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On the evening of February 17, 1864 157 years ago, just after 6:30PM with the 135 pound black powder spar torpedo mounted to the sub, Lt. George Dixon ordered his men to load up. They knew the drill well. The first men to board stowed several canteens under the crew bench and checked to make sure they were carrying enough provisions. And even the blue lantern Dixon would use to signal the Confederates on the beach to show they had completed the mission and to light a fire to guide the Hunley home.
Dixon was last to board. Troops from Battery Marshall always saw the sub off and gave it a push for momentum. With orders not to dive the submersible the Hunley turned into Breach Inlet, where the current propelled it out past the breakers. The men at Battery Marshall watched as the sub cut through the water, it continued to churn through the swells and disappeared into the darkness. They would never see the Hunley again.
Robert Flemming on board the USS Housatonic was the first to spot the Hunley. About an hour into his shift, flemming saw something on the water. Less than 500ft and approaching from land. Flemming recalled he told an officer “there is something coming that looks like a log, it looks very suspicious.” The Officer Lewis A. Comthwait glanced out to see and told Flemming “it’s a log.” Flemming replied “Queer looking log” Flemming then pointed out the log was not floating with the tide but moving across it. Officer Comthwait disregarded his comments.
More sailors took notice of the commotion and insistence forced Officer Comthwait to take another look. With a second look he noticed it was no log but a torpedo boat. With only seconds to act Comthwait turned and ran to notify the rest of the officers and captain. The Hunley was now 100 yards out.
Captain Charles Pickering heard the commotion and rushed on deck. Ordering the crew to slip the anchor and fire up the engine! Grabbing his double barrel shotgun captain Pickering jumped onto the ships horse block and got his first and only look of the Hunley, he took aim and fired. Other officers and crew began to fire small arms since the Hunley was now under cannon rage and almost alongside the ship.
By the time the Housatonics crew had recognized the danger it was to late. Captain Pickering ordered the engines “astern faster”, seconds later an explosion jolted the ship. 135 pounds of black powder ignited instantly, blasting a hole ten foot wide into the Housatonics hull. Creaking and moaning the Housatonic sank fast taking with her five sailors. The H. L. Hunley disappearing into the night.
About 45 minutes after the attack Robert Flemming was clinging to the ships rigging awaiting rescue, When he saw the USS Canandaigua approaching about 800 feet away. Flemming then saw something else and would later testify that as the rescue ship approached, “ I saw a blue light on the water just ahead of the Canandaigua, and on the starboard quarters of the Housatonic.”
Flemming never changed his story and for the rest of his life he had seen a “blue light”. For years historians would speculate that Flemming the first union sailor to spot the H. L. Hunley on February 17, 1864 was also the last to see it. For that night George Dixon, Arnold Becker, C. Lumpkin, Frank Collins, J.F. Carlsen, Miller, James A. Wicks, Joseph Ridgaway and the H. L. Hunley would not return home.
The H. L. Hunley and her crew would go down in history as the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in battle and a mystery that would last for over a century.
On August 8, 2000 the H. L. Hunley, after resting on the ocean floor for 136 years, once again broke the surface of Charleston Harbor.
[Most of this article was taken from a post on a Civil War page on Facebook.]
Tarmangani 
This fascinating story, with its many thrills and panic-inducing series of events, and resurfacing with the raising of the H.L. Huntley, is certainly movie worthy. Amazing photos also.
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