In 2016 the Naval History and Heritage Command published a detailed report on the history, discovery, and restoration of the Hunley entitled H. L. Hunley: Recovery Operations suggesting that it is most likely Spence found a nearby buried navigation buoy rather than the Hunley.H. L. Hunley: Recovery Operations, Robert S. Neyland and Heather G. Brown editors, Naval History and Heritage Command (2016), p. 47-48
