Robert S. Neyland, project manager of the Hunley Commission, charged with raising and conserving the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, will speak in Coastal Carolina University’s Wheelwright Auditorium Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the university’s Kimbel Distinguished Lecturer Series. The event is free and open to the public, although tickets are required for admission. Tickets will be available beginning Monday, March 19 at 9 a.m. at the Wheelwright Box Office.

Entitled “The Archaeological Recovery of the H.L. Hunley,” Neyland’s presentation will include a brief history of the Civil War submarine and its discovery off the coast of Charleston. He will discuss the recovery effort and the excavation phase including information on the latest technologies being used to assist the archaeologists.

Neyland will combine his lecture with a PowerPoint presentation showing photographs and other visual information illustrating the Hunley recovery process. The Hunley, according to Neyland, is unlike most shipwrecks in that it has been recovered in a state of remarkable preservation and has been protected from plunderers. “The Hunley is a true time capsule of enormous historical and scientific importance,” says Neyland.

Built in 1863 in Mobile, Ala., the H.L. Hunley became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship during wartime when she attacked the U.S. warship Housatonic on Feb. 17, 1864 in Charleston Harbor. Returning to port after the successful attack, the Hunley sank mysteriously, its exact whereabouts unknown for more than 130 years. Clive Cussler, noted author and shipwreck hunter, discovered the Hunley in 1995. The historic submarine was raised on Aug. 8, 2000 from its resting place in Charleston Harbor and was moved to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston. The conservation process is expected to take seven to 10 years to complete.

Robert Neyland earned a master’s degree in 1990 and a Ph.D. in 1994 from Texas A&M University. Since then, Neyland has been the Underwater Archaeologist for the Department of the Navy and is currently the head of the Navy’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, Naval Historical Center. He is a research associate with the Netherlands Institute for Ship and Underwater Archaeology (NISA) and with the Institute for Nautical Archaeology (INA). In addition, he is vice-chair of the Advisory Council for Underwater Archaeology and has served on the Maryland Governor’s Advisory Committee on Archaeology. Neyland has worked on a variety of site types: Bronze Age shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, medieval wrecks in the Netherlands, and ships of exploration in the Caribbean and North America.

The Kimbel Distinguished Lecturer Series is sponsored by the William A. and L. Maud Kimbel Distinguished Lecturer Series Endowment Fund. The purpose of the series is to present programs promoting an appreciation for the intellectual values in broad social issues, religion, geopolitics and the arts.

For ticket information, contact the Wheelwright Box Office at 349- 2502. For more information on the H.L. Hunley, visit www.hunley.org on the Internet.