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Through U-Haul, Hunley hits road to promote tourism
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Over the course of its legendary existence, the CSS H.L. Hunley has been many things.
The first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship and then lay lost off Sullivan’s island for 136 years has been an object sought, a subject of scientific and forensic scrutiny, and will soon be the cornerstone of Clemson’s Restoration Institute on the grounds of the former Charleston Naval Base.
Now with the help of U-Haul Co. of South Carolina, the Hunley’s image became the centerpiece of a campaign tantamount to $1 million of free advertising for state and regional tourism.
Or as Ray Moore, president of the U-Haul South Carolina, told the host of dignitaries who had gathered outside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center on June 15, “The Hunley, which has had so much to do with the open sea, is now taking to the open road.”
At the event the company unveiled its new “SuperGraphic” depiction of the Hunley.
The full-color rendering, part of the do-it-yourself mover’s “Venture Across America” campaign, now adorns 1,200 new 17-foot Ford moving vans that have just joined the U-Haul fleet.
“I certainly do see it as $1 million of free advertising for the state, for the Lowcountry and for North Charleston,” said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, a long-time advocate and supporter of the Hunley restoration.
“Best of all, we’re getting this extra dollop of publicity—effectively putting North Charleston on the American heritage destination map, without the expenditure of a single taxpayer’s dollar,” he said.
History, and the ability of people to travel to and see an iconic piece of it, was a major reason the Hunley was chosen to emblazon the vehicle, Moore said.
“We started ‘Venture Across America’ in 1988 as a way to honor the communities we serve and also to pique people’s intellectual curiosity,” Moore said. “The criteria we use to decide on a suitable SuperGraphic subject is that the thing depicted be unique to each state, be something you can travel to, and also something that has a sense of mystery to it. Obviously, the Hunley satisfies all three.”
The Hunley disappeared on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, after sinking the USS Housatonic in the waters off Sullivan’s Island and apparently signaling Confederate soldiers on shore to light a signal fire that would guide it back to Breach Inlet.
Instead of returning and collecting a promised $50,000-a-piece bounty for their history-making exploits, the crew and their vessel, remained lost at sea for more than a century. The innovative hand-cranked vessel was finally located in 1995 by Clive Cussler’s National Underwater Marine Agency, and raised and delivered to the conservation center in August 2000.
But there’s more to the history of Hunley than its indelible link to the war between the states, said McConnell, who also happened to chair the S.C. Hunley Commission.
It’s also a symbol of the ingenuity and vibrancy of the American economic system, he said.
“One thing people either don’t know or forget amidst all the rightful talk of the bravery of the Hunley’s crew is that the vessel wasn’t commissioned by the Confederate States of America, it was created by ardent Confederacy supporters who happened to be businessmen, international traders, who had a vital economic interest in keeping the South’s ports open and operating,” McConnell said.
With little prompting, the senator, an obvious history buff, then recounted the businessmen’s initial failed attempts to crate a submarine to protect other southern ports.
Their efforts began in New Orleans, where they built a three-man sub, only to have the Union army take over the entire city before they could sail it.
“Time simply ran out on them,” he said.
A second, slightly improved submarine, called the Pioneer II, was subsequently launched near Mobile, Ala., but encountered a storm while in Mobile, by where it sank and has never been found.
The Hunley, their third creation, was the culmination of everything they’d learned from each previous failed effort.
“It’s sleek, hydro-dynamically sound, incorporated the most advanced steel working techniques of its time, and, in a sign that businessmen were truly the driving force in its construction, actually included some backup systems intended to protect their investment,” McConnell said.
McConnell has long touted the Hunley as the centerpiece of a new maritime center in the heart of a revitalized Navy base property, but says the opening of such a facility is still four to five years off.
“It will happen, and the reason isn’t just the Hunley. We also happen to have one of the finest collections of 19th-century marine artifacts in the world in this facility,” he said, gesturing toward the conservation center.
Primarily of the Civil War era, consisting roughly of 60% Confederate artifacts and 40% from the Union Navy, one of the pieces that particularly struck McConnell’s fancy was the scale model of what would ultimately become the Union Ironclad, the Monitor, that was used to convince President Abraham Lincoln and his War Department to build it.
“It’s even in the original suitcase in which the ship’s promoters took to Washington,” McConnell said.
“As evidenced by this unveiling by U-Haul, the Hunley continues to make the state more of a historic vacation destination that ever before, and the museum will put North Charleston on the map as never before as a great tourist destination,” he said.
While feasibility studies for the museum project still need to be completed, the S.C. Hunley Commission has already asked architect Ralph Appelbaum, designer of the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., to design the maritime center here.
“It’s going to be world class,” McConnell said. “It’s going to tell a story of history, of bravery and of science, and it’s also going to tell the story of what great gains can be achieved through private investment and private enterprise.”
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