THE H. L. HUNLEY The Secret Hope of the Confederacy

The Confederate entrepreneur H.L. Hunley designed and built an eponymous eight-man submarine—a death trap that drowned all three crews who sailed in her, including H.L. himself. Because the boat disappeared after her first victory, questions remained, creating a cult of interest in her history. Taciturn narrator Barrett Whitener keeps himself in the background, letting the obscure story be the main character. He builds the archiving of the ship's contents to a swell of sentiment as he describes the finding of a lucky twenty-dollar gold piece on the corpse of one of the Rebel sailors. As enlightening as the performance may be, listeners—although well stocked with the author's description—will find themselves yearning to see the Civil War contraption. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2009]