After 150 years, Confederate submarine's hull again revealed

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 1/30/15 | BRUCE SMITH

[Kartographer]

A century and a half after it sank and a decade and a half after it was raised, scientists are finally getting a look at the hull of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.

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

"It's like unwrapping a Christmas gift after 15 years. We have been wanting to do this for many years now," said Paul Mardikian, senior conservator on the Hunley project.

[DoodleDawg]

Of course, you have to explain it to them first...

That would help.

[McGruff]

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

[clearcarbon]

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

[ColdOne]

I am going to get that book.

[Mears]

bfl

[PA Engineer]

I think it took a hit in the cupola and flooded.

They are leaning towards a sniper from the Housatonic. This was based on post action records and the damage to the recovered Hunley.

[Talisker]

“The first two died in their seats, drowning for their state’s freedom.” But not the freedom of the people.

Precisely for the freedom of the people. After the South lost, the people were no longer acknowledged by the courts. They were replaced by persons and individuals.

Ignorance of that significance has been the downfall of this country, and will continue to be the downfall of this country until, and unless, it is universally rectified.

[wideawake]

The captain would not have scuttled it with all hands on deck.

It was most likely a technical failure.

[WhiskeyX]

Since a slight majority of Southerners opposed the secession and Confederate government, your remark about there being “Southernphobes” is a strawman argument based upon a myth of Sotuhern solidarity. The Home Guard enslaved and killed Southerners in wholesale lots. Wrap your mind around that.

[NorthMountain]

They have the Monitor’s turret at the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News. It’s still in a saltwater bath being cleaned.

[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.

[colorado tanker]

Confederate Navy? ;-)

You know, betcha some of them would say yes!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Essentially a suicide weapon.

I imagine that a lot of military deaths can be called “suicides” if you allow yourself to use 20-20 hindsight in critiquing the actions leading up to them.

Submarines are more compressible than water is, so the deeper a sub goes, the less buoyant it becomes - giving it a tendency to go even deeper. Consequently it takes an active control system to keep a submarine from either sinking or broaching. If you don’t understand that, any submarine you make is gonna be a death trap.

That may, or may not not, have been clearly understood by the designer of the Hunley - but clearly, a small crew in cramped, dark quarters and functioning as the propulsion system while breathing air with increasing CO₂ concentration and decreasing O₂ concentration could not be sure of staying vigorous and alert enough to keep the depth of a submarine stable.

IMHO the crew started the mission hoping to survive, and they tried to survive - but with the technology they were using the mission was too dangerous to expect to survive.

[Kartographer]

Well if they are Confederate Navy no wonder they are retired! ;-)

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Yes, it was indeed Cussler who found it. Here’s a good read of his accounts of the efforts;

http://www.numa.net/expeditions/hunley-c-s-s/

[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.

[mass55th]

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

Especially after members of two previous crews died during testing.

[mass55th]

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

Have you seen this article and video:

Sailor’s coat from USS Monitor ready for display

[Oatka]

Talk about having nerves of steel.

Another good one is On the Bottom: The Raising of the U.S. Navy Submarine S-51

The customer reviews don't begin to describe the problems, one of which was to slip steel cables under the sub in preparation for raising by pontoons. Mind you, this is hard-hat diving (1925) and the diver had a fire hose type of water blaster to chew his way under the boat and up the other side. He had to lay on his stomach with the nozzle ahead of him and work forward through a tunnel of clay.

Half way through, the tunnel collapses behind, trapping him about 150 feet down. The guy calmly reverses the hose and placing it under his stomach and between his legs, blows the debris back out. Then he reenters the tunnel, continues on and later asks for a buoy line to be sent down so he can thread it through.

Besides nerves, the guy must have clanked when he walked.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Dr. Bogus Pachysandra.

related, from offsite, not posted yet:

• Archaeologist set to dig for Sherman's discarded Confederate ordnance SC Now