Danger Beneath The Waves

A History of the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley

by James Kloeppel

On February 17, 1864, a new era in naval warfare began when the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley sank the Federal warship Housatonic, the first vessel ever sunk by a submarine.

Against the background of the Confederacy's lack of even one ship with which to form a navy at the onset of the Civil War, James Kloeppel details the race by Southern engineers to develop submarines and torpedoes to face the formidable Federal navy.  Here are the men who designed and built the Hunley and its ill-fated predecessors and who tested these early submarines__many losing their lives to do so.

Diagrams and clear text describe the Hunley's design, construction, and  operations, and the author sorts out facts and probabilities from the many rumors and inaccuracies long associated with the Hunley story.

Desperation in Charleston in the summer of 1863 brought the Hunley there in the hope that it could sink Federal ships and end their blockade of the city.  here are moving accounts of the two tragic sinkings of the Hunley during training, which drowned many of its crewmen.

(First printing 1987). 2008.

Softcover ISBN 0-87844-105-0, ISBN 13: 978-87844-105-1, $19.95

About the Author: James E. Kloeppel was born in Sioux City, Iowa on November 19, 1954.  The clean air and dark Iowa nights nurtured his early interest in astronomy.  After receiving a physics degree from Morningside College, Mr. Kloeppel moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he worked as a technician at Kitt Peak National Observatory.  Much of the historical information for his first book, Realm of the Long Eyes, was gathered while he lived at the mountain-based observatory.