Horace Lawson Hunley was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early, hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was named for him, the CSS Hunley. Hunley lost his own life during one of the tests of the vessel which bore his name. He was part of the vessel's second crew, most of the first having been lost in an earlier test.

Despite this history of calamity, a third crew was raised after the vessel was, and it was put in Charleston Harbor. The Hunley attacked and sank the USS Housatonic but itself sank shortly after the successful attack, the first such sinking in the history of naval warfare. The Hunley was recovered in the early 2000s and her final crew reburied with full military honors by Confederate reenactors in April 2004.