Lecture is Nov. 2 on 1864 sub

Robert Neyland, chief archaeologist for the team that recovered the world's first successful attack submarine — the Civil War craft H.L. Hunley — is scheduled to lecture in Salt Lake City Nov. 2.

The Hunley, a Confederate ship, made naval history the night of Feb. 17, 1864, when it blew up the Union warship the U.S.S. Housatonic off Charleston, S.C. Although the Hunley managed to sink the federal ship and sent a signal that it was coming back to Charleston, it never returned.

From 1864 until 1995, the submarine lay hidden on the ocean bottom. Then a diving team fielded by novelist Clive Cussler located the ship largely buried in sediment, close to the site where the Housatonic went down.

For several years, marine archaeologists studied how best to retrieve the sub. On Aug. 20, 2000, the small sub was lifted intact from the ocean bottom by crane and barge, and brought ashore to a conservation laboratory. The items and submarine itself continue to undergo conservation, and are to be displayed in the future.

Neyland, who is the Hunley project director as well as the chief archaeologist, will recount "the excavation and amazing discoveries in this free lecture," said Patti Carpenter, spokeswoman for the Utah Museum of Natural History. The museum, located on the University of Utah campus, is the lecture's host.

Neyland's talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Salt Lake Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Carpenter said.

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