Scientists are closing in on answer
as to why the Hunley failed to survive

The Confederate submarine – the H.L. Hunley – was the first sub to sink an enemy warship. But it’s a mystery as to why the hand-cranked vessel sank during the Civil War.

But, a century and a half after it sank and a decade and a half after it was raised, scientists are closing in on the answer.

The uncovered hull of the vessel is now being studied and the science detectives are saying “it’s like unwrapping a Christmas gift after 15 years.” The Hunley was discovered off the South Carolina coast in 1995, raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston.

The sub was covered with a hardened gunk of encrusted sand, sediment and rust that scientists call concretion. Last May, it was finally ready to be bathed in a solution of sodium hydroxide to loosen the encrustation. In August, scientists using small air-powered chisels and dental tools began the laborious job of removing the coating.

Now about 70 percent of the outside hull has been uncovered.

And, the exposed hull has revealed some clues that may help solve the mystery of the sinking. The hull is being studied inch by inch and the search is expected to reveal what happened to the 40-foot vessel on the night of February 1864 when it sank the USS Housatonic off Charleston as the South tried to break a Union blockade. Although its mission was successful, the sub and its eight-man crew never made it back to shore.

The Hunley had a 16-foot spar tipped with a charge of black powder that was exploded, sinking the Housatonic. After close examination of the spar two years ago, scientists speculated the crew were knocked unconscious by the shockwave of the explosion.

When the Hunley was raised, scientists speculated the crew may have run out of air before they could crank back to the coast. The sand and silt and the remains of the crew in the interior were removed.

In April 2004, thousands of men in Confederate gray and Union blue walked in a procession with the crew’s coffins four miles from Charleston’s waterfront Battery to Magnolia cemetery, in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.