Friday, October 5, 2012

Exploring the USS Hatteras

From the Sept. 12, 2012, Houston Chronicle "Sunken ship yields secrets to technology."

The USS Hatteras was a passenger ship converted into a warship to enforce the blockade.

That fateful day, as an unknown ship hove into view, Acting Master Henry O. Porter said, "That sir, I think, is the Alabama.  What shall we do?"  The ship's commander, Lt. Cmdr. Homer C. Blake, answered, "If that is the Alabama, we must fight her."  And that the Hatteras did and went right on down.

The Hatteras is listed on the NRHP and protected by the Sunken Military Craft Act as a war grave since two of the crew went down with the ship.

Reports say 80% of the ship in intact.  The $60,050 mission to sonar map the Hatteras was paid for by the Edward E. and Marie L.Matthews Foundation of Wilmington, Delaware and the OceanGate Foundation of Seattle.

Shifting sands revealed the ship and fifteen divers worked shifts to sweep the ship.  This effort "virtually" raises the Hatteras.

The Hatteras' bolted-on armor plate and fur 32-pdr. cannons were no match for the Alabama and its eight cannons, including her 110-pdr. rifles gun.  It went down in just 13 minutes.

Like I Said, Always Good to Explore a Civil War Ship.  --Old B-Runner

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