[Kartographer]

The nerve it took just to climb inside boggles my mind.

[headstamp 2]

There is a great book on the divers that went down in Pearl Harbor for ship salvage operations after the attack.

Talk about having nerves of steel.

[Robert A Cook PE]

More sobering, this last crew was the THIRD to climb inside.

The first two died in their seats, drowning for their state’s freedom.

[pikachu]

Waiting for Michael Moore to say Confederate Submariners were cowards in 3 .. 2 .. 1

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Back when men were really MEN.

[Robert A Cook PE]

From the bottom of the article.

In April 2004, thousands of men in Confederate gray and Union blue walked in a procession with the crew's coffins four miles from Charleston's waterfront Battery to Magnolia Cemetery in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.

I thought these men were pulled out many years ago. Certainly not a very clear title to the AP’s article, is it?

[wally_bert]

I saw it a few years back in the tank. Hard imagining getting in that tiny death trap.

[armydawg505]

Brave crew men indeed!

[momtothree]

... not sure if this is up your alley or not ping.

[Brother Cracker]

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Wasn’t Clive Cussler involved in finding it? Or was that something else?

[muir_redwoods]

Developing submarines by trial-and-error is a damned tough line of work.

[Boogieman]

“What they find may finally solve the mystery of why the hand-cranked submarine sank during the Civil War.”

I thought it was intentionally scuttled, or was that just a guess?

[iowamark]

Essentially a suicide weapon. A very crude propulsion system, but it sank the sloop Housatonic.

Practical submarines would have to wait for the development of diesel-electric propulsion and the Whitehead torpedo.

[Robert DeLong]

Claustrophobia prevents me from even thinking about climbing into this contraption.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

The way our cowardly Secy of the Navy and President are going, we will need the Hundley for our present rapidly shrinking Navy.

[colorado tanker]

It’s worth a visit. They have an interesting museum and the guides are all retired Navy.

[DoodleDawg]

The nerve it took just to climb inside boggles my mind.

Especially considering it had already killed two or three crews before it attacked the Housatonic.

[McGruff]

Cool story. As a teenager I was always facinated with the stories of the Monitor and the Merrimack.

[Bigg Red]

I know what you mean — especially since I have claustrophobia. Also amazing is that there were so many men willing to take the duty.

[MasterGunner01]

Some years ago I saw the CSS H.L. Hunley where it was undergoing preservation and study in the former Charleston Navy Yard. Hunley was nothing more than a boiler with ballast tanks, planes, rudders, and a crank propeller. The interior was CLAUSTROPHOBIC. If the interior started to flood, there was no way to get out. Hunley killed two complete crews of 20 men [including her inventor] at pier side before she went out to engage USS Housatonic on the night of February 17, 1864. The third crew went on a successful, but ultimately, suicide mission.