By Toya Graham The Herald
YORK -- Ralph Wilbanks found a house in a Louisiana lake. He found a plane hidden in a Kentucky lake and several boats submerged in the Atlantic Ocean.
But nothing tops finding the H. L. Hunley off the coast of Charleston, said Wilbanks, a scuba diver and marine archeologist.
"It felt pretty good," Wilbanks, 58, said about locating the resting site of the Hunley with two other crew members. "I told the people on the boat that day to have a beer and a good time because that's the best it's going to be."
Wilbanks stopped in York County on Wednesday to share his Hunley experience. More than 100 York Junior High School students learned about the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship. The Confederate vessel disappeared Feb. 17, 1864, and wasn't seen again until May 3, 1995.
"This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest archeological finds that we've had in this state," said Katie Covington, an eighth-grade social studies teacher and event co-planner. "The find is irreplaceable. There has never been another Hunley, and there will never be."
Wilbanks, of Yonges Island near Charleston, also spoke Wednesday to third-graders at Rock Hill's York Road Elementary School. In York, Wilbanks gave a PowerPoint presentation geared mainly to the Hunley as eighth-graders looked on. Third- and eighth-graders are required by the S.C. Department of Education to study South Carolina history.
"This is a significant South Carolina event," said Cindy Jonas, also an eighth-grade social studies teacher and event co-planner. "We want our kids to know the history of South Carolina."
The vessel, which is 40 feet long, 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall, was the target of a search that went on for years. Author Clive Cussler hired Wilbanks in 1994 to lead a crew to find the Hunley. Using one of nine target spots supplied by Cussler and a magnetometer -- a device used to judge differences in the Earth's magnetic field usually caused by the presence of iron -- Wilbanks renewed the search for the lost vessel, which was composed of heavy iron boiler plates.
Nearly 90 days into the effort, Wilbanks, Wes Hall and Harry Pecorelli found the Hunley -- 131 years after the Confederate vessel disappeared.
"The first target was where we found the Hunley, but nobody knew it," Wilbanks said about the submarine, which was buried in the sea floor and found with a spar -- previously used with a torpedo to sink the U.S.S. Housatonic off the coast of Charleston in 1864. "We went back and dug it up."
The Hunley, which came out of the water Aug. 8, 2000, was transported to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston.
Shanice Gill, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, went to Charleston last August to see the Hunley. She also learned more about the vessel at school.
"Hearing from him was better because he experienced it," Shanice said.
Other students agreed.
"I thought the Hunley only held two people, but I learned it held eight," said Mimi Castro, 14, a Mexican native who has lived in the United States for 12 years.
Leslie Thao, 14, was in awe.
"It was interesting that he found the Hunley, (even though) for many years people hadn't found it," Leslie said.
link