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I wrote this a few years back. So far It's gotten favourable reviews. The people at the Hunley museum didn't like it much though.

H.L. Hunley. A locked room puzzle.

February 17 1864 the Confederate Fish Boat H. L. Hunley sailed out of Sand Inlet and into the pages of history. From my viewpoint there really didn’t seem to be that much of a mystery. You take a sawn in half boiler and use it to ram explosives against the side of a ship. It would be more than a minor miracle to get anything recognizable back. So when the Hunley disappeared that night, her ending seemed fairly predictable. In one version of events, she was sucked into the hole in the Housatonic. Being part steam boiler herself, she was undoubtedly removed and discarded as an unidentifiable part of the wreckage when the Charleston ship channel was dredged in the late 1800’s. Another version of events had the boat damaged, either by gunfire from the Housatonic or being run down by the U.S.S. Canandaigua as she raced to the aid of the sinking warship. A rather dramatic replay of this story was portrayed in the made for TV movie HUNLEY. The crew, all alone in their tiny iron coffin, linking hands and singing as they opened the sea cocks and avoided a horrifying death by suffocation.

Then in May of 1985 the Confederate Fish Boat was found, and the real mystery presented itself. More than a thousand feet from the wreck of the Housatonic, the Hunley obviously was well clear of the explosion. When the wreck was raised and examined, (the examination will continue for several years,) the bodies of the crew were found still at their posts. Had the boat flooded, the bodies would have floated to some extent and their remains would have been found in a mixed jumble in the bottom of the boat. To help compound the mystery, stalactites were found extending from the overhead in the boat. These could only form in air, and seem to indicate that the interior of the boat was dry for up to several years after the sinking. As a side note, she was not cobbled together from an old boiler. But, instead was constructed from the keel up as a submarine. Her rivets were countersunk and ground smooth for minimum hydrodynamic drag. That she would stay dry under those conditions for so long is a testament to her designers and builders. So here’s our locked room puzzle. The first submarine to make a successful attack against a warship, surfaces, signals her success to shore and then closes her hatches and sinks, (intact) to the bottom, where her crew dies without further fuss or struggle.

At this point Lt. Colombo turns around, puts his hand to his forehead and says, “There just one more thing I forgot to mention.” The Hunley’s rudder is found beneath the hull. Let me also ask those of you who saw the afore mentioned movie. Why did the candle go out during the endurance test? Hint: It wasn’t for lack of oxygen.

We’ll take these two clues and see if we can’t solve our puzzle. The Hunley’s rudder must have been torn loose before the boat came to rest on the bottom. Two possibilities present themselves. If the Hunley took the shock of the Housatonic explosion broadside the shock could have damaged or loosened the rudder. Or more likely, (in my opinion) she was caught a glancing blow from the Canandaigua. Part of her propeller shroud is missing and there are triangular gashes in the part that remains. (Think manatee and speedboat.) Lt. Dixon is now in command of a ship with no means to direct her movements. This is still no cause for a suicidal plunge to the bottom. However, he does have several options. He can wait for the tide to turn and carry him back to shore. He can wait for daylight to put someone over the side to attempt to repair the rudder. Or as a last resort, scuttle the boat, and swim for either the shore, or the nearest Union ship. They were in uniform after all, even if the status of the Hunley herself was a little hazy. All these options rely on the boat keeping her present position. The obvious solution was to do what they had already trained to do. Bottom the ship and wait it out.

Now let us take a look at the condition of the crew. Exhausted, having undoubtedly little sleep the night before and none during the day, but as good soldiers they will not fall asleep at their posts. Except for that one little detail of the candle. The candle did not go out from lack of oxygen, but from an excess of Carbon Dioxide. CO2 had been building up in the boat since she left the pier. Building up in the boat and the crew. There may have been some fresh air let in when Lt. Dixon opened the hatch to signal the shore. But, it had already proved dangerous to leave the hatches open for any length of time, even in the calm waters of Charleston’s inner harbor. CO2 has two interesting physiological effects, that at first look may seem mutually exclusive. It gives you a splitting headache, and makes you drowsy. So the crew sits on the bottom ready to wait out the hours they know they can withstand on the bottom, not knowing that the clock had started hours before. Possibly passing around a bottle of medicine that had relieved the headaches they had undoubtedly gotten before. Thinking that if they could only close their eyes for a moment….. They lean across the hand crank as the boat takes a list to starboard. Just a little rest before they surface and make their way to safety in the morning.

There is one more point I’d like to make. The Hunley’s place in the record books has always had an asterix next to it. She made a successful attack, but died alongside her victim. The evidence shows the boat made both a successful attack and escape. If indeed the Canandaigua was the instrument of her demise, then she was sunk as a result of enemy action. Not due to a flaw in her design or tactics. Had she successfully returned to port, could she have made more attacks against an alerted fleet? Quite frankly I doubt it. However, she was a successful design, and should be remembered as such.

Recommended reading and bibliography:

Raising the Hunley: The remarkable history and recovery of the lost Confederate submarine. Brian Hicks and Schuyler Kropf 2002

National Geographic, July 2002 Raising Hunley: Civil War Sub

And may I heartily recommend a visit to www.hunley.org The website of the Hunley recovery and preservation efforts.