Raising The Hunley

Friday night August 3rd on ABC-TV, Ned Potter did a report about the Confederate submarine Hunley. The report told how Bob Neyland, a Navy Archaeologist, the project director and his team plan to raise the Hunley on Tuesday morning August the 8th. The report told how they have been working around the clock cradling the sub in a specially designed frame to help keep it intact while they lift it with a gigantic crane. The Hunley will be taken to a nearby conservation center and placed into a holding tank. There it will be cleaned, studied by scientists and eventually restored. They're expecting the process to take about 5 years. 

The crew members will, at some point, be removed and buried in Charleston's Old Magnolia Cemetery where they will be given a traditional Confederate Funeral. After 136 years of being entombed in the submarine, these crew members will be some of the very last Civil War dead to finally "come home" and have a proper burial. Quoting Ned Potter, "For more than a century, the Hunley has been part of Southern lore -- how it worked, how it sank, how men had the courage to climb inside. Now, finally, it is coming back to port."  

They sure didn't have much room in there!! They demonstrated with a vinyl "ring" the space they had inside. I think they said it was 3 feet side to side and 4 feet high.  

As I watched the program I became quite emotional, just thinking about the enormity of the the project and the historical significance of it. Then too I thought about the men and how they knew they would probably never see their families again when they climbed on board. Now they are coming home. 

I wish I could be there Tuesday morning when they bring the Hunley up.  To read more about the Hunley you can visit their website at http://www.hunley.org

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