H.L. Hunley Submarine

Address 1250 Supply St, North Charleston

The H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submarine, hand-cranked by a crew of eight, that became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship when it attacked the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor on 17 February 1864. It then disappeared — and was lost for 131 years until discovered by a dive team led by novelist Clive Cussler in 1995.

The submarine was raised in 2000 and is now undergoing conservation in a specially built tank at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston. Weekend public tours are available and genuinely fascinating — you see the actual submarine through the viewing windows of the conservation tank, with the crew's bones and personal effects still being carefully documented by archaeologists. This is as close to active historical archaeology as most people will ever get, and it's one of the most extraordinary museum experiences in the American South.

things to do museum historic site
A story
On the night of February 17, 1864, the H.L. Hunley attacked and sank the USS Housatonic — the first time a submarine had ever sunk an enemy warship. The Hunley then vanished. For 131 years no one knew what had happened to it. When divers found it in 1995, all eight crew members were still at their posts. The mystery of why they died — just after their greatest triumph — has never been conclusively solved.

Other places in Things to Do