USS Housatonic

Type

Sloop of War

Period

19th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: USS Housatonic (1861) was a screw sloop-of-war of the Union Navy, famous as the first warship ever sunk in combat by a submarine. She was attacked and destroyed by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine H.L. Hunley on 17 February 1864 while on blockade duty off Charleston, South Carolina, an event now regarded as a landmark turning point in naval warfare. Specifications: Housatonic was a 1,240-long-ton wooden-hulled steam sloop-of-war armed with a battery reported as either 12 or 16 guns depending on the source. She was one of four Ossipee-class sister ships, which also included USS Adirondack, USS Ossipee, and USS Juniata, and was built and launched at the Boston Navy Yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts in November 1861. Service History: Commissioned in August 1862 under Commander William Rogers Taylor, Housatonic sailed south to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston in September 1862, where she served on blockade duty and captured the blockade-running sloop Neptune in April 1863. On the night of 17 February 1864, while stationed off the entrance to Charleston Harbor, she was rammed by the Hunley's spar torpedo and sank rapidly with the loss of five Union sailors. Notable Facts: The Hunley became renowned as the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel in combat, though the submarine and her eight-man crew were also lost in the attack, a victory historians describe as pyrrhic and short-lived. The wreck of the Hunley was not found again for 131 years, being rediscovered in 1995 and raised in 2000, an event that renewed public interest in the Housatonic incident as the opening chapter of modern submarine warfare.