Posted on 01/30/2015 12:59:21 PM PST by Reverend Saltine
After 15 years of painstaking restoration, scientists say they are on the brink of solving what sank the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley - the first sub in history to wreck an enemy warship. Considered the Confederacy's stealth weapon during the Civil War, the hand-cranked Hunley sank the Union warship Housatonic in winter 1864 and then disappeared with all eight Confederate sailors inside. Its remains were discovered in 1995 in waters off South Carolina and five later it was raised to a conservation lab. Now with about 70per cent of the hull cleaned of heavy rust, Paul Mardikian, a senior conservator on the Hunley project, says that crucial clues have been unearthed but 'it's too early to talk about it yet.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It is kinda strange that this is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 600th anniversary of the Magna Chart and not a peep form our institutes of history.
Related:
They are going to recover the CSS Georgia before deepening the Savannah River.
It was scuttled in December 1864 shortly before Union forces took Savannah.
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Divers begin recovery of Civil War ironclad before deepening of channel.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/us/savannah-harbor-deepening-civil-war-ironclad/
_
You are right science of the day was odd.
Cool, thanks for posting that link.
shrinkage
Magna Carta 1215= 800 years.
But your point is well taken we pay very little attention to our history and its becoming lost. Kids today have no idea what dates what happened and WHY...and that will end badly for a Democratic Republic because it allows for a stupid electorate which we now have
Freegards and Be Blessed
LEX
It was what they called a spar torpedo, a lance with explosive attached to it. however if the device which detached the torpedo failed, both the sub and its victim took the plunge together. It worked great...once.
CC
The article says the HUNLEY’s spar explosive detonated the gunpowder and other explosive aboard the USS HOUSATONIC, resulting in an explosion perhaps one hundred times stronger than the HUNLEY’s crew had expected. The much larger than expected explosion of the USS HOUSATONIC they speculate immediately killed and/or rendered the crew of the HUNLEY unconscious with its tremendous concussion wave passing through the sea to strike the nearby HUNLEY and its crew. The HUNLEY it is believed then drifted for a distance with its dead and/or unconscious crew before flooding and sinking to the seafloor.
They tested it twice.
The first two crews all drown.
bttt
It's Bush's fault....
I toured the Warren Lasch Conservatory in North Charleston, SC, back in 2007. I fulfilled a lifetime dream to see the H.L. Hunley. There is a picture of a hole in 1 on the 2 conning towers next to 1 of the glass portholes. There were reports that Federal sailors onboard the Housatonic fired their rifles at the H.L. Hunley when it was spotted near their ship. Confederate general Beauregard had ordered the Hunley's commanding officer not to do a deep submerge during the mission because at least 2 previous crews had drowned during sea trials. Early conservation efforts speculated that the hole in the conning tower was a rifle bullet hole.
bullets will not penatrate more than 14 inches into water.
Even a 50 caliber bullet wont do it.
Here is the mythbuster video to prove it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvSTuLIjRm8
“The first two crews all drown.”
No, there were some survivors among the first crew.
George Bush sank the Hunley!!!!
The screen door was a baaad idea!
the hunley saw that we were going to cause global warming in the next 160 years, and committed suicide.
Given the bones of the crew were found at their seats and not piled up by the hatch it is speculated the crew asphyxiated. she backed off and, after the explosion, they were to row back but it was against the tide and everyone was tired from rowing out so she drifted and everyone just fell asleep. Housatonic bottomed out with much of the rigging above sea leval and later declared a hazaed to navigation and blown up. I have been to Hunley and the Confederate cemetery where the remains of 3 crews are buried
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