CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Twenty-five years have passed since the H.L. Hunley, a Civil War-era submarine once thought to be lost at sea forever, was raised from the ocean floor just off the Charleston coast.
The roughly 40-foot Confederate submarine made history when it became the world’s first successful combat submarine to sink an enemy ship when it struck the USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864. The ship was serving as a Union blockade in the outer harbor.
Not long after striking the ship, the Hunley and her eight-man crew vanished. It was lost to history…