Mysteries
of the Deep
DISCOVERED...
H.L.Hunley
USS Monitor Center
HMHS
BRITANNIC
Liberty
Bell 7
SS Republic - Civil War
Era Ship
RMS Titanic - Ship of
Dreams
The H.L.
Hunley
Discovered
at last!
H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submersible which demonstrated the advantage and danger of undersea warfare. Late on the evening of February 17, 1864, the H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine, delivered a mortal blow to the USS Housatonic. The Housatonic, which was blockading the Charleston, South Carolina, harbor during the American Civil War, sank in less than five minutes. Although not this nation's first submarine, the H.L. Hunley was the first submarine to engage and sink a warship and this feat was not duplicated until World War I. The Hunley and her crew of 22 laid undetected in her watery grave, until a team funded by Adventure author Clive Cussler discovered the 40-foot long sub on May 1995 off Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. She was found intact in 30 feet of water and was buried at a 45-degree angle four feet below the bottom surface, filled with silt.
-
Cut-a-Way Drawing
of the H. L. Hunley
1863, sketch by Confederate officer W. A. Alexander - Photo and drawing courtesy of Navel Historical Center
For more information, please see the links below or do a search on "H.L. Hunley" using your favorite search engine:
Navel Historical Center - The
H.L. Hunley
National Geographic -
Civil
War Sub To Be Raised From A Watery Grave
C.S.S.
Hunley Submarine Recovery Information
Official
Website of the H.L. Hunley
USS Monitor Center
The
USS Monitor, the first ironclad, steam-powered
warship, is an icon of U.S. naval history and a
unique national treasure. On March 9th, 1862, when
the crew of the USS Monitor rotated the torrent
and fired at the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads,
every naval craft in the world became immediately
obsolete. On December 31, 1862, while being towed
off the coast of North Carolina, in the Graveyard
Of The Atlantic, a gale force storm ended her
life. The infamous USS Monitor sank taking 16 of
her crew to the bottom and into history..
The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, took an historic step by presenting a concept to the Newport News City Council for the first ever USS Monitor Center. The Museum, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is developing the Center which will become the definitive national authority and repository for materials, research, and programming related to the history of the USS Monitor. In 1987, The Mariners' Museum was designated by NOAA as the custodian of the artifacts and archives of the Civil War ironclad. The USS Monitor Center, slated to open in 2007, will be home to the priceless artifacts recovered from this historic ship.
For more information:
USS
Monitor Center
Monitor by the numbers
NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary site
USS Monitor
Plains of the USS Monitor
Photo courtesy of USS
Monitor Center
HMHS Britannic
If you enjoyed reading about the Titanic, then you'll enjoy exploring her sister ship, the...
HMHS Britannic. Some of the UK's leading technical divers have organized the only official expedition to the HMHS Britannic in 1998. The Britannic, the larger sister ship of the Titanic lies relatively intact in deep water (119m, 390ft) just off the Island of Kea in Greece.
Gross Tonnage - 48,158 tons
Dimensions - 259.68 x 28.65m (852 x 94ft)
Number of funnels - 4
Number of masts - 2
Construction - Steel
Propulsion - Triple-screw
Engines - Triple-expansion, eight and steam
turbines
Service speed - 21 knots
Builder - Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Launch date - 26 February 1914
Passenger accommodation - 790 1st class,
836 2nd class, 953 3rd class
Few realize that the Titanic had two nearly identical sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. The Olympic had a successful career as a liner until she was broken up in 1935, but the Britannic met with a fate nearly as unlucky as that of the Titanic. Serving as a hospital ship in the Aegean, it was either torpedoed or the victim of a mine on November 21, 1916, and sank within an hour. Thirty out of its crew died. Robert Ballard will search for the wreck of the Britannic and explore the evidence surrounding its dramatic end.
view larger image...
Photo courtesy of Britannic
98Expedition
- About the Britannic | The Expedition | The Team | Photo Gallery
- Titanic's Lost Sister
- Lost Liners - HMHS Britannic
- HMHS Britannic
- HMHS Britannic at Mudros on 3rd October 1916 (National Maritime Museum)
Liberating
Liberty Bell 7
From The Discovery
Channel...
Moments after Gus Grissom became
the third human in space, his space
capsule sank deeper than the Titanic
just after touch-down.
After 38 years of solitude, Liberty
Bell 7 finally surrendered her resting
place at the bottom of the sea early
this morning on July 20, 1999, Liberty
Bell 7 will soon begin her new but
not final mission as an artifact
of our early days in space.
|
|
Find out more about Liberty Bell 7.
- Liberty Bell 7 - The blown hatch
- Discovery Channel Canada | Search for Liberty Bell 7
- Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew - Gus Grissom
- Failed Attempt to Recover Liberty Bell 7
- JSC Digital Image Collection: Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4) mission
- Liberty Bell 7 MR-4
See larger capsule image - spacecraft sits on the Ocean Project after being brought to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, raised from its three-mile-deep resting place after 38 year. Capsule Photo courtesy of The Discovery Channel
Please email all questions or comments with this site to Technical Support.