H. L. Hunley (submarine)

1864 painting of H. L. Hunley by Conrad Wise Chapman
History
Confederate States
Name:	H. L. Hunley
Namesake:	Horace Lawson Hunley
Builder:	James McClintock
Laid down:	Early 1863
Launched:	July 1863
Acquired:	August 1863
In service:	February 17, 1864
Out of service:	February 17, 1864
Status:	Awaiting conservation
General characteristics
Displacement:	7.5 short tons (6.8 metric tons)
Length:	39.5 ft (12.0 m) Unconfirmed.
Beam:	3.83 ft (1.17 m)
Propulsion:	Hand-cranked propeller
Speed:	4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) (surface)
Complement:	1 officer, 7 enlisted
Armament:	1 spar torpedo

H. L. HUNLEY (submarine)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of South Carolina Show map of the US
Nearest city	North Charleston, South Carolina
Coordinates	32°44′0″N 79°46′0″W / 32.73333°N 79.76667°W / 32.73333; -79.76667
Built	1864
Architect	Park & Lyons; Hunley, McClintock & Watson
NRHP Reference #	78003412[1]
Added to NRHP	December 29, 1978

The H. L. Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War. The Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship, although the Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to base. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of the Hunley during her short career. She was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after she was taken into government service under the control of the Confederate States Army at Charleston, South Carolina.

The Hunley, nearly 40 feet (12 m) long, was built at Mobile, Alabama, and launched in July 1863. She was then shipped by rail on August 12, 1863, to Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley (then called Fish Boat) sank on August 29, 1863, during a test run, killing five members of her crew. She sank again on October 15, 1863, killing all eight of her second crew, including Horace Hunley himself, who was aboard at the time, even though he was not a member of the Confederate military. Both times the Hunley was raised and returned to service.

On February 17, 1864, The Hunley attacked and sank the 1240-short ton (1124 metric tons)^[2] screw sloop USS Housatonic, which had been on Union blockade-duty in Charleston's outer harbor. Soon afterwards, the Hunley sank, killing all eight of her third crew. This time, the ship was lost.

Finally located in 1995, the Hunley was raised in 2000 and is on display in North Charleston, South Carolina, at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center on the Cooper River. Examination, in 2012, of recovered Hunley artifacts suggests that the submarine was as close as 20 feet to her target, the Housatonic, when her deployed torpedo exploded, which eventually caused the sub's own loss.^[3]

Predecessors

Hunley and two earlier submarines were privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson.

While the United States Navy was constructing its first submarine in late 1861, the USS Alligator, the Confederacy were doing so as well. Hunley, McClintock, and Watson first built a small submarine named Pioneer in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pioneer was tested in February 1862 in the Mississippi River and was later towed to Lake Pontchartrain for additional trials. But the Union advance towards New Orleans caused the men to abandon development and scuttle the Pioneer the following month. The poorly documented Bayou St. John Confederate submarine may have been constructed about the same time as the Pioneer.

The three inventors moved to Mobile and joined with machinists Thomas Park and Thomas Lyons. They soon began development of a second submarine, the American Diver. Their efforts were supported by the Confederate States Army. Lieutenant William Alexander of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment was assigned to oversee the project. The builders experimented with electromagnetic and steam propulsion for the new submarine, before falling back on a simple hand-cranked propulsion system. The American Diver was ready for harbor trials by January 1863, but she proved too slow to be practical. One attempted attack on the Union blockade was made in February 1863, but it was unsuccessful. The submarine sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay during a storm later that month and was not recovered.

Construction and testing

Inboard profile and plan drawings, after sketches by W.A. Alexander (1863)

Drawings of the CSS Hunley in 1900.

Construction of the Hunley began soon after the loss of the American Diver. At this stage, the Hunley was variously referred to as the "fish boat," the "fish torpedo boat," or the "porpoise." Legend held that the Hunley was made from a cast-off steam boiler — perhaps because a cutaway drawing by William Alexander, who had seen her, showed a short and stubby machine. In fact, the Hunley was designed and built for her role, and the sleek, modern-looking craft shown in R.G. Skerrett's 1902 drawing is an accurate representation. The Hunley was designed for a crew of eight, seven to turn the hand-cranked propeller and one to steer and direct the boat. Each end was equipped with ballast tanks that could be flooded by valves or pumped dry by hand pumps. Extra ballast was added through the use of iron weights bolted to the underside of the hull. In the event the submarine needed additional buoyancy to rise in an emergency, the iron weight could be removed by unscrewing the heads of the bolts from inside the vessel.

The Hunley was equipped with two watertight hatches, one forward and one aft, atop two short conning towers equipped with small portholes and slender, triangular cutwaters. The hatches, bigger than original estimates, measure about 16.5 inches wide and nearly 21 long (42 by 53 centimeters),^[4] making entrance to and egress from the hull difficult. The height of the ship's hull was 4 feet 3 inches (1.30 m).

By July 1863, the Hunley was ready for a demonstration. Supervised by Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan, the Hunley successfully attacked a coal flatboat in Mobile Bay. Following this, the submarine was shipped by rail to Charleston, South Carolina, arriving on August 12, 1863.

However, the Confederate military seized the submarine from its private builders and owners shortly after its arrival, turning it over to the Confederate Army. The Hunley would operate as a Confederate Army vessel from now on, although Horace Hunley and his partners would remain involved in her further testing and operation. While sometimes referred to as the CSS Hunley, she was never officially commissioned into service.

Confederate Navy Lieutenant John A. Payne of CSS Chicora volunteered to be Hunley's captain, and seven men from Chicora and CSS Palmetto State volunteered to operate her. On August 29, 1863, The Hunley's new crew was preparing to make a test dive, when Lieutenant Payne accidentally stepped on the lever controlling the sub's diving planes as she was running on the surface. This caused the Hunley to dive with her hatches still open. Payne and two others escaped, but the other five crewmen drowned.

On October 15, 1863, the Hunley failed to surface after a mock attack, killing Hunley and seven other crewmen. The Confederate Navy once more salvaged the submarine and returned her to service.

Armament

Plans of CSS David

The Hunley was originally intended to attack by using a floating explosive charge with a contact fuse (a torpedo in 19th century terminology) which was towed at the end of a long rope. The Hunley was to approach an enemy ship on the surface, then dive under her, and surface again once beyond her. The torpedo would be drawn against the targeted ship and explode. This plan was discarded as dangerous because of the possibility of the tow line fouling the Hunley's screw or drifting into the submarine herself.

Instead, a spar torpedo (a copper cylinder containing 90 pounds (41 kilograms) of black powder)^[5] was attached to a 22-foot (6.7 m)-long wooden spar, as seen in illustrations made at this time. Mounted on the Hunley's bow, the spar was to be used when the submarine was 6 feet (1.8 m) or more below the surface. As it had a barbed point, the spar torpedo would be jammed in the target's side by ramming. It was designed to use a mechanical trigger attached to the Hunley by a cord, so that as she backed away from her victim, the torpedo would set off. However, archaeologists working on Hunley discovered evidence, including a spool of copper wire and components of a battery, that it may actually have been electrically detonated. After Horace Hunley's death, General Beauregard ordered that the submarine should no longer be used to attack underwater. An iron pipe was then attached to her bow, angled downwards so the explosive charge would be delivered sufficiently under water to make it effective. This was the same method developed for the earlier "David" surface attack craft used successfully against the USS New Ironsides. The Confederate Veteran of 1902 printed a reminiscence authored by an engineer stationed at Battery Marshall who, with another engineer, made adjustments to the iron pipe mechanism before the Hunley left on her last fatal mission on February 17, 1864. A drawing of the iron pipe spar, confirming its "David" type configuration, was published in early histories of submarine warfare.

Attack on Housatonic

The Hunley made her first and only attack against an enemy target on the night of February 17, 1864. The target was the USS Housatonic. The Housatonic, a 1,240 long tons (1,260 t)^[2] steam-powered sloop-of-war with 12 large cannons, was stationed at the entrance to Charleston, about 5 miles (8.0 kilometres) offshore.

USS Housatonic

Desperate to break the naval blockade of the city, Lieutenant George E. Dixon and a crew of seven volunteers successfully attacked the Housatonic, embedding the barbed spar torpedo into her hull. The torpedo was detonated sending the Housatonic to the bottom in five minutes, along with five of her crewmen.

Years later, when the area around the wreck of the Housatonic was surveyed, the sunken Hunley was found on the seaward side of the sloop, where no one had considered looking before. This later indicated that the ocean current was going out following the attack on the Housatonic, taking the Hunley with it to where she was eventually found and later recovered.

Disappearance

After the attack, the H.L. Hunley failed to return to her base. There is evidence that Hunley survived as long as one hour following the attack at about 8:45 p.m. The day after the attack, the commander of "Battery Marshall" reported that he had received "the signals" from the submarine indicating she was returning to her base.^[6] The report did not say what the signals were. A postwar correspondent wrote that "two blue lights" were the prearranged signals,^[7] and a lookout on the Housatonic reported he saw a "blue light" on the water after his ship sank.^[8] "Blue light" in 1864 referred to a pyrotechnic signal^[9] in long use by the U.S. Navy.^[10] It has been falsely represented in published works as a blue lantern, even though the lantern found on the recovered the H.L. Hunley had a clear, not a blue, lens.^[11] Pyrotechnic "blue light" could be seen easily over the four-mile distance^[12] between Battery Marshall and the site of the Hunley's attack on the Housatonic.^[13]

After signaling, Dixon would have taken his submarine underwater to make a return to Sullivan's Island. What happened next is unknown. The finders of the Hunley suggested she was unintentionally rammed by the USS Canandaigua when that warship was going to rescue the crew of Housatonic.

Another possibility is that the torpedo was not detonated on command, but instead malfunctioned because of damage suffered during the underwater attack. The intention was for the torpedo to be detonated when the Hunley had retreated to about 150 feet (46 meters) away.^[14] However, witnesses aboard the Housatonic stated that the submarine was no more than 100 feet (30 meters) away when her torpedo exploded.

In October 2008, scientists reported they had found that the crew of Hunley had not set her pump to remove water from the crew's compartment, and this might indicate she was not being flooded. "It now really starts to point to a lack of oxygen making [the crew] unconscious," the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission said. "They may have been cranking and moving and it was a miscalculation as to how much oxygen they had."^[15]

As to a ramming by the U.S.S. Canandaigua causing damage to the Hunley, no such damage was found when she was raised from the bottom of the harbor.^[16]

In January 2013, it was announced that conservator Paul Mardikian had found evidence of a copper sleeve at the end of the Hunley's spar. This indicated the torpedo had been attached directly to the spar, meaning the submarine may have been less than 20 feet from Housatonic when the torpedo exploded. The Hunley crew may well have been knocked unconscious by the explosion and died without awakening.^[3]

Her last crew perished in the attack, but the H.L. Hunley earned her place in history by being the first submarine to sink an enemy ship.^[17]

Recovery of wreckage

The Hunley's discovery was described by Dr. William Dudley, Director of Naval History at the Naval Historical Center as "probably the most important find of the century."^[18] The tiny sub and her contents have been valued at more than $40 million, making her discovery and subsequent donation one of the most important and valuable contributions made to South Carolina.

The H. L. Hunley, suspended from a crane during its recovery from off of Charleston Harbor, August 8, 2000. (Photograph from the U.S. Naval Historical Center.)

Removing the first section of the crew’s bench at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, January 28, 2005. (Photograph courtesy the U.S. Naval Historical Center.)

The Hunley discovery has been claimed by two different individuals. Underwater Archaeologist E. Lee Spence, president, Sea Research Society, reportedly discovered Hunley in 1970^[19][20] and has a collection of evidence^[21] claiming to validate this, including a 1980 Civil Admiralty Case.^[22]

On September 13, 1976, the National Park Service submitted Sea Research Society's (Spence's) location for H. L. Hunley for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Spence's location for the Hunley became a matter of public record when the H. L. Hunley's placement on that list was officially approved on December 29, 1978.^[23] Spence's book Treasures of the Confederate Coast, which had a chapter on his discovery of the Hunley and included a map complete with an "X" showing the wreck's location, was published in January 1995.^[24]

Diver Ralph Wilbanks found the wreck in April 1995 while leading a NUMA dive team led by novelist Clive Cussler,^[25] who announced the find as a new discovery^[26] and first claimed that it was in about 18 feet (5.5 m) of water over a mile inshore of Housatonic, but later admitted to a reporter that that was false.^[27] The wreck was actually 100 yards away from and on the seaward side of the Housatonic in 27 feet (8.2 m) of water. The submarine was buried under several feet of silt, which had both concealed and protected the vessel for more than a hundred years. The divers exposed the forward hatch and the ventilator box (the air box for the attachment of her twin snorkels) in order to identify her. The submarine was resting on her starboard side, at about a 45-degree angle, and was covered in a ¹⁄₄ to ³⁄₄ inch (0.64 to 1.91 cm) thick encrustation of rust bonded with sand and seashell particles. Archaeologists exposed part of the ship's port side and uncovered the bow dive plane. More probing revealed an approximate length of 37 feet (11 m), with all of the vessel preserved under the sediment.^[28]

On September 14, 1995, at the official request of Senator Glenn F. McConnell, Chairman, South Carolina Hunley Commission,^[29] E. Lee Spence, with South Carolina Attorney General Charles M. Condon signing, donated^[30] Hunley to the State of South Carolina.^[31][32] Shortly thereafter NUMA disclosed to government officials Wilbank's location for the wreck, which, when finally made public in October 2000, matched Spence's 1970s plot of the wreck's location well within standard mapping tolerances.^[33] Spence avows that he not only discovered Hunley in 1970 he revisited and mapped the site in 1971 and again in 1979, and that after he published his location in his 1995 book that he expected NUMA (which was actually part of a SCIAA expedition directed by Dr. Mark M. Newell and not Cussler^[34][35]) to independently verify the wreck as the Hunley, not to claim that NUMA had discovered it. Dr. Newell swore under oath that he used Spence's maps to direct the joint SCIAA/NUMA expedition and credited Spence with the original discovery. Dr. Newell credits his expedition only with the official verification of the Hunley.^[36]

The in situ underwater archaeological investigation and excavation culminated with the raising of the Hunley on August 8, 2000.^[37] A large team of professionals from the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology Branch, National Park Service, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, and various other individuals investigated the vessel, measuring and documenting it prior to removal. Once the on-site investigation was complete, harnesses were slipped underneath the sub and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering International. After the last harness had been secured, the crane from the recovery barge Karlissa B hoisted the submarine from the sea floor.^[38][39] It was raised from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just over 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) from Sullivan's Island outside the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Despite having used a sextant and hand-held compass, thirty years earlier, to plot the wreck's location, Dr. Spence's 52 meters accuracy turned out to be well within the length of the recovery barge, which was 64 meters long.^[40][41] On August 8, 2000, at 8:37 a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in more than 136 years, greeted by a cheering crowd on shore and in surrounding watercraft, including author Clive Cussler. Once safely on her transporting barge, the Hunley was shipped back to Charleston. The removal operation concluded when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, at the former Charleston Navy Yard in North Charleston, in a specially designed tank of fresh water to await conservation until she could eventually be exposed to air.

The exploits of the Hunley and her final recovery were the subject of an episode of the television series The Sea Hunters, called Hunley: First Kill. This program was based on a section ("Part 6") in Clive Cussler's 1996 non-fiction book of the same name (which was accepted by the Board of Governors of the Maritime College of the State University of New York in lieu of his Ph.D. thesis^[42]).

In 2001, Clive Cussler filed a lawsuit against E. Lee Spence for unfair competition, injurious falsehood, civil conspiracy, and defamation.^[43] Spence filed a countersuit against Cussler in 2002 seeking damages, claiming that Cussler was engaging in unfair competition, tortious interference, and civil conspiracy by claiming Cussler had discovered the location of the wreck of the Hunley in 1995, when it had already been discovered by Spence in 1970 and that such claims by Cussler were damaging to Spence's career, and had caused him damages in excess of $100,000.^[44] Spence's lawsuit was dismissed through summary judgment in 2007 on the legal theory that, under the Lanham Act, regardless of whether Cussler's claims were factual or not, Cussler had been making them for over three years before Spence brought his suit against Cussler and thus the suit was not filed within the statute of limitations.^[45] Cussler dropped his suit a year later,^[46] after the judge agreed that Spence could introduce evidence in support of his discovery claims as a truth defense against Cussler's claims against him.^[47]

The Hunley may be viewed during tours at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, South Carolina. A replica is on display at Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile, Alabama alongside the USS Alabama (BB-60) and the USS Drum (SS-228).

Crew

H.L. Hunley Memorial Marker at Magnolia Cemetery

The crew was composed of Lieutenant George E. Dixon (Commander), Frank Collins, Joseph F. Ridgaway, James A. Wicks, Arnold Becker, Corporal J. F. Carlsen, C. Lumpkin, and Augustus Miller.

Apart from the commander of the submarine, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the identities of the volunteer crewmen of the Hunley had long remained a mystery. Douglas Owsley, a physical anthropologist working for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, examined the remains and determined that four of the men were American born, while the four others were of European birth, based on the chemical signatures left on the men's teeth and bones by the predominant components of their diet. Four of the men had eaten plenty of corn, an American diet, while the remainder ate mostly wheat and rye, a mainly European one. By examining Civil War records and conducting DNA testing with possible relatives, forensic genealogist Linda Abrams was able to identify the remains of Dixon and the three other Americans: Frank G. Collins of Fredericksburg, Va., Joseph Ridgaway, and James A. Wicks. Identifying the European crewmen has been more problematic, but was apparently solved in late 2004. The position of the remains indicated that the men died at their stations and were not trying to escape from the sinking submarine.

On April 17, 2004 the remains of the crew were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.^[48] Tens of thousands of people attended including some 6,000 reenactors and 4,000 civilians wearing period clothing. Color guards from all five branches of the U.S. armed forces—wearing modern uniforms—were also in the procession.^[49] Even though only two of the crew were from Confederate States all were buried with full Confederate honors, including being buried with the 2nd Confederate national flag,^[50] known as the Stainless Banner.

Another surprise occurred in 2002, when lead researcher Maria Jacobsen^[51][52] examining the area close to Lieutenant Dixon found a misshapen $20 gold piece, minted in 1860, with the inscription "Shiloh April 6, 1862 My life Preserver G. E. D." on a sanded-smooth area of the coin's reverse side, and a forensic anthropologist found a healed injury to Lt. Dixon's hip bone. The findings matched a legend, passed down in the family, that Dixon's sweetheart, Queenie Bennett, had given him the coin to protect him. However, the supposed relationship between Bennett and Dixon has not been supported by archaeological investigation of the legend. Dixon had the coin with him at the Battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded in the thigh on April 6, 1862. The bullet struck the coin in his pocket, saving his leg and possibly his life. He had the gold coin engraved and carried it as a lucky charm.^[53][54]

A.J. Kronegh of the Danish National Archive has identified the J.F. Carlsen of the Hunley. Johan F. Carlsen was born in Ærøskøbing April 9. 1841. The last year he is registered in the census of Ærøskøbing is 1860, where he is registered as "sailor". The teeth of his remains in the Hunley still bear significant marks of a cobbler, which was the profession of his father. In 1861 J.F. Carlsen entered the freight ship "Grethe" of Dragør, which landed in Charleston in February 1861, where J.F. Carlsen left the ship. In June 1861 he entered the "Jefferson Davis" (the confederate privateer brig originally named "Putnam") as mate.^[55][56]

Tours

Visitors can obtain tickets for guided tours of the conservation laboratory that houses the Hunley at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center on weekends. The actual Hunley is preserved and on display in a tank of water, while a replica can be entered by the public. The Center includes artifacts found inside Hunley, exhibits about the submarine and a video.

In popular culture

• The first episode of the 1963 CBS television series, The Great Adventure, featured a dramatization loosely based on the events leading up to and including the Hunley's last mission. It starred Jackie Cooper as Lt. "Dickson".
• The original TNT Network made-for-cable movie The Hunley (1999) tells the story of H. L. Hunley's final mission while on station in Charleston, SC. It stars Armand Assante as Lt. Dixon and Donald Sutherland as General Beauregard, Dixon's direct superior on the Hunley project.
• The Hunley is the inspiration of the Sons of Confederate Veterans H. L. Hunley JROTC Award, presented to cadets on the basis of strong corps values, honor, courage and commitment to their unit during the school year.^[57]
• "The Peripatetic Coffin," a 2008 short story by Ethan Rutherford and published in American Short Fiction, is based on events surrounding the H.L. Hunley's mission. The story is told from the point of view of real life crew member Ward Lumpkin, and was selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 2009.
• "Blaze of Glory," a 2013 short story by Doug Allyn and published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, provides a fictionalized account of the H. L. Hunley's final mission, and the legacy of Lt. Dixon.
• In the novel Love and War by John Jakes, the fictional character Cooper Main works on the Hunley project.

See also

• USS Alligator (1862) – U. S. Navy submarine launched a year before the Hunley
• French submarine Plongeur – launched a few months before the Hunley
• Peral Submarine – 1888 submarine from Spain, the first to be powered by electric batteries

References

Citations

Bibliography

• The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy by Tom Chaffin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), ISBN 0-8090-9512-2
• The Hunley: Submarines, Sacrifice & Success in the Civil War by Mark Ragan (Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, 1995), ISBN 1-886391-43-2
• Ghosts from the Coast, "The Man Who Found the Hunley" by Nancy Roberts, UNC Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8078-2665-2
• Treasures of the Confederate Coast: the "real Rhett Butler" & Other Revelations by Dr. E. Lee Spence, (Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, 1995), ISBN 1-886391-00-9
• Civil War Sub ISBN 0-448-42597-1
• The Voyage of the Hunley, ISBN 1-58080-094-7
• Raising the Hunley, ISBN 0-345-44772-7
• The CSS H. L. Hunley, ISBN 1-57249-175-2
• The CSS Hunley, ISBN 0-87833-219-7
• Shipwreck Encyclopedia of the Civil War: South Carolina & Georgia, 1861-1865 by Edward Lee Spence (Sullivan's Island, S. C., Shipwreck Press, 1991) OCLC: 24420089
• Shipwrecks of South Carolina and Georgia : (includes Spence's List, 1520-1865) Sullivan's Island, S. C. (Sullivan's Island 29482, Sea Research Society, 1984) OCLC 10593079
• Shipwrecks of the Civil War : Charleston, South Carolina, 1861-1865 map by E. Lee Spence (Sullivan's Island, S. C., 1984) OCLC 11214217
• Robert F. Burgess (1975). Ships Beneath the Sea: A History of Subs and Submersibles. United States of America: McGraw Hill. p. 238. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to H. L. Hunley.

• US Navy
• Friends of the Hunley - includes visiting information
• Sea Research Society links to Hunley
• "H. L. Hunley, Confederate Submarine" at the U.S. Naval Historical Center
• Pre-Hunley - Confederate Submarines
• The Hunley (TV movie)
• Rootsweb
• Hunley - Archaeological Interpretation and 3D Reconstruction
• Hunley Related Items
• HNSA Web Page: H.L. Hunley
• H.L. Hunley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
• Find A graves on the CSS Hunley crew
• An Interview with Dr. Lee Spence - Discoverer of the Confederate Submarine HL Hunley

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Coordinates: 32°51′24″N 79°57′32″W / 32.85667°N 79.95889°W / 32.85667; -79.95889