Tuesday, February 17, 2015

February 17 - The Hunley

Today’s film is a war movie with a scene that happens on February 17. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

THE HUNLEY  

H. L. Hunley takes his ship the Hunley, out in Charleston harbor and it sinks with all hands. As the blockade still needs to be broken, Gen. Beauregard has the ship raised and puts George Dixon in charge. He starts looking for a crew and after some difficulty, finally finds enough volunteers to man it. They practice cranking the propeller. The crew do not all get along with each other. Dixon flashes back to the Battle of Shiloh, where a gold coin given to him by his wife (who was later killed in steamboat explosion caused by a drifting mine), deflected a bullet and saved his life.  They take the ship down and sit on the bottom to see how long they can stay down and almost get stuck. The Union navy is warned about the sub. They crew votes that if after an attack they are stuck on the bottom, they will open the valves, flooding the ship rather than suffocating. They go out to attack the U.S.S. Wabash, but the attack fails. Following the warning, the ship has draped metal chain netting over the side. Also the rope which was attached to the torpedo they were to release under the ship gets loose and becomes entangled in the propeller. It has to be cut loose while sailors on the Wabash shoot at the Hunley.  Beauregard proposes putting the torpedo at the end of a long spar. The Housatonic is ordered to change its position in the harbor and always be ready to steam, meaning it can’t hang metal netting over the side. The second in command Lt. Alexander is ordered to Mobile, and a young soldier who had been volunteering to join the crew is allowed to do so.   On February 17, 1864, the C.S.S. H. L. Hunley sails out and attacks the U.S.S. Housatonic. The torpedo is rammed into the side of the ship. It blows up, and the Housatonic is the first ship ever sunk by a sub.  A bullet from the ship breaks a window in the conning tower and wounds Dixon. The explosion opens the seams on the Hunley and it takes on water. It settles to the bottom, and they can’t release the ballast or pump the ship. As agreed the crew opens the valves and the ship floods, killing the entire crew. [1:12: 44 to 1:30:38]

An interesting film about an important, but overlooked moment in naval history. The story of the crew is almost wholly fictional, but is still interesting. Concentrates on the character of Dixon and his private struggles. 

The Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 b.c. to the Present by R. Ernest Dupuy & Trevor N. Dupuy (Harper & Row, New York, 1977) at page 901 gives the attack date

Director - John Gray                                 Screenplay - John Gray and John Fasano

Awards - Won the Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing.

Runtime - 1 hour 34 minutes

Released - July 11, 1999

Starring –

Arman Assante as Lt. George Dixon
Donald Sutherland as Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard
Alex Jennings as Lt. Alexander
Christopher Bauer as Simkins
Gerry Becker as Capt. Pickering
Michael Dolan as Becker
Sebastian Roche as Collins


Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015



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