Cussler's divers retain credit for finding Confederate submarine
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A federal judge has dismissed a counterclaim to a lawsuit relating to the discovery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.
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Underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence claimed he suffered as much as $309 million in damages because the discovery was credited to author Clive Cussler...
The South Carolina Hunley Commission has credited [Cussler's outfit] with finding the sub off Charleston 12 years ago.
Spence countersued in 2002, asking the court to declare him the finder...
The 40-foot, hand-cranked Hunley rammed a spar with a black powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic sinking the vessel on Feb. 17, 1864.
The sub sank as well and was finally located in 1995. It was raised five years later and brought to a conservation lab at the old Charleston Naval Base.