Yes, that is my understanding. The freeper who explained this to me actually worked on the Hunley project. We all originally thought their "torpedo" was equipped with barbs to jam into the wood of the ship being attacked, and that after attaching it to the ship, they were to reverse and unwind a long rope that would then pull the firing trigger on the explosive charge.
The reality, as borne out in photographs is that the torpedo charge was actually bolted solidly to the 20' long iron spar on the front of the Hunley. It was designed to fire on impact.
They were 20 feet away from the blast when it went off. They were killed from the shock instantly.
More than likely that FReeper to whom you refer was me.
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That "Daily Mail article is pure, balderdash bunk!
In fact, I'm going to call Mike Scafuri tomorrow -- to see if that stupid Brit reporter quoted him at all accurately!
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We've known for years, that the ballast blocks were never unlocked --
in any of the Hunley's three sinkings. Furthermore, the state of the ballast blocks
had zero to do with the root cause that rendered the crew
INCAPABLE of releasing those blocks.
Earlier, Dixon and the crew (when fresh and rested) did a test that showed that they could (barely) survive for two hours submerged -- on the air inside the closed-up Hunley.
But, on the final run, they had cranked the vessel for four miles out from Breach Inlet -- immediately before the explosion that sank the Housatonic. Almost certainly they didn't comprehend that the lactic acid and other metabolites -- built up in their muscles and blood from their exertion -- had greatly increased their bodies' demands for oxygen -- even while sitting at rest. (Their remains were found -- sitting at their duty stations -- showing no evidence of frantic efforts to escape -- or to drop ballast blocks...)
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I'm working on a follow-on comment for tomorrow -- to deal with the shock experienced by the Hunley and its crew. It's already in my HTML editor -- and will be heavily illustrated -- including some never-before-published sketches......
Until then, I'm declaring the cited Daily Mail article to be a shoddy example of Fake News!!!