Posted on 09/25/2006 10:26:39 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The U.S. Navy U.S. Navy has approved plans to conserve the hand-cranked Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley by soaking the sub in high pH water to remove corrosive salts from the iron vessel.
The Hunley sank the Union blockade ship Housatonic in 1864, becoming the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. But it never returned with its crew of eight.
The current plans call for soaking the submarine in high pH solutions such as sodium hydroxide or sodium bicarbonate to remove salts from the iron.
The Navy had to approve the conservation plan because, under an agreement signed a decade ago, the federal government retains title to the sub while South Carolina has permanent custody.
"We‘re going to continue the research because the way the conservation plan has been outlined, it is not incompatible with using subcritical at some point," said Michael Drews, the materials scientist heading the Clemson University research team helping with the conservation.
Drews said that in some applications the current doesn‘t always penetrate places where metals are joined. One objective of the conservation plan is that the sub be conserved without having to take it apart.
Tobin‘s letter said that exhibition requirements should not shorten the timeline for completion of conservation, but the submarine‘s response to the extraction of chlorides and stabilization must be the deciding factor.
"We have only one chance and that is to do it right," McConnell added.
On the Net:
Friends of the Hunley: http://www.hunley.org
Dixie Ping
I thought they were already doing this. What has it been soaking in these past few years?
Jack Daniels.
bump
free dixie,sw
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