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Title details for The H. L. Hunley by Tom Chaffin - Available

The H. L. Hunley

The Secret Hope of the Confederacy

by Tom Chaffin
Barrett Whitener
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy's H. L. Hunley sank the Union's formidable sloop-of-war, the USS Housatonic—to her own demise. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston's harbor for the sunken boat, while legends surrounding the Hunley and its fate continued to grow. Even after the submarine was located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends have continued to grow.

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 possible of the H. L. Hunley's story. 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.

The H. L. Hunley is an alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, History Book Club, and Military Book Club.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 30, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781481567442
      • File size: 219766 KB
      • Duration: 07:37:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The Confederate entrepreneur H.L. Hunley designed and built an eponymous eight-man submarine--a death trap that drowned all three crews who sailed in her, including H.L. himself. Because the boat disappeared after her first victory, questions remained, creating a cult of interest in her history. Taciturn narrator Barrett Whitener keeps himself in the background, letting the obscure story be the main character. He builds the archiving of the ship's contents to a swell of sentiment as he describes the finding of a lucky twenty-dollar gold piece on the corpse of one of the Rebel sailors. As enlightening as the performance may be, listeners--although well stocked with the author's description--will find themselves yearning to see the Civil War contraption. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 11, 2008
      This lively account of the first submarine to sink an opposing ship is an excellent niche history. Chaffin (Sea of Gray
      ) relates that H.L. Hunley was neither soldier nor engineer, but an adventurous New Orleans attorney turned exporter who wanted to make his fortune selling the submarine he developed with several partners to the Confederate Navy. After two unsuccessful tests, in 1863 a third submarine performed decently, but the unenthusiastic local commander extolled its virtues to General Beauregard, who agreed to commission a submarine. It was shipped to Charleston, S.C., where it sank twice during testing, drowning both crews— including Hunley himself. In February 1864, the submarine, named the H.L. Hunley
      , finally sank a Union blockader with its torpedo but never returned. The event assumed mythic status, culminating in great excitement when divers exhumed the wreck in 2000. Chaffin finishes with a lucid description of the impressive details of this splendid artifact of engineering. Sampling from letters, articles and memoirs, the author succeeds in separating facts from legend in this engrossing examination of a pioneering weapon of war. Maps.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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