink another vessel when, in 1864, it attacked the Union owned USS Housatonic in the Charleston Harbor. Shortly thereafter the Hunley also sank, for the third and final time, with no way to communicate to those on shore about any problems and with eight crew members aboard. When the submarine was finally recovered in 2000 DNA was found for all eight crew members, who were given military honors upon interment in Magnolia Cemetery.
Friends of the Hunley and the South Carolina Hunley Commission are currently working together to figure out what exactly caused the submarine to sink. The South Carolina Hunley Commission was formed to recover, preserve, and further investigate the sinking of the Hunley. Out of this commission the Friends of Hunley non-profit organization was formed. They are responsible for fundraising, conservation and the exhibit of the Hunley.
The recovery of the Hunley turned out to be quite of a feat of underwater archaeology. Since the submarine was buried under sediment the first objective was to excavate so that the top third of the vessel was exposed. Then a truss was lowered on the Hunley and a crane lifted the submarine and truss with the aid of inflatable pillows. Conservation work on the Hunley began immediately because once the submarine was exposed to air, after spending nearly 140 years under water, the physical elements of the iron vessel began to change.
In what has turned out to be a complex puzzle of discoveries it was revealed in October 2008 that flooding was probably not what caused the Hunley to sink. Scientists discovered that the bilge pump, used to pump water out of the submarine, had not been in use. When a submarine takes on water, using the bilge pump would be one of the first steps taken to prevent sinking. Instead it seems that the crew met a calmer end, seated at their stations at their time of death, a sign that they either knew nothing could be done or were unaware of a problem. Archaeologists believe the damage found on the submarine occurred a while after the attack on the Housatonic and was caused by coarse sand brought in and out by tides.
Currently, the Hunley is submerged in a tank of water for viewing to preserve the conditions under which it survived for almost 140 years. The exhibit also features artifacts found inside the wrecked submarine, including facial reconstructions of what the crew looked like and Lieutenant George Dixon's lucky coin. A replica of the Hunley built to scale allows visitors to experience the cramped conditions of a nineteenth century submarine.
