PHOENIX, AZ-For 15 years, novelist and adventurer Clive Cussler and divers from his 501C3 National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) searched for the elusive CSS Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, which had disappeared February 17, 1864. Cussler's team found the sub May 3, 1995. The Hunley was buried under three feet of silt in 28 feet of water four miles outside Charleston, SC. The NUMA crew ran 1159 miles of grid lines to discover the Hunley. A team led by the National Park Service Submerged Cultural Resources Unit surveyed the wreck in 1996 to determine if the submarine could be recovered. Cussler invested more than $130,000 to locate the historic vessel.

H.L. Hunley, a submersible known as the "South's secret weapon," had just turned for shore after signaling it had succeeded in sinking the Union blockader USS Housatonic the night of February 17, 1864, when it vanished with all hands. The fate of the Hunley and her nine young volunteer crewmen remained a mystery for more than 131 years until Cussler and his NUMA crew discovered her.

The discovery has been hailed as the American maritime historical discovery of the century. Doctor Robert Neyland, the Naval Historical Center's (NHC) chief underwater archaeologist and Hunley project director called the revolutionary vessel "a national treasure" comparable to the Wright brothers' aircraft. With the exception of a hole in the forward hatch, the Hunley was found intact. It is believed the submarine was quickly covered and filled with sediment. Cussler believes that because the submarine is filled with silt that the bones of the crew might still survive.

"In many ways this is like recovering a bottle -- everything is contained inside the submarine," Neyland said. "It is the very first successful military submarine. Not until World War I would another submarine sink an enemy ship."

A spar used to sink the Housatonic was retrieved June 13 and is the first artifact from the Hunley brought back to shore. Cussler donated $50,000 to the Hunley Commission to help raise the Hunley. Video of an artist's rendering of the raising is available for viewing on the NUMA web site: www.numa.net

The wreck weighs approximately eight tons with sediment inside and will be raised at an angle to keep it from breaking up. Exactly why the Hunley sank is not known. It's a question that may be answered when the craft is raised.

Recovery of the ship's spar last month intrigued scientists who discovered that the device could be tilted - evidence the submarine was more technologically advanced than first thought. The spar is about 16 feet and 4 inches long and weighs approximately 200 pounds with a hinge at one end. The spar was in two parts - an approximate two-foot section near the front was discovered broken off. A thinner iron rod was discovered near it that might have been used to support the spar, scientists said. Historical accounts indicated the Hunley had a wooden spar attached to the top of the bow. Now scientists have learned that the spar was made of iron, was located near the bottom of the bow and could be tilted.

Neyland said tilting the spar would have allowed the crews to more easily put powder charges on the end. It could have also been used to better aim the charge when the Hunley rammed a vessel, he said.

Cussler, who refused to give up after years of frustration, funded the search with his book royalties. His persistence finally paid off when his search team, led by archaeologists Ralph Wilbanks and Wes Hall, discovered a magnetic anomaly in an area where The Hunley was not supposed to be. After probing the silt and finding an object of the approximate dimensions of the submarine, Wilbanks and Hall then dredged through the silt until they uncovered the forward hatch and one of the diving stabilizers. Stunned by the spectacular discovery, they called Cussler at 4:00 in the morning. When Wilbanks informed the author they were not going to look for The Hunley anymore, Cussler asked him if they were giving up.

"No," Wilbanks responded. "We found it."

Then it was Cussler's turn to be stunned. "I walked around numb for two days," he

reported. "Too bad P.T. Barnum isn't still alive. Back in 1879, he offered a hundred thousand dollars to anyone who could find and raise the Hunley for display in his New York Museum."

To dispel any rumors that it was Cussler and his NUMA team that found the sub after it vanished 131 years earlier, a plastic NUMA letterhead wrapped in baggies and signed by Cussler, Wilbanks and Hall was inserted through a broken port. The NUMA letterhead read, "Today, May 3, 1995, one hundred thirty one years and seventy five days after your sinking. Veni, Vidi, Vici! Dude."

There was no profit in finding the famous submarine. The only treasure was historical. Cussler received nothing for his years of dedication but satisfaction. He turned the coordinates of the sub's position over to the U.S. Navy.

In The Sea Hunters, Cussler's first best-selling non-fiction the author describes the history of the first successful submarine. "R30;The Hunley began life as a locomotive boiler in Mobile, AL. The craft was named for its inventor and primary financial backer, Horace L. Hunley…The craft was amazingly advanced for her time. Her hull configuration was very similar to the much later Nautilus nuclear sub designs. She had diving planes attached on each side of the hull, manual pumps to increase or decrease water ballast, a single propeller and rudder protruding from the center of the stern, again much like a modern nuclear submarine. Iron weights on the keel could be dropped with the twist of a wrench to decrease ballast during emergencies. Two small raised openings with viewing ports served as entry and exit hatch towers…There was even a rudimentary snorkel system, called an air box, with pipes that could swing vertical, their ends above the water surface. It was almost as if Henry Ford had built a 1929 Model A sedan on his first attempt at a horseless carriage. The Hunley's only shortcoming was her primitive propulsion system…She had to rely on eight strong men to turn the crank that rotated her propeller…"

Internationally acclaimed as the Grand Master of the American action/adventure novel best-selling author Cussler, who earned his Ph.D., in Maritime History from the Maritime College, State University of New York for THE SEA HUNTERS is active in NUMA research. He is founder and Chairman of the Board of NUMA; a 501C3 Agency headquartered in Austin. NUMA is responsible for finding more than 80 missing ships and planes of historical significance throughout the world. For more information about NUMA or to donate to the charity, visit the NUMA web site: www.numa.net Cussler's next novel, BLUE GOLD from the NUMA Files is due out August 1st.