![]() ![]() The crew members’ skeletal remains were found at their stations and their bodies had no obvious physical injuries. “I don’t know if he could see it, I don’t know if he could hear it,” he said. There also would have been a fair amount of noise from the ocean around them. If the candle went out, or was lost, they would have been working in the dark. On the night of the attack, Scarfuri said that the captain’s single candle would have been the only light in the cramped, 25-foot long crew area. ![]() “They weren’t trying to escape or taking other actions to save the sub,” Scafuri said. The hole was small enough that a crew member could have stuffed something in it to slow the flow of water, or pumped the water, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. It would have only taken minutes for that much water to flow in through the hole. Researchers at the University of Michigan found it would have only taken 50-75 gallons of water to drag the Hunley to the ocean floor, according to a news release from the Friends of the Hunley organization. Solving the mystery of what killed a Civil War submarine crew Courtesy Friends of the Hunley/Courtesy Friends of the Hunley/Courtesy Friends of the Hunley Researchers in a North Charleston, South Carolina, laboratory on Wednesday Junveiled the crew compartment - which had been sealed by more than 130 years of ocean exposure and encrusted sediment. Hunley mystery are being revealed during conservation of the American Civil War submarine. There was a 1-inch gap where the pipe was supposed to mount to the side wall. The pipe carried water to a ballast tank that helped the sub submerge and surface. They found the broken intake pipe at the front of the Hunley while cleaning away the thick, rock-hard coating of sand, shells, sea life and other materials – known as concretion – that built up on it over time. Since then, conservators and archaeologists have been working to preserve the vessel and study its contents in hopes of finally figuring out what happened. The sub was raised and taken to a laboratory in North Charleston in 2000. More than 130 years later the Hunley was discovered on the ocean floor. ![]() The Hunley sank the Union ship USS Housatonic in 1864, but was itself lost shortly. It was launched in 1863 and used to attack Union ships in Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was designed and built by Confederate engineers in Mobile, Alabama. The Confederate vessel disappeared with all its eight crew members. The first successful combat submarine was the CSS Hunley, which was used during the American Civil War. Hunley became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy ship in combat when it sank the wooden ship USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864. A broken pipe may help explain why a famous Civil War submarine sank off of Charleston, South Carolina, more than 150 years ago. ![]()
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