CHARLESTON — On February 17, 1864, Confederate Army Lt. George Dixon and his crew of seven loaded up into a fragile underwater boat that had already killed 13 men. They put their lives at risk, either for a cause they believed in or the promise of reward money. That night, they attacked the Navy blockade ship USS Housatonic. They made history. They never returned.
More than a century later, a small team of modern-day adventurers found the H.L. Hunley intact off Charleston. The discovery set off a race against time to invent the technology and raise the money needed to recover the world’s first attack submarine before nature — or treasure hunters — destroyed it. But they would soon learn that nearly everything they thought they knew about the long-lost Civil War sub was wrong, and that the Hunley did not give up her secrets easily.
This new edition of Sea of Darkness: Unraveling the Mysteries of the HL Hunley, comes complete with new photos from restoration efforts made in the last few years. The book, ISBN 978-1-929647-94-1, retails for 29.95. For more information or high-res images, please contact info@eveningpostbooks.com. For order placement, please contact alanning@eveningpostbooks.com.
Consumer Publications, LLC dba Evening Post Books began publishing titles in 2008 by S.C. authors with subject matter dedicated to the Lowcountry. Additional information may be found at www.eveningpostbooks.com.
About the Author
Brian Hicks is the metro columnist for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, and the author or coauthor of 10 books. He has written about Southern history and politics for more than 35 years, including turns as a statehouse newspaper correspondent in three states.
Hicks’ journalism has appeared in national and international publications since 1986. His work has been featured on National Public Radio, the Discovery Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, and in National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines. He has won more than 30 journalism awards, including three Green Eyeshade Awards for his commentary from the Society of Professional Journalists, and the South Carolina Press Association’s award for Journalist of the Year.
Hicks has followed the story of the H.L. Hunley since 1998 and has had more access to the submarine and the people who discovered and recovered it than any other writer. A native of Tennessee, he lives in Charleston.
