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The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Chaffin
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $13.00
You Save: $13.00 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 14780
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0809095122
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.75
EAN: 9780809095124
ASIN: 0809095122
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy’s H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I—half a century later—would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston’s harbor, looking for the Hunley. And as they hunted, the legends surrounding the boat and its demise continued to grow. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends—those barnacles of misinformation—have only multiplied. Now, in a tour de force of document-sleuthing and insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, distinguished Civil War–era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough telling of the Hunley’s story possible. Of panoramic breadth, this Civil War saga begins long before the submarine was even assembled and follows the tale into the boat’s final hours and through its recovery in 2000. Beyond his thorough survey of period documents relating to the submarine, Chaffin also conducted extensive interviews with Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center, where the Hunley is now being excavated, to complete his portrait of this technological wonder. What emerges is a narrative that casts compelling doubts on many long-held assumptions, particularly those concerning the boat’s final hours. Thoroughly engaging and utterly new, The H. L. Hunley provides the definitive account of a storied craft.
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 Something New in Civil War Studies November 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Even though hundreds of books are published on the Civil War every year, it is rare that something truly new and original comes along. "The H.L. Hunley" by Tom Chaffin provides exactly that. Even though the story of the Hunley is well known to Civil War buffs and professional historians this is the first book to cover in depth the submarine boats creation, mission, destruction and recovery. It also offers insight into the development of submarine warfare as an accepted practice of war making.
Too often in the study of history one will come across a well-researched book devoid of a good narrative or, in return, a great story with little to no actual research. Chaffin deftly combines both and creates that rarest of Civil War books, a well-researched book that is also well written and will appeal to a broad audience of both layman and academics. There is something for everyone in this fine work. Combining history, myth and memory, as well as recent archeological work, Chaffin's book will be the starting point for study of the doomed ship.
It is a must-read for Civil War historians' ands adds invaluably to our knowledge of the defense of Charleston in the waning period of the war. This book will also please students and readers interested in maritime history and the study of unconventional warfare.
 Then best is yet to come November 12, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Chaffin did a heroic job of researching the scraps of evidence that exists in regard to the developers of the Hunley, but alas!(Chaffin's favorite interjection)If one is looking for new and cutting edge archaeological evidence, there just isn't anything new. That book is yet to be published, and it may be a decade before it is possible since the archaeology of the vessel may take that long. I bought the book without examining it closely--anticipating that the archaeology aspect would be a large part of the story--but it was not.
Compelling Story, Fresh Insights November 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Tom Chaffin is that welcome fellow among academic historians. A meticulous and determined scholar who's never at a loss for fresh perceptions, he can also make a narrative move like the wind.
The story of the H.L. Hunley bristles with historic significance -- the vessel was the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship. But the story also resonates with a sense of awe -- at the mechanical audacity of the submarine's design and at the bravery of the men who took it down.
Chaffin has worked hard to bring truth to a subject that over time, in his words, "had become encrusted with the barnacles of accumulated lore." The rigor of his labor is apparent in the 25 pages of notes that follow the narrative. It's a superb and convincing job.
Best Hunley book ever November 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In biblical scholarship we speak of the search for the historical Jesus. We humans tend to create legends and myths around important people, places and events. Someone must have the keen scholarship, the healthy skepticism, and the painstaking research to carefully separate fact from fiction, legend from history. Dr. Tom Chaffin has marvelously demonstrated this ability in his new book on the Hunley. I feel indebted to Dr. Chaffin in helping me better understand Horace Hunley from a psychological perspective. This is very important to me as a blood relative of Horace. I am fascinated not only by the submarine but also by the man for whom the submarine is named. Not since the Ruth Duncan book, "The Captain and Submarine CSS H L Hunley" printed in 1965, has any author devoted as much research on Horace Hunley himself, including his sister Volumnia Hunley Barrow and her wealthy husband, Robert Ruffin Barrow. Their intimate connections with Horace Hunley are often overlooked in how they shaped him as a man. Dr. Chaffin's breadth of scholarship is applied like a sharp scalpel to every detail of the Hunley story, separating cherished myths from the raw facts. He does this not only with Horace Hunley, but also with George Dixon and Queenie Bennett, along with the story of the blue light said to have been seen from the shore. Having shared Hunley genealogy with Dr. Chaffin from my old Hunley family bible, I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know this historian on a personal level. I have deep respect for his intellect and self-discipline in overcoming a severe struggle with his health as he researched and wrote. As a Sherlock Holmes scrutinizing every detail of an investigation, Dr. Chaffin used a vast variety of resources in writing this fine book. I especially enjoyed the primary sources he consulted and the carefully documented footnotes for any reader who wants to pursue an item of interest even further. I have no doubt that this book will be the authoritative guide and the definitive work for many years on Horace Hunley and the submarine that changed naval history.
The Confederacy's Doomed Submarine November 1, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The past few decades have seen an unprecedented flourishing of exploration and retrieval of sunken vessels and their cargo. There are richer wrecks than that of the _H. L. Hunley_, but few of such technological and historical interest. The _Hunley_ was a submarine serving the Confederate forces in the Civil War, and it was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. It didn't last long thereafter, and it wasn't until World War I that submarines became practical machines of war, but the _Hunley_ was an important step in submarine evolution. After it was raised in 2000, it was available for examination by engineers and historians, and has begun to divulge some of its secrets. In _The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy_ (Hill and Wang), historian Tom Chaffin has told about the raising of the vessel and its recent evaluation by experts, but has given a full history of its development, its creators, and its activity during the Civil War. Chaffin also wrote _Sea of Gray_, an exciting history of the Confederate raider Shenandoah, and has again presented a smoothly narrated and comprehensive story of a lost ship in a lost cause. This time, however, the ship represented the best inventiveness and high-tech accomplishment of its age, and Chaffin has placed the ship, its inventors, and the doomed men who sailed on it within a military, technological, and historical context.
There were submarines before; Leonardo da Vinci himself said he had designed one, but uncharacteristically did not show anyone else the design, he said, "because of the evil nature of men who would practice assassinations at the bottom of the sea..." Chaffin reviews the history of submarines, with the _Hunley_ being far more advanced than any that had gone before. Horace Lawson Hunley was a lawyer and customs officer in New Orleans, and met with his friends inventor James McClintock and Baxter Watson who both owned a machine shop; they conceived the idea of a submarine boat. Their third prototype, created in Mobile, Alabama, was shipped to Charleston in 1863. It was forty feet long, designed for a crew of eight, one commander and seven men to turn the zigzag crankshaft that operated the propeller; there were also hand pumps for shifting ballast. At Charleston, the _Hunley_ sank twice, drowning the two crews, the second commanded by Hunley himself. It may be an illustration of the desperation of the Confederates that the _Hunley_ was re-floated for a third attempt, and crewmen were found to man it. On the night of 17 - 18 February 1864, it was deployed with a mine on a spar, and sank the USS _Housatonic_. Something subsequently went wrong with the _Hunley_, as it sank with all hands. There is evidence that the submarine did not go down in the blast that she gave the _Housatonic_, and there are confused stories of lantern signals and countersignals possibly given by the _Hunley_ after the attack. Of course, the cause of the sinking is one of the interests of researchers who are examining the raised vessel, as are different questions about its manufacture and technical capacity. Of more human interest is that the remains of the third crew were given a stately funeral through the streets of Charleston in 2004. Horse-drawn caissons and Civil War reenactors participated in the procession, which ended in Magnolia Cemetery, the burial place for the men of the first and second crews as well.
The historic sinking of a ship by a submarine did not affect the war's outcome, but _Hunley_ has an important place in the history of how submarines became standard weapons. When the Germans employed submarines in World War I, they used vessels and weapons far beyond anything Horace Hunley and his fellow entrepreneurs could have thought possible. Chaffin explains that the Germans, like the Confederates, practiced commerce raiding, destroying civilian vessels as well as military, bringing to the seas the sort of total war doctrinally propounded by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman. Now, of course, we have submarines ready to deliver enormous destruction, and we take for granted that they are out there ready to do far more than the assassinations Leonardo fretted about. There isn't any way to read about advancements in warfare without some regret, but Chaffin's final chapters, about the curiosity of those who have brought the ship back and are devoted to answering the many mysteries of its creation and operation, contain plenty of optimism and admiration for simple human curiosity, as well as demonstrating once again how strong a hold the Civil War has on the imaginations of those who make it their chief historical interest.
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