Friends of the Hunley

We’re honored to have Goose Creek native, Rear Admiral Daniel H. Fillion, tour the Hunley during his Navy Week visit. The Hunley is recognized around the world as an incredible example of 19th century technology and design. Even the most advanced submarine in today’s Navy can trace it’s lineage to the Hunley, which was the first submarine to sink a ship in combat.

Roughly 3,000 miles of ocean separate Portsmouth, England and Charleston, South Carolina. Today, when Friends of the Hunley Executive Director Kellen Correia laid a simple red poppy wreath on the tombs of the Hunley crew, those miles evaporated.

Every year since the Hunley crew was buried at Magnolia Cemetery in 2004, the Portsmouth Submariners Association have sent a wreath not only to commemorate their loss but also to recognize their significant contribution to submarine development. These modern day submariners understand the nerves of steel it took to enter the experimental submarine over 150 years ago.

To mark the anniversary on their side of the pond, the Association places an identical wreath at the National Submariner's War Memorial in London on the River Thames in honor of all submariners lost in peacetime and war. These modern day submariners may be separated by water and time from the 19th century pioneering crew of the Hunley, but they are also forever linked by those very same elements.
#submariners #maritimehistory #hunleyanniversary #navy