Post by tankcommander on Feb 18, 2014 16:36:45 GMT -8
On a clear, moonlight night 150 years ago, the hand-cranked Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley glided out over glassy seas off South Carolina, sailing into history as the first submarine ever to sink an enemy warship.
A century and a half later -- and nearly a decade and a half after the sub was raised -- just why the Hunley and its eight-man crew never returned is a mystery, albeit one that scientists may be closer to resolving.
Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the Feb. 17, 1864, mission in which the Hunley sank the Union ship Housatonic as the Confederates desperately tried to break the Civil War blockade that was strangling Charleston. While the Housatonic sank, so did the Hunley.
The remains of the Hunley -- which was built in Mobile, Ala., and brought to Charleston in hopes of breaking the blockade -- were discovered off the coast in 1995.
Five years later, in August of 2000, cannons boomed, church bells rang and thousands watched from the harborside as the sub was raised and brought by barge to a conservation lab in North Charleston. There, scientists have since been slowly revealing the Hunley's secrets.
Scientists announced a year ago they may be closing in on exactly what happened.
An examination of the spar found it was deformed as if in an explosion. Scientists now believe the Hunley was less than 20 feet from the Housatonic when it sank. That means it may have been close enough for the sub's crew to have been knocked unconscious by the explosion -- long enough that they may have died before awakening.
For years, historians thought the Hunley was farther away and had speculated the crew ran out of air before they were able to return to shore.
www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/17/confederate-submarine-made-history-150-years-ago/
A century and a half later -- and nearly a decade and a half after the sub was raised -- just why the Hunley and its eight-man crew never returned is a mystery, albeit one that scientists may be closer to resolving.
Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the Feb. 17, 1864, mission in which the Hunley sank the Union ship Housatonic as the Confederates desperately tried to break the Civil War blockade that was strangling Charleston. While the Housatonic sank, so did the Hunley.
The remains of the Hunley -- which was built in Mobile, Ala., and brought to Charleston in hopes of breaking the blockade -- were discovered off the coast in 1995.
Five years later, in August of 2000, cannons boomed, church bells rang and thousands watched from the harborside as the sub was raised and brought by barge to a conservation lab in North Charleston. There, scientists have since been slowly revealing the Hunley's secrets.
Scientists announced a year ago they may be closing in on exactly what happened.
An examination of the spar found it was deformed as if in an explosion. Scientists now believe the Hunley was less than 20 feet from the Housatonic when it sank. That means it may have been close enough for the sub's crew to have been knocked unconscious by the explosion -- long enough that they may have died before awakening.
For years, historians thought the Hunley was farther away and had speculated the crew ran out of air before they were able to return to shore.
www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/17/confederate-submarine-made-history-150-years-ago/
