Resk Maritime Resources, Inc.

Historic Ships

On May 18, 2015, the worlds oldest commissioned military ship afloat, the United States Navy’s USS CONSTITUTION (Old Ironsides) entered drydock at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Massachusetts for a 2.5 to 3 -year restoration with most of the work to be on the ship’s bow and on her hull below the waterline.

On July 23, 2017 at 2315 hours, USS CONSTITUTION was again afloat in Boston Harbor after 26 months in drydock for repairs to her hull and rigging. She was at a layberth for final repairs and reopened to the public in September of 2017.

In October this year, CONSTITUTION will celebrate her 222nd birthday.

October 15, 1863

War Between the States – on this date the Confederate submarine, H L HUNLEY, then named FISH BOAT, sank for the second time on a training exercise in Charleston Harbor, drowning the eight men onboard including the inventor Horace Lawson Hunley. The vessel was raised, renamed after Hunley and became the first submarine to sink a ship in warfare: using her barbed spar, HUNLEY planted an explosive package on the hull of the Union screw-sloop, HOUSATONIC, part of a blockade fleet in Charleston’s outer harbor. As the sub backed away, the bomb was detonated by pulling a trip line. The sub was not far enough away – the blast sank HOUSATONIC and also sank HUNLEY, drowning the third crew of eight men.

The submarine was built in Mobile, Alabama, in 1863, from an old iron boiler with tapered additions welded to each end. It had a single propeller astern which was driven by an interior man-powered crankshaft. After launching and testing, it was sent by rail to Charleston. HUNLEY’s wreck was located and successfully raised in August, 2000. The remains of her final crew were still onboard. The eight men were all DNA identified and were interred with full Confederate military honors in Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery. H L HUNLEY today is in the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Charleston Navy Yard.