Takes a special kind of courage to crawl into a little metal tube that sank twice before.
Me and my wife took a trip and saw the Hunley in the tank.
I couldn’t imagine getting in that tiny craft.
In my late teens I worked at a boiler works as a laborer. One of the more prestigious jobs (sarc) was to chip the slag of the newly seam welded boilers. In order to gain access you had to crawl through a tiny porthole - even as a skinny teen I had to squeeze!
Then you had to reach back out and grab your air supply so you didn’t suffocate. After that you were pounding away at the weld with a pointy hammer (imagine how fun that sounded!)
I lasted all of 15 minutes before I got claustrophobia and scrambled out.
I’m in awe of those guys!
She was a remarkable vessel considering the internal combustion engine had not been invented yet. Batteries that were powerful enough to drive a propeller had not been invented yet. Many of the technologies considered essential to operate a submarine had not been invented yet.
There were reports at the time that sentries on shore had thought they spotted a blue signal light from the Hunley after the Housatonic was sunk but her scientific analysis would seem to rule that out. The crew must’ve been killed almost instantly but their own “torpedo”. At the time I doubt anybody had ever tested to see if an explosion this close underwater would be lethal. Those men who risked (and lost) their lives using such cutting edge technology would incredibly brave.
It sure does!
The Hunley crew lost on the combat mission sailed with the knowledge that their vessel had already claimed the lives of 2 other crews. Incredible bravery.