cool
Posted on 06/24/2011 4:10:05 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship is upright for the first time in almost 150 years, revealing a side of its hull not seen since it sank off the South Carolina coast during the Civil War.
Workers at a conservation lab finished the painstaking, two-day job of rotating the hand-cranked H.L. Hunley upright late Thursday.
The Hunley was resting on its side at a 45-degree angle on the bottom of the Atlantic when it was raised in August 2000 and scientists had kept it in slings in that position in the lab for the past 11 years.
But they needed to turn it upright to continue with the job of conservation.
Scientists hope the hidden side of the sub will provide clues as to why the Hunley sank with its eight-member crew in February, 1864, after sending the Union blockade ship Houstonic to the bottom.
While there was no immediate clue from a first look at the hidden hull but "we are seeing some tantalizing clues on that side," Hunley archaeologist Maria Jacobsen said Friday.
***
There are various theories why the sub sank. It could have been damaged by fire from the Housatonic or the sub's crew was knocked out by the concussion from the blast that sank that ship. Or it could have been damaged by another Union vessel rescuing the Housatonic.
***
The next step in conserving the Hunley comes next week when it will be lowered onto keel blocks to hold it upright. It will probably be a month before a truss and the slings that suspended the sub from it will be removed, providing an even better view of the submarine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The South will rise again!
I thought she had already been raised? I’m I thinking of some ironclad or something??
They raised her in 2000, but she’d been lying on her side ever since.
Not being a morning person, I kind of know the feeling....
I’ve been to see her personally, in 2003, at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, SC. I don’t know if they still allow groups into the lab- but if they do, and you’re into history- GO.
I’ve got the t-shirt from when the challenge was still “Raise the Hunley!”
Thanks...glad to know I’m not completely off my nut. I thought she had been raised once.
Did you go to the conservation center? I was there in August of 2003, after having followed it since it was found. I don’t know what it’s like now, if it’s as public-oriented as it was, but back then it was a great place to visit.
cool
bump
I got out the calculator. That should read "rotating it between 31 and 39 inches in increments of .08 inches."
Damn, it P.O.'s me when American journalists don't convert metric into Imperial measurements. It would be like printing a foreign dignitary's speech in his native language without bothering to translate it into English.
I suspect it has something to do with sophistication, but I'll bet the writer didn't have any idea what 800 millimeters meant either.
Yep.
Sounds like the writer read it off a ‘fact’ sheet.
Confederate bubbleheads. God rest their souls.
>The South will rise again!<
I pray and hope so. This time, it’s gonna be a lopsided affair. A total wipe-out..hunting libs will be so sweet.
I was a member on that site for a while.
I think it was a reactor leak that sank the sub.
Seriously, are there any documentaries about the
Hunley?
I don’t recall having seen one- I’d be surprised if one didn’t exist.
I thought they would use a tank and Electrolysis to clean it up!
I think that’s exactly what they did.
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