The Hunley Recovery Project

Federal, state, and private sector underwater archaeologists worked with engineers and divers from Oceaneering International to excavate and recover the H.L. Hunley. Oceaneering, a marine engineering company, had also done recovery work on the USS Monitor and NASA's Liberty Bell 7 space capsule. In mid-summer 2000, the team excavated the submarine and supported it with a continuous series of slings attached to a specially built recovery frame. Each sling had a load cell to provide constant computerized monitoring of hull stresses during recovery operations. The Hunley was then raised from its resting place and transported to a conservation facility in North Charleston, where conservation and preservation work would continue for years. The project stood as a model of public-private partnership and interagency cooperation to preserve a national treasure, with the Friends of the Hunley spearheading fundraising and major funding also provided by the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program and the State of South Carolina.

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina · United States