NORTH
CHARLESTON, S.C. — 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.
The Hunley
sank the Union blockade ship USS Housatonic off Charleston in February 1864 as
the South tried to break the Union blockade strangling the Confederacy. But the
sub and its eight-man crew never made it back to shore.
The Hunley was discovered off the South Carolina coast in 1995, raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston.
It 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. Then 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 revealed.
Mardikian
said the exposed hull indeed has revealed some things that may help solve the
mystery of the sinking.
"I would
have to lie to you if I said we had not, but it's too early to talk about it
yet," he said. "We have a submarine that is encrypted. It's like an
Enigma machine."
He said the
clues will be studied closely as scientists try to piece together what happened
to the 40-foot submarine that night in 1864.
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 was knocked unconscious by the shock wave of the
explosion.
When the
Hunley was first raised, scientists speculated the crew may have run out of air
before they could crank back to the coast.
After the
Hunley was raised, the sand and the 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.
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
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