taxcontrol: "Takes a special kind of courage to crawl into a little metal tube that sank twice before."
Tailguy: "The Hunley crew lost on the combat mission sailed with the knowledge that their vessel had already claimed the lives of 2 other crews.
Incredible bravery."
rimorel: "I have always had a great deal of respect for men who serve in the submarine force."
Submariner duty was always very dangerous:
- "During World War II, the U.S. Navy's submarine service suffered the highest casualty percentage of all the American armed forces, losing one in five submariners.[3]
Some 16,000 submariners served during the war, of whom 375 officers and 3131 enlisted men were killed.[4] "
Sadly, at least a dozen of those were accidental collisions, foundering, friendly fire and up to four were sunk by our own torpedoes circling around!
The CSS Hunley's contemporary & similar design, the USS Alligator foundered & sank in 1863 without having done damage to anyone but itself.
As best I can tell, the first US Navy submarine to sink an enemy ship was US Gudgeon, which sank a Japanese submarine in January 1942.
USS Alligator, foundered & sank in 1863 off Cape Hatteras, about 200 miles from the Hunley.