Civil War Submarine Unveiled

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Confederate Civil War vessel H.L. Hunley, the world's first successful combat submarine, was unveiled in full and unobstructed for the first time on Thursday, capping a decade of careful preservation.

"No one alive has ever seen the Hunley complete. We're going to see it today," engineer John King said as a crane at a Charleston conservation laboratory slowly lifted a massive steel truss covering the top of the submarine.

About 20 engineers and scientists applauded as they caught the first glimpse of the intact 42-foot-long (13-meter-long) narrow iron cylinder, which was raised from the ocean floor near Charleston more than a decade ago. The public will see the same view, but in a water tank to keep it from rusting.

You can read the rest of the story here.

***This story holds a spark of interest for me, in that author Clive Cussler, and his team, are the ones who discovered the final resting place of the Hunley. You can read more about this on Cussler's Bio page on his website, here. I've been a huge fan of Cussler and his myriad writings for years.