To make the board game “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare” as historically rich and fact-accurate as possible, I had to reach beyond the confines of my library, beyond that of my local university and even beyond the Internet.

No, the facts and information I was looking for could only be found as close to the source as possible.

The submarine “H.L. Hunley” rests in Charleston, South Carolina, specifically at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center. Its rusted hulk lies in the care of a dedicated team of historians, archaeologists, chemists and administrators seconded from Clemson University and elsewhere, who perform the slow and painstaking task of cleaning, cataloguing and restoring a very real piece of American history.

By Ed Ostermeyer, Master Engineer (Grade 2)

Hello again, young Inventor.

With your new knowledge of the materials and mechanisms that will make up your Marvel of the Age it is now time to discuss the hiring and care of the Mechanics, the “wizards” who will assemble the parts and mechanisms into the whole. In some cases, they may also become part of your underwater wonder’s crew.

Because of the amount and depth of information presented here, the coverage on the hiring and care of Journeymen is presented in a chapter of its own.

By Ed Ostermeyer, Master Engineer (Grade 2)

Last time, your Inventor’s Vade Mecum handbook supplied you with information on the different materials and mechanisms available right now to make your dream of an underwater wonder a reality.

Today, we will discuss how to give that underwater wonder of yours its aura of dread and destruction.

We will also touch on the various types of propulsion systems that will take your fishboat into battle and hopefully out. 

By Ed Ostermeyer, Master Engineer (Grade 2)

Hello, and good day to you, young Inventor.

Our using the Inventor’s Vade Mecum today will work a miracle of modern industrial science.

No, we will not recreate the alchemist’s dream of turning base metal into gold.

Instead, we will transform paper into iron: turning your machine shop’s paper plans, mechanical drawings, work orders and invoices into the iron hull, intricate mechanisms and potent weaponry of your undersea Wonder of the Age.

Before you begin work on your fishboat, you must answer two important questions.

By Ed Ostermeyer, Master Engineer (Grade 2)

Good day again to you, young Inventor.

Since our last meeting, your mind must be a-whirl with ideas and plans to make your undersea weapon of war a reality.

Let’s temper that reality by understanding that, though you may indeed be the One With The Idea, it will take more than you to give that idea form and substance.

By Ed Ostermeyer, Master Engineer (Grade 2)

Good day to you, young Inventor.

You are to be congratulated.

You hold in your hand the Inventor’s Vade Mecum, a handbook for you to use whatever, wherever, whenever and, most important of all, why-ever you have questions or need assistance in your chosen field of endeavor.

Your enthusiasm for the field of maritime engineering at this moment in our country’s history places you at the forefront in the development and construction of nautical devices and mechanisms that will astound and discomfit our country’s foes.  

Using your knowledge and that of your team plus the latest tools and methods that 19^th century science and industry can provide and the steps found in this Vade Mecum, you should encounter fewer interruptions and delays in making your latest technological marvel the Wonder of the Age.

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.