Select Page

A Non-Profit Foundation Dedicated
to Preserving Our Maritime Heritage

Founded by Clive Cussler

A Non-Profit Foundation Dedicated
to Preserving Our Maritime Heritage

Founded by Clive Cussler

NUMA Diver & Historian Dies

by | Aug 30, 2012 | 6 comments

Wess Hall

Wess Hall

Wes Hall, a member of the Clive Cussler dive team that found the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, died Monday. He was 59.

Hall, who grew up in Kansas, earned his master’s degree in maritime history after retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps. He started his own archaeological survey company, Mid-Atlantic Technology and Environmental Research, based in North Carolina. It was a love of history and diving cultivated in Charleston that set him on his path.

His friends remembered him Wednesday as a smart, easygoing guy who was a talented professional yet modest about his accomplishments.

“I never saw Wes without a smile on his face,” said Cussler, the bestselling author and founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. “Nothing fazed him. He could swim through a swamp filled with alligators during a force 10 hurricane, then walk in to a bar and order a glass of water with a napkin. The man who identified the Hunley, I know Wes has now discovered all the shipwrecks he and I and Ralph Wilbanks ever searched for.”

Hall often worked with Wilbanks, a Charleston area maritime archaeologist, who led Cussler’s 1995 Hunley expedition. Wilbanks was diving with Hall for another project on Monday.

“He was a really great field underwater archaeologist,” Wilbanks said. “Wes was the guy who figured out how to do things. He could see things with his hands.”

Hours after the Monday dive, Hall suffered a heart attack in his home.

Wess Hall

Wess Hall

Hall is most famous in Hunley circles for being the first man to positively identify the Hunley. On May 3, 1995, Hall, Wilbanks and local archaeologist Harry Pecorelli were surveying sites previously identified by a past Cussler NUMA expedition.

Pecorelli initially dived on a site about a quarter-mile farther out to sea than the wreck of the USS Housatonic, the ship the Hunley sank in 1864. He returned to the surface only to proclaim, “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not the Hunley.”

Hall followed Pecorelli down to the site, and began to feel his way along the parts of the object that had been exposed. As a perplexed Pecorelli looked on, Hall wrapped his arms around the sub’s conning tower and hugged it.

“It’s the Hunley. That’s it. That’s all it can be,” Hall said when he surfaced.

Warren Lasch, former chairman of Friends of the Hunley, called Hall “a gentleman.”

“He was a very, very good man,” Lasch said. “He always had a positive, uplifting personality.”

Wesley Keith Hall is survived by his wife, two stepsons and his parents. A memorial service will be held Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Carolina Marine Terminal in Wilmington. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made in his name to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 5216, Glen Allen, VA 23058-5216 or NUMA, P.O. Box 5059, Scottsdale, AZ 85258.

From The Post and Courier –  Diver, historian who identified Hunley dies

6 Comments

  1. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this time of your bereavement. I met him in May, but I have known Cliff and Virginia Hall for years. Know that we will be thinking of you.

  2. He is also survived by his son, me “Myka Wes Hall” and his to grandchildren “Chase and Meadow Hall”who were not mentioned in this article.

  3. Our thoughts and prayers to Wes’s family. We didn’t meet him, though we were impressed by some of his work we have read about.

  4. R.I.P. You will be missed.

  5. Even in these days of tweets and texts, some news gets lost like losing a great colleague like Wes Hall. Wes always did it right. He passed way too young. His friends inside underwater archaeology will remember him both for his many contributions and his good humor. He will be missed.

  6. I didn’t know this until now i spent two days on the Mississippi river looking for a towboat wheel and rudder, he was a treasure trove of knowledge and a heck of a nice guy.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All Rights Reserved © | National Underwater and Marine Agency

All Rights Reserved © | National Underwater and Marine Agency

Web Design by Floyd Dog Design

Web Design by Floyd Dog Design