The first submarine to sink an enemy ship 135 years ago during the American Civil War has been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.
The Confederate submarine, the Hunley, sank with nine crew members in 1864 in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina, after it had sunk a Union blockade ship called the Housatonic.
Yesterday the Hunley was raised from the sea floor off Sullivans Island where it lay in about 30 feet of water. The submarine was discovered in 1995 by Mr Clive Cussler. It was made from locomotive boilers and was propelled by hand-cranked power.
Hundreds cheered from pleasure craft as the Hunley, lifted by a crane, broke the surface. Confederate re-enactors fired a cannon from the inlet from where the submarine left on its last mission on February 17th, 1864.
The conservation of the Hunley is expected to take about seven years and it will then go on display in a new wing at Charleston Museum.