It was a United States $20 gold piece that started it all.

A badly dented $20 gold coin, minted by the U.S. Treasury in 1860.

A gift from a young lady named Queenie to her beau, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, formerly attached to the 21^st Alabama Regular Infantry, Confederate Army of Mississippi.

The coin got its dent on April 6^th, 1862 during the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

That day, the 21^st Alabama lost six color bearers and over two hundred casualties fighting over a thicket on that bloody battlefield; a thicket that became known as “The Hornet’s Nest” by those who fought there.

During the battle, a Yankee minie ball struck Dixon in the left thigh. The force of the bullet’s impact was dissipated by its striking the $20 gold piece in his trouser pocket.

The dented gold piece not only saved Dixon’s leg, it probably saved his life as well.

Dixon certainly seemed to think so.

Later on, he had the coin engraved with the words:

Shiloh

April 6^th 1862

My life Preserver GED

The coin was in Lieutenant Dixon’s pocket the night of February 17^th, 1864, when he and his seven volunteer crewmen sailed their strange submersible ‘fishboat” named “H.L. Hunley” against the warships of the U.S. Navy blockading the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

It was in Dixon’s pocket on that frigid February night when he spotted the navy screw sloop USS “Housatonic” looming up in the darkness on the “Hunley’s” port side and began his attack run on the Yankee vessel.

It was in Dixon’s pocket when the nearly one hundred pounds of gunpowder tightly packed into the “Hunley’s” spar torpedo was rammed into the starboard side of the “Housatonic” where it detonated, blowing a huge hole in the Yankee vessel and sinking it in less than ten minutes.

And the dented gold coin was still in Dixon’s possession, found with his skeletal remains after the wreckage of the “H.L. Hunley” was recovered on August 8, 2000, 136 years later.

The story of Lieutenant Dixon’s gold coin is just one of the legends that have coalesced around the history of the “H.L. Hunley,” the first submarine to sink an enemy warship. The legend of Dixon’s lucky gold piece drew me to the story of the “H.L. Hunley” like nothing before or since.

The more I learned about the “H.L. Hunley” and its association with the legend of George Dixon’s gold coin, the more I began to learn about Horace L. Hunley, the boat’s namesake and the man who, together with some wizards adept in mechanics and engineering, began turning the dream of both travelling and fighting underwater into a reality.

Like Dixon himself on that cold and sea-sprayed February night, I began to see the merest glimmer; a solitaire board game where the Player boards a cardboard time machine to 19^th Century America, becoming an Inventor and entrepreneur in America during the Civil War.

There, once the fishboat is built and your crew trained in its operation, it’s time for you to unleash your “Infernal Machine” on a (hopefully) unsuspecting enemy navy, and destroy their ships through equal applications of stealth, explosives and terror.

As entrepreneur, you need the services of a machine shop to help plan, design and build this marvel of modern technology, your “fishboat.” The location of the machine shop in a city or port determines what local materiel and personnel resources are available. These will have a direct influence on how long construction of your fishboat will take, and who will be members of the team that will build your technological marvel.

There are Investors to cajole for cash support, Mechanics to hire not only for their mechanical ability but their engineering expertise. Journeymen are also useful, both in the shop and as members of the crew, and Sailors can bring their nautical skills and extra muscle; that is, if the War Office will grant you access to the navy’s personnel roster.

As construction gets underway, your role as Inventor comes to the fore.

You make the decisions about how your fishboat is to be built, powered and armed.

Will you rely on your crew’s muscle power to turn the crank rod that spins the propeller, or do you have the money and the engineering expertise for a technology advance (and maybe a glimpse into the 20 Century) by installing a boiler engine or a new-fangled magnetic engine? Will your fishboat be limited to attacking surface vessels, either with a mine in tow or a torpedo mounted in front on a long spar? Do you see your fishboat deploying underwater divers carrying explosive charges across the river bottom or sea bed against static targets like canal locks, dockyards and bridges? What about using your fishboat as a weapon of stealth; delivering a spy far behind enemy lines, or landing parties of armed sailors and marines to raid supply lines and assault strategic military, economic or even political targets?

The choice is yours.

But don’t take too long to make it. The Civil War is raging all around you. Its effects are felt each and every month your project is in business. Monthly consultation with your Fortunes of War Gazetteer can be a blessing or curse to your fishboat project, with local and regional events affecting the Confederate player, while regional and national occurrences plague the Union player more frequently.                             

Once your fishboat is complete, it is time to test your boat’s seaworthiness and also train your crew. Sea trials help you identify design flaws and malfunctions, correcting them where possible. This also builds your crew’s experience and familiarity with the operation and handling of the fishboat once it is underway.

At some point you should make an Appeal to the War Office for a Letter of Recruitment, allowing you to recruit Sailors as members of your crew. Being already trained in ways of the sea, Sailors are steady in a nautical crisis. Their higher strength rating can assist at the crank rod if needed. Best of all, the government pays their wages, and not your project’s treasury.

Before you decide on a mission, you must Appeal to the War Office again, this time for a Letter of Marque. Unless your fishboat project has been placed under control of the Navy, your fishboat needs a Letter of Marque from the government naming your boat as a privateer.

Without a Letter of Marque, your fishboat and everyone associated with it including you are all considered pirates operating an armed, un-flagged weapon of war.

In the 19^th Century, piracy is a capital offense worldwide.

Pirates are hanged if caught.

Once your fishboat is pronounced seaworthy and your crew is trained, it is time for an attack mission. Here you must be aware of both sea conditions and the weather. A moonlit night can help your fishboat’s captain easily locate his quarry, but it may also make it easier for the enemy to spot you and raise the alarm. A river’s current or a sea’s currents and eddies, plus tidal direction and strength can have an effect on your boat’s movement which could result in slowing your attack run or impede your fishboat’s all-important getaway from the target area.

Weather and sea conditions may be such that you decide to postpone your attack mission until the following month, and hopefully better weather.

Or, like George E. Dixon, go ahead with the mission, take the fishboat out looking for a target and trust your crew’s training and your skills as Captain to complete the mission and bring everyone home safe and sound.

Upon spotting its quarry, your fishboat moves from the Action Board to the Tactical Board and begins its Approach to the target. During the Approach, you may use course corrections to get a better line of attack on the enemy vessel. If armed with a towed mine or spar torpedo, the weapon must be rendered active on the approach. Once its Approach is lined up, your fishboat begins its Attack run, delivering its explosive mine or torpedo with (hopefully) predictable results. 

Once your fishboat has returned safely to port, the crew roster must be restored and updated, the fishboat’s systems repaired where needed and any “improvements” made to the design; for instance, you might decide to swap out that spar torpedo prow for one reinforced for ramming.

Finally, the Inventor must always be mindful that the Civil War still continues, the Fortunes of War will change monthly, the tides, currents and weather are as mercurial as ever, and the government may one day decide to seize your fishboat from you “As a war measure” and draft your crew into military service as “patriotic volunteers.”

Nobody said being an Inventor/entrepreneur would be easy.

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