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.

Then, in 1995, the historic vessel was found during an expedition funded by New York Times best-selling author Clive Cussler. According to The Friends of the Hunley, a nonprofit organization charged with caring for, documenting, and excavating the submarine, Cussler’s crew was using a magnetometer when they located a metal object about four miles off the coast of Sullivan’s Island.

 During a 30-foot dive, crew members were able to remove three feet of sediment, which revealed one of Hunley’s two small conning towers.

The vessel was found on her starboard side – the bow facing directly toward the Housatonic wreck and Sullivan’s Island as if it were headed home, historians said.

Raising the submarine was no easy task and took years of strategic planning. An international team of experts developed a state-of-the-art plan that officials said required “precision timing, flawless engineering, highly trained divers, perfect weather conditions, and a little luck.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

The underwater site had to be prepared. Divers excavated a large area to expose the top of the vessel. Then, two massive 18 by 12-foot custom-engineered suction piles were placed on both sides of the submarine to provide a stable platform for recovery efforts.

An overhead truss was lowered onto the submarine and attached to the suction piles. Machines lowered to the truss over the wreckage, and divers helped guide it onto a level position straddling the Hunley, according to the nonprofit.

Carefully, divers burrowed small tunnels under the vessel and placed 30 slings, one by one, and attached each to the truss. The slings were injected with an inflatable foam that encased the submarine, giving a safety net for raising it from the ocean floor.

“Seeing the submarine appearing to the surface, even though the visibility was really bad, but you could see the submarine, the barnacles, the truss, and then the time where an artifact breaks the water and comes out is really the time where things can go wrong. But the recovery plan was so well designed that absolutely nothing happened to the Hunley. It was beautifully raised,” said Paul Mardikian, former Hunley project lead conservator.

“The first realization was that everything the divers had been saying was true, which came up out of that water. This was not a crew-converted bowler. Instead, this was a sleek, hydrodynamically designed submarine, decades ahead of its time,” said Glenn McConnell, former chairman of the Hunley Commission.

The recovery mission culminated on August 8, 2000 – crews had waited for calm waters and worked cautiously to bring the submarine to the surface. It was then placed onto a transport barge for a journey back home to land.

Thousands of people gathered around Charleston Harbor, and the waterway was filled with boaters hoping to catch a glimpse of history as it was taken under the old Cooper River Bridges and ultimately to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Charleston Navy Yard.

“I underestimated how much the public would grab on to this event … As we got close to Morris Island, I realized that those aren’t ants, those are people all along the sides of Morris Island, on the beach, and then downtown Charleston, the peninsula. It was amazing. I’ll never forget that,” said Harry Pecerolli, part of the Hunley discovery team.

“You could see the ‘oohs’ and the ‘ahhhs,’ and you could hear the crowd. And then after two or three seconds, it became quiet. And I think a lot of the people, most of the people, realized, well, not only is this a submarine, but it’s also a war grave, and there is more. It’s more like a sort of solemnity to it,” said Warren Lasch, former chairman of Friends of the Hunley.

Once at the conservation center, the submarine was placed into a 75,000-gallon steel tank of chilled, fresh water for study, excavation, and preservation. The unprecedented and delicate process removed sea life, and artifacts were uncovered inside, which helped confirm the story of the historic submarine.

“All of a sudden, the science story of the submarine starts really beginning to unfold about the Hunley. She is more than just history and the war; she’s about science and innovation, the creativity of the American business system to be able to create something like this,” said McConnell.

Remains of the eight-man crew were also found inside the vessel. They were carefully removed and given a proper burial at Magnolia Cemetery following a memorial service at White Point Garden on April 17, 2004.

The burial was attended by tens of thousands of people who came to honor the Hunley’s crew and witness the historic moment.

The Hunley’s crew included Lt. George E. Dixon, Arnold Becker, C. Lumpkin, Frank Collins, J.F. Carlsen, Miller, James A. Wicks, and Joseph Ridgeaway.