SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Confederate Sub Find Creates Controversy On the night of 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, with a crew of nine, rammed the stem of the 23-gun, 1800-ton corvette USS H ousatonic in Charleston Bay. Having implanted a spar torpedo packed with l 00 pounds of powder, the Hunley backed away, triggered the charge with a rope and became the first submarine to sink a warship. The Hunley, however, was never seen again . Not, that is, until May of this year, when the 40-foot, 6-foot-wide iron sub was found buried under three feet of si lt at a depth of 20 feet in Charleston Bay. The discovery of Hunley ended many years of searching for archaeologist and best-selling author Clive Cuss ler. For 14 years, Cussler had organized searches in Charleston Harbor and in the ocean off Sullivan's Island . Cussler's team from NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency in Austin, Texas) reported that the submarine appears to be so well preserved that she can be raised intact. That may not happen until the question of who owns the subm arine is settled . The Confederate Naval Hi storical Society reports that the US government, the State of South Carolina, Hunley 's descendents and Clive Cussler are searching records and legal precedents to discover who can legally claim the submarine. According to CNHS, Federal law is c lear: Confederate property became US property as spoils of war. With the Hunley, however, the line between naval operations and privateering is blurred; Horace L. Hunley was a private investor who underwrote work on submarines, and the Hunley's predecessor, Pioneer, was clearly defined as a privateer. The discovery of the Hunley opens several avenues for claims of ownership and/orthe ri ght to salvage, preserve, and display the vessel. (CNHS, 7100cran Road , White Stone VA 22578; 804435-0014) KH W.A.
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Naval Academy Anniversary The US Naval Academy, founded in the wake of the Somers mutiny discussed on pages 31-32 of this issue, celebrates its l50th anniversary this year- 1845- 1995. Naval History, the adm irable magazine published by the US Naval Institute, has an extensive feat ure on this in its September/October issue. It includes interviews with graduates reflecting the changing goals and mores of the Academy, where officers prepare for Navy careers with college-level studies and (thanks to the efforts of the American Sail Training Association) an active sai l training program. (Naval Hist01 y, USNI, 2062 Generals Highway,AnnapolisMD2140l) Spun Yarn The watercraft collection of the Michigan Maritime Museum has recently been expanded by the arrivals of an authentic replica of a Mackinaw , built in 1974, and the fi shtug Shark of 1940 (MMM, PO Box 534, South Haven MI 49090; 6 16 63 7 -8078) .. . The home of the John A. Noble Collection at Staten Island 's Snug Harbor Cu ltural Center is undergoing a $ 1 million capital renovaSEA HISTORY 75, AUTUMN 1995
tion (JANC, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island NY 1030 l ; 718 44 7-6490) ... The Explorers Club of New York is organizing a cooperative venture to salvage and restore Amundsen 's research vessel Maud of 1917, now lying in Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, British Columbia (John Loret, The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York NY l 0021) . .. The newly formed SS Canadiana Preservation Society hopes to restore the 1910 passenger vessel to operating condition and has begun fund-raising to qualify for a $400,000 ISTEA matching grant (Floyd Baker, SSCPS, 17 Delray Drive, Cheektowaga NY 14225-1619) ... Florida State Archaeologist Dr. Roger Smith is investigating the wreck of what appears to be a large, mid-16th-century Spanish galleon- possibly part of the 1559 fleet that carried settlers, soldiers and supplies to the ill-fated colony located near Pensacola (Division of Hi storical Resources, R.A . Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee FL 32399-0250) . . . The Pensacola Maritime Preservation Society, currently engaged in raising fund s to support Dr. Smith's research, also plans to
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