Posted on 12/14/2007 3:40:03 PM PST by SmithL
Charleston, S.C. (AP) -- When scientists opened the watch belonging to the H.L. Hunley commander three years ago, they thought they had the key clue to why the Confederate submarine sank off Charleston.
But the 18-karat gold watch now seems to raise even more questions even though scientists announced Friday it did not slowly wind down but stopped quickly — perhaps the result of a concussion or rushing water.
"All of us were thinking the watch pointed to the crucial moment," said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, chairman of the state Hunley Commission. "But I would say instead of the smoking gun, it's more of the smoke that keeps you from seeing."
The hand-cranked Hunley rammed a black powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic on Feb. 17, 1864, becoming the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.
The Hunley also sank that night with its eight-man crew. It was found 12 years ago off Charleston, raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab.
The watch owned by Lt. George Dixon was opened in 2004. It read 8:23, tantalizingly close to historical accounts that the Housatonic sank about around 9 p.m.
McConnell said experts from the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors said the damp on the Hunley could have made the watch run slow.
So concussion of the explosion might have stopped the watch and sank the Hunley.
But McConnell also said there is no way to tell if the watch was even working that night.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Thanks for the ping SB
May God bless the souls of those crewmen.
I think only those brave men ever knew what happened.
there is no more to say than those BRAVE men "took the fight to" the enemy, accomplished their mission of sinking the target AND ,in doing their duty, lost their lives.
they were GREAT warriors for the cause of FREEDOM. all traditional southerners HONOR their memory.
free dixie,sw
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