Pictures: Civil War Sub Finally Revealed

First Look

Photograph by Randall Hill, Reuters

For the first time since the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate vessel H.L. Hunley—the world's first submarine to sink an enemy ship—was revealed on January 12 (pictured) after 11 years of conservation work.

Shown in a South Carolina conservation facility, the Hunley sank the U.S.S. Housatonic off Charleston (map) in 1864. Within minutes the sub itself sank too-killing its eight-man crew and creating an enduring mystery. (Also see "Forensic Team Studying Skeletons of Hunley Crew.")

Five years after the Hunley wreck's discovery in 1995, conservators raised the sub using a special steel truss that was removed only weeks ago.

"No one alive has ever seen the Hunley complete," said engineer John King on January 12 as a crane lifted the truss at Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, Reuters reported on January 13.

"We're going to see it today."

—Willie Drye
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/01/pictures/120131-hunley-civil-war-first-submarine-science-nation/