FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        

May 3, 2005                                                                            

Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster

(559) 278-5292 or (559) 593-1815                        

Civil War Submarine To be Displayed at Fresno State May 10

An exact scale replica of the first submarine to sink a ship in world history, the H.L. Hunley, will be making a stop at California State University, Fresno on May 10. The exhibit will be available for public viewing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the university’s submarine memorial garden on the Maple Avenue mall, near the Joyal Administration Building.

The visit by the traveling display is sponsored by the Fresno State Department of History. The replica will make its debut appearance in Sacramento May 7-8 at the “Civil War Experience” on the Gibson Ranch.

The original Hunley submarine was used as part of the Confederate Navy’s defense plan to protect Charleston, S.C. The Hunley sunk and was retrieved twice in training exercises before its final historic mission: destroy the Housatonic, one of the North’s strongest ships whose powerful siege cannon was destroying parts of Charleston.

On Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley sunk the Housatonic, the first sinking of an enemy ship in combat by an underwater vessel. But the Hunley, too, sank in the Atlantic Ocean. The cause of the damage and the location of the submarine that entombed eight crew members remained a mystery until it was found in 1995 by author and adventurer Clive Cussler.

            Since the Hunley was retrieved and revealed in 2000, archeologists have been working to uncover the mystery of the crew and the cause of the sinking.

For more information, contact the Department of History at 278-2153.      

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 (Copy by University Communications student-intern Jodie Mocciaro.)

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