One notable recent story out of Charleston is the 25th anniversary of the raising of the first submarine used in U.S. warfare, during our Civil War, the CSS Hunley. It was very primitive, by today’s standards; really just two boiler tubes welded together, with a hand-cranked propeller, bench seats for the crew who operated the crank, a small conning tower, and a bowsprit which held the explosive with which they hoped to sink a Yankee warship docked in the Charleston harbor. An audacious plan; one which succeeded – but also caused the loss of the crew when the Hunley was damaged and sunk in the ensuing blast. The crew likely knew it was a suicide mission, so went bravely to their deaths.
The discovery and the raising of the vessel, some 25 years ago, was a carefully thought-out and executed plan, and resulted in the vessel being raised intact – an amazing feat in itself. It was then placed in a desalinization tank for an extended period of time, to remove the sea salts and barnacles that had accumulated while it sat at the bottom of the Charleston harbor over that ~150 years.
My wife and I have seen that sub, in that tank, on a weekend trip to Charleston; and later saw the full-size replica sitting on the front lawn of the museum in downtown Charleston where it now resides. An astonishing piece of history!
Charleston is also home to an aquarium, on the north side of the peninsula, with the unusual feature of having a portion of the eastern wing built right over the Atlantic Ocean. That gives visitors the opportunity to see various ocean creatures swim up right underneath the glass floor underneath their feet! We have been to several aquariums around the Southeast, but that is the only one we have seen with that particular feature. Charleston’s architecture inspires the imagination; and in one writer’s mind, inspired a series of half a dozen volumes centered on the old homes in the Battery area. I first happened to meet Karen White at a book-signing event held at Shavers Books in downtown Savannah, a number of years ago, when she was there to promote her newest book, a mystery that takes place in nearby Beaufort, SC.
I had not known she was going to be there, but because that book was sited in Beaufort, I went ahead and bought it. When I read later that she had started a series of mysteries based in Charleston, having enjoyed that first book I bought at Shavers, I jumped at it.
“The Tradd Street Series” starts off with “The House on Tradd Street,” and introduces us to the central character, a young woman who is not only a successful real estate agent, but one with an unusual talent, which she inherited from her grandmother: she can see ghosts. And communicate with them, to a degree. In the inaugural book, she is introduced to an elderly gentleman who owns an old house on Tradd Street, which happens to also be occupied by the ghost of a former resident who met an untimely death there. When the owner dies, Melanie is astonished to learn that he has willed the house to her. When she tries to sell it, she discovers the ghost who still “lives there;” and has to solve the mystery of the ghost’s death in order to release it from the earth plane. Only then can she sell it.
An interesting read! As are the next five volumes in the series, which follow similar paths. Her “gift” is one that is often hard to bear; but she eventually realizes she has a unique ability to help suffering souls heal and find release.
There was a TV series, some years back, with a similar premise: “Ghost Whisperer,” starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, who owns an antiques store, and has the gift of psychometry. That is, touching an object imbued with ties to its former owner would connect her with that spirit, who similarly was unable to “let go” of some slight or injury suffered on the earth plane. JLH’s task then was to unravel the mystery of what happened, and to resolve the situation such that the aggrieved spirit was able to “let go” and “move on.”
A very interesting series! As was the Tradd Street series.
One can easily imagine many of those stately old Charleston homes harboring multitudes of mysteries, sins, and ghosts!
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo. com.