Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, illustration. This submarine was built and launched at Mobile, Alabama, USA, in July 1863. It was 12 metres long and designed to carry a crew of eight. She sank twice during test runs, the second sinking killing her inventor, Confederate marine engineer Horace Lawson Hunley (1823-1863, shown at right). The third crew was also killed in the last and final sinking, but not before they had attacked and sank the USS Housatonic which was part of a blockade of Charleston harbour. This sepia-wash drawing by R. G. Skerrett was produced in 1902, after the 1864 painting by Conrad Wise Chapman (1842-1910).