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CSS HUNLEY
model
After analyzing all the kits and models that have been
produced, we
felt that none of them reflects well the real Hunley
submarine. For example, the important weapon mechanism
is all
wrong, the bow is too thick (to slice thru water), missing rivets at critical
sections. Some models even have a pointed tip above
the torpedo. So we are building the most
accurate CSS Hunley ever for the
distinguished collectors and prestigious museums.
CSS Hunley was a submarine
of the Confederate States of America that fought in the
American Civil War. She demonstrated the advantages and
the dangers of undersea warfare. On February 17, 1864,
she attacked and sank the USS Housatonic, which had been
on Union blockade-duty in Charleston's outer harbor. For
this account the CSS Hunley was the first submarine to
ever sink a warship.
Hunley was named for her
inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley. Variously referred to as
a fish boat or torpedo boat, the Hunley was in fact
built for purpose. A crew of eight turned the hand
cranked propeller and steered the boat. There were
ballast tanks at each end of the boat, flooded with
valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. There were weights
bolted to the underside, that could be released from
inside the sub in case of an emergency.
This is how the weapon
worked: a spar torpedo—a copper cylinder containing 135
pounds of black powder—was attached to a 22-foot wooden
spar. Mounted on Hunley's bow, the spar was to be used
when the submarine was 6 ft or more below the surface.
Previous spar torpedoes had been designed with a barbed
point: the spar torpedo would be jammed in the target's
side by ramming, and then detonated by a mechanical
trigger attached to the submarine by a line. However,
archaeologists working on Hunley discovered a spool of
copper wire and components of a battery that it may
actually have been electrically detonated. In the
configuration used in the attack on Housatonic, it
appears Hunley's torpedo had no barbs, and was designed
to explode on contact as it was pushed against an enemy
vessel. After Horace Hunley's death, General Beauregard
ordered that the submarine should no longer be used to
attack underwater. An iron pipe was then attached to her
bow, angled downwards so the explosive charge would be
delivered sufficiently under water to make it effective.
A drawing of the iron pipe spar, confirming her "David"
type configuration, was published in early histories of
submarine warfare.
During the
Civil War, the Navy of the Confederate States were
heavily outgunned by the Union’s navy. Almost from the
outset of the war it was apparent that the South would
be unable to meet the Union’s fleet on equal grounds,
and development of asymmetrical means was encouraged
which resulted in a brief periods of rapid development
of underwater sneak submarines. Civilian engineers were
invited to submit proposals to the Confederate Navy and
promised financial rewards for successful designs.
Best known
of these Confederate sneak craft was the HL Hunley. She
was the last of three submarines built by a team of
engineers led by Mr James McClintock, and including an
engineer named Horace L Hunley.
The CSS
Hunley submarine was located in 1995. She was raised in
2000, Examination in 2012 of recovered Hunley artifacts
suggests that the submarine was as close as 20 ft to the
USS Housatonic, when her deployed torpedo exploded,
which caused the submarine's own loss.
The crew
positions indicated that the men had died at their
stations and were not trying to flee the sinking
submarine. Chemical signatures on the men’s teeth
indicated the American and European diets. Four of the
men had eaten plenty of corn, an American diet, whilst
the others ate mostly wheat and rye, a European one. The
identification process was completed in 2004 through
examination of Civil War records and conducting DNA
tests with possible relatives. They were: Arnold Becker
from Germany, Corporal Johan Fredrik Carlsen Denmark, C
Lumpkin (British Isles) and Augustus Miller (former
member of German Artillery, Lieutenant George E Dixon
commander of (Alabama or Ohio), Frank Collins (Virginia)
Joseph Ridgeway (Maryland) and James Wicks (North
Carolina). During their interment in Magnolia Cemetery
in Charleston, South Carolina, 6,000 re-enactors and
4,000 civilians wearing period clothing attended. All
buried with full Confederate honors, with the 2nd
Confederate national flag, known as the Stainless
Banner. A few of the descendants of the men attended the
funeral.
CSS Hunley
is on permanent display in North Charleston, South
Carolina, at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center on the
Cooper River.
Our
primarily wood model of the CSS Hunley comes in the following
sizes:
- 25" long (20" hull) (1:24 scale):
will be available soon
- 33" long (26" hull) (1:18 scale)
- 57" long (47.5"
hull) (1:10 scale)
Email us for prices: Services@ModelShipMaster.com. Please
be reminded that our premium quality submarine models are not for everyone.
Learn more about the CSS
Hunley here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunley_(submarine)
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