Confederate submarine finally revealed after being buried at sea for 150 years

UK Daily Mail ^ | January 13, 2012 | Staff

[C19fan]

The world got an unobstructed view of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley for the first time since the Civil War on Thursday as a massive steel truss that had surrounded the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship was finally removed. The truss weighing more than 8 tons had shrouded the sub since it was raised off the coast of South Carolina almost a dozen years ago.

[Eye of Unk]

Thank you very much for sharing that, our generation still thinks it was the Nautilus ramming the ship underwater.

I really really want a big screen major movie made about the Hunley.

[TXnMA]

Ping to my #80...

You folks may appreciate a first look at some private graphics there from before the Hunley was raised...

[Liberty Valance]

bttt

[Lancey Howard]

Thanks!

[Graewoulf]

Thanks for the # 80 ping! Question: Is the thinking that the shock waves from the explosion were mainly directed down due to the position of the explosive at the tapered section of the stern that it contacted?

If so, what would have been the effect on the Hunley compared to hitting the Housatonic at a more vertical ship surface, say at mid section?

[TXnMA]

IIRC, Singer's torpedo actually contained 130 pounds of cannon (large grain) powder, instead of the 90 pounds often discussed. Black powder is a low-VOD explosive, so most of the damage is via pressure, not brisant shock. Since water is basically incompressible, at that depth, the only way the blast pressure could go was upward, into the hull cavity. Even so, the Union Court of Inquiry determined that there was little noise or upward blast -- but the engine ran wild when the prop shaft (in reverse) was severed. And the Housatonic sank rapidly by the stern.

General Beauregard had edicted (after the Hunley stuck its nose in the mud -- killing Hunley and his crew) that attacks must be made on the surface. Dixon and company then adapted the downward-pivoting Y-yoke concept from the (semi-submersible) "David", so that the spike could be driven in deep underwater where it would do some good.

Of course, the torpedo was designed to pull free of the spar, and later be triggered (at a distance) by a lanyard that played out from a spool mounted just aft of the forward hatch on the starboard side.

According to Captain Pickering of the Housatonic, the Hunley was "still awash" at its closest approach -- when he emptied a double-barrel shotgun at the candle light he could see through the Hunley's front viewport. (I've always theorized that he may have been the one who sank the Hunley -- by cracking that viewport. Evidence found inside the Hunley doesn't necessarily support my theory...)

[TXnMA]

IIRC, the turret was all that was recovered.

[central_va]

Why don’t you tell us how stupid these “pretend” sailors were by fighting for a “pretend” cause in a “pretend” navy. Those guys in the sub probably owned hundreds of slaves that they beat every day, right?

[elcid1970]

Wow! Those are some incredible drawings!

The more that is learned about the Hunley, the more sophisticated the design of the vessel and its proven effective weapon is revealed to be. The innovation of the Y-yoke to place the torpedo far beneath the target’s waterline is amazing in itself.

It should he remembered that prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, that the Industrial Revolution and Machine Age were already well under way.

[Jonah Hex]

Give me a nice airplane to fall out of, I am OK.

There's an old bubbleheads saying: "There's many an airplane which crashed into the deep; however, there's been no documented cases of a submarine crashing into the sky."

(Despite the best efforts of some meathead dive officers during PD operations.)

[patton]

...And we have never left an airplane up there.

[Former Fetus]

Say what? Columbia is just fine, thank you. The only visible damage is that at the State House, properly marked with large stars. The University of South Carolina is built on that part of Columbia that was burnt. However I agree with you that wounds still run deep. My brother-in-law used to say that he was 30 years old before he found out that “d****d Yankee” was actually 2 words! LOL!

[patton]

Excellent series of posts. Thank you very much.

[rockrr]

Thank you for sharing those extra details not covered in the article. I’ve read several pieces on the raising and restoration of the Hunley (even posted one to FreeRepublic last summer) but none have offered much depth to their accounts.

Interesting stuff!

[shove_it]

Impressive addition to both threads, thanks.

[jmacusa]

You just said it better than I could stupid.

[rockrr]

It will be interesting to compare the real Hunley submersible with the reconstructed replicas (IIRC, one is in Columbia, the other in Charleston).

I found this while looking at different Hunley links:

[TXnMA]

"Impressive addition to both threads, thanks."

Thanks! Just sharing a bit of the benefits from having been somewhat "on the inside"...

BTW & FWIW, we even had a forum participant in Poland, who decided to run a bunch of experiments on how different woods would work as "shear pins" for releasing the torpedo from the spar after impact. He had a couple of sections of pipe with a "sliding fit" through which he had drilled paired-up holes, and he would "pin" them together with various woods, soak the assembly in seawater, and then ram the end against a solid object while noting the shear performance.

IIRC, he determined that most hardwoods worked fine, (released cleanly) but that pine would swell and jam up the system. (Not a desirable performance feature, to say the least!) ;-)

~~~~~~~~~

Not sure how much more remains of the forum files; I'll check...

One thing for sure: the proceedings of the Union Navy's Court of Inquiry (held after any sinking or other major incident) were extremely valuable sources of information about the attack itself -- testimony by surviving eyewitnesses on the Housatonic.

[elcid1970]

Amazing. The original is larger than the replicas.

Wonder if they recovered the original rudder.

Re that `blueprint’ drawing that shows the moment of impact between the Housatonic and the Hunley & its torpedo: the depiction does nothing to show that this was a moment of white hot combat caught at a critical instant. The sailors on the ship were frantically firing at the submersible with small arms since their cannon were useless at that range.

At the same moment the Hunley crew were already furiously cranking in reverse to disengage & put distance between the Hunley and the explosion soon to follow.

And soon, both vessels would be resting on the harbor bottom.

[TXnMA]

"Re that `blueprint’ drawing that shows the moment of impact between the Housatonic and the Hunley & its torpedo: the depiction does nothing to show that this was a moment of white hot combat caught at a critical instant."

True enough. I drew that graphic with scale, movable vector objects as an engineering study to model the likely configuration of the torpedo deployment system -- not as an artist's dramatization. One purpose was to predict what might be found when the lower bow was excavated, and what might have to be dealt with before placing the caisson immediately in front of the bow.

But believe me, all of us on the forum were in awe of the drama and bravery encapsulated in that historic moment in time. Don Dowdey did a superb job of capturing those aspects in his marvelous action paintings.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm assuming here that participants on this thread are aware of how the Hunley was raised:

1. The Hunley was (mostly) excavated,

2. Cylindrical caissons were set in the bottom just fore and aft of the sub,

3. The "truss" that was just removed was lowered astraddle of the Hunley until it rested on the caissons.

4. Broad "straps" were run under the Hunley from side to side, and were attached to the truss (with as near equal tension as possible), and...

5. The truss was lifted, bringing the Hunley with it, and finally,

6. The whole assemblage was lowered into the tank in the Lasch Center, with the "legs" of the truss assembly resting on the bottom of the pool, and the Hunley suspended beneath it.

And, now, the Hunley has been shored up from beneath, released from the truss, righted from its initial 45 degree listing position, and the truss has now (finally) been removed -- hence these articles...

~~~~~~~~~~

And, no, AFAIK, the rudder was not recovered. There are signs that the Hunley may have been damaged by anchors and/or fishing trawls dragged across it.