Very interesting ---- the crew's compartment now opened. And finding any remains basically all at their stations now tells us one thing. The sprung hatch or leak that sank her was sudden enough where there was no time to scramble or try to, to escape the sub.

It sounds like the blast wave sprung her immediately, as some of the views right after the attack were inclined to think. However, does this mean that the submarine was later moved a bit, or perhaps had opened range, only to have a very sudden leak sink her quickly? If I recall, she was found not that close to where Housatonic's wreck was, but not sure.

A bucket list item for sure

Cen-Tex said:

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A bucket list item for sure

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I saw it in West Charleston when they were still preserving it. Extremely neat.

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It sounds like the blast wave sprung her immediately, as some of the views right after the attack were inclined to think. However, does this mean that the submarine was later moved a bit, or perhaps had opened range, only to have a very sudden leak sink her quickly? If I recall, she was found not that close to where Housatonic's wreck was, but not sure.

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I suspect that when water came into the sub, it was through a small hole, not a general ship-wide leak. Because of this, it didn't sink right away. The end that was flooded first would go down, and the other end would bob up. Unless there's a hole on both ends, it won't fill evenly, and would sink slowly, while drifting.

Of course, this theory also means that there might have been a little air left and the crew members would have been climbing over each other to get to it. Unless of course, the shock wave stunned them.

It probably didn't fill more or less completely until it settled on the bottom.

The recreation sits at the Charleston Museum. Neat museum. Nothing giant, but a good museum.

Titan and aalan:

The #1 theory right now is that they pulled the charge on the torpedo too soon and were so close all were knocked uncocnsious (some might have been killed by the shock) and the boat may have been breeched at one of the viewing ports, the boat drifted away from their docks because they were actually farther from shore than the Housatonic. They have not found any breaches in the hull that are contemporary to the attack, the only possible one is the broken portal glass. If they were knocked out long enough, it may have just drifted out to sea and to the bottom, filled with water and everyone drowned.

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Titan and aalan:

The #1 theory right now is that they pulled the charge on the torpedo too soon and were so close all were knocked uncocnsious (some might have been killed by the shock) and the boat may have been breeched at one of the viewing ports, the boat drifted away from their docks because they were actually farther from shore than the Housatonic. They have not found any breaches in the hull that are contemporary to the attack, the only possible one is the broken portal glass. If they were knocked out long enough, it may have just drifted out to sea and to the bottom, filled with water and everyone drowned.

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BQ78,

That's interesting, and poignant. This would mean that contrary to the belief since shortly after the attack and since, that the Hunley's hull had not failed in some immediate fatal way. If they had remained conscious, steps could have been taken to get back to shore, at least close enough to abandon with some hope.

It would mean it indeed wasn't technically suicidal -- (nor was it designed to be, it specifically sought to avoid that, as any familiar with it know) had had some real chance of returning home intact, like the David that hit New Ironsides. Since they didn't find a morbid crowd around the hatch, it seems more an oxygen depletion problem or a filling fast enough before any or enough regained consciousness to try to do anything.

Aren't there reports of a signal lantern from the Hunley being seen by lookouts on shore? That would mean that they survived the successful attack and some other mishap meant their doom. I personally feel like they pulled off a successful attack, the explosion damaged the vessel and they became disoriented in the confusion of the immediate aftermath and eventually sank and all perished.

Saw a full size exact replica of that thing a few years ago.
Those dudes were braver than brave.

Cannot imagine being in there on the day it went down.

Yes, there were but the evidence is pointing to a bad or hopeful eyewitness.

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Saw a full size exact replica of that thing a few years ago.

Those dudes were braver than brave.

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Yes they were. True pioneers.

Much more recent, but hardly lacking any similarity of degree of brash bravery is the British X-craft raid on Bismarck's sister battleship Tirpitz in Alten Fjord in Norway. It is almost movie script quality, but since it did not sink her, but only seriously crippled her for a year, it wouldn't quite have the textbook ending. Even less familiar is the same kind of X-Crafts spending hours sneaking all the way up Johore in Singapore to mine Japanese heavy cruisers half-a-month before the war ended. They bottomed one forward.

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Yes, there were but the evidence is pointing to a bad or hopeful eyewitness.

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BQ78,

A Confederate or civilian witness ashore you mean? Or on another Union ship?

The only contemporary damage to the vessel is the broken viewing port, the hull was not damaged, even by their own torpedo going off too close to the hull.

Confederate soldier on the lookout from their docking berth and a Union sailor in the rigging of the Housatonic.

The X-craft guys were intrepid to say the least. But the Hunley crew was doing something never done before.

Plus the darned thing sank twice in testing, drowning the whole crew the second time, including Mr. Hunley.

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The X-craft guys were intrepid to say the least. But the Hunley crew was doing something never done before.

Plus the darned thing sank twice in testing, drowning the whole crew the second time, including Mr. Hunley.

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SRBS,

Yes, that second is the really amazing thing. The Confederates still got volunteers with that in the background. Hunley's work-up and experiment phase is as interesting as the attack itself.

Considering they hoped to attack New Ironsides (as a `David' did) at one juncture in such a way, it is a big what-if. Because of underbelly being weaker, could they have fallen to the Hunley? It would have been a real David and Goliath moment.

I forgot to mention that one of the reasons the two eyewitnesses are discredited now is that both said they saw a blue light, well the Hunley's lamp on its recovery and restoration showed they did not have a blue lens on it.

One theory that I have not seen but would explain a quick flooding of the compartment is that the ballast pumps were set to flood and they would not shut off unless manually done, so I could see a scenario where they stuck the torpedo into the Housatonic it did not come off the spar, they simultaneously backed away and opened the ballast pumps (preliminary evidence is that they were both open) to dive down. The torpedo detonated still attached to the spar and the crew was knocked out. The pumps kept going, overflowed the ballast tanks and filled the crew compartment as the boat drifted out to sea.