CHARLESTON, S.C. — An underwater archaeologist who claims he found the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley said Monday he will keep fighting for official credit for the discovery, despite a lawsuit over the matter being dismissed.
Lee Spence claimed he found the Hunley in 1970 when a fishing net snagged on the submarine’s wreckage and says he has the documents to prove it. But the state gave shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler credit, saying he located the sub off Sullivans Island near Charleston in 1995.
Cussler’s National Underwater and Marine Agency sued Spence, arguing that his claim of finding the submarine damaged the agency’s reputation. Cussler’s agency still believes its allegations are correct but “does not desire to pursue litigation against a defendant who, in turn, has professed such litigation has caused him mental trauma resulting in institutionalization and in assorted physical aliments,” according to court documents filed Friday.
Spence said he will keep fighting for credit, but doesn’t know exactly what his next step will be.
“I’m extremely disappointed that they have dropped this suit. I don’t know what other solutions are available to me. But this certainly does not settle who found it,” Spence said.
The 40-foot, hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with a black powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic on Feb. 17, 1864, becoming the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. The Hunley sank with its crew and was raised in 2000. It is now at a conservation lab at the old Charleston Naval Base.
Spence countersued Cussler in 2002, asking the court to give him credit for discovering the sub, but a judge ruled he did not file the lawsuit in time. The judge upheld that decision in June.
Spence said he filed documents in maritime court in 1980 claiming ownership of the sub and later published a chart showing where the sub was, though the state said his coordinates were not correct.
Talk of raising the submarine, a delicate process that took several years, didn’t surface until after Cussler announced he had found it.
In a statement, Cussler commended Spence’s perseverance but said “it has been proven time and time again that he did not locate the H.L. Hunley. In fact, both the S.C. Hunley Commission and the National Park Service have rejected Mr. Spence’s claims.”
