The first successful submarine attack took place during the Civil War.
The HL Hunley, named after its inventor, Horace Hunley, was launched in the summer of 1863. The first successful submarine was an eight-man submarine armed with a 22-foot mast-mounted bomb, known as the HL Hunley "spar torpedo". Captured by the Union shortly after its construction, her life was short but celebrated. She sank twice during initial trials, killing thirteen crew members including Hunley himself. Recovered by tenacious officers, Hunley left Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864, and crept toward the blockade ship USS Housatonic. In this single combat mission, she successfully sank the Housatonic before sinking herself for unknown reasons. Despite this perilous start, engineers around the world have been awakened to the potential of submarine technology. Fifty years later, 375 German "U-Boats" are wreaking havoc on the high seas.
The first successful submarine, H.L. Hunley, by name Hunley, was a Confederate submarine that operated (1863–64) during the American Civil War and was the first submarine to sink (1864) an enemy ship, the Union vessel Housatonic. The Hunley was designed and built in Mobile, Alabama, and named for its chief financial backer, Horace L. On the night of February 17, 1864, there was a naval history first: a Confederate submarine brought down a 12-gun blockade ship, the USS Housatonic. It was the first submarine in history to successfully sink an enemy ship. Made out of 40 feet of bulletproof iron, the H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submarine with a crew of eight. But despite its claim to fame, it was a dangerous vessel to be inside. So the first successful submarine deserves to be one of the facts about Civil War Navies.
