Boat world news
Some 17 years after she was salvaged from a South Carolina harbour, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley – sunk in 1864 – has finally revealed how she was propelled.
The sub secured its place in history by becoming the first submersible to sink an enemy warship, when it attacked the Union’s 1124-ton screw sloop USS Housatonic. This vessel had been on blockade-duty in Charleston’s outer harbour.
Sadly, the Hunley’s glory was short-lived: she was too close to her deadly torpedo when it detonated – and she quickly followed her victim to a watery grave. All eight crew members died.
The sub was salvaged in 2000, and two scientists have spent the past 17 years collecting the crew’s remains and restoring the vessel as part of a painstaking clean-up operation.
That involved soaking the sub in a 75,000-gallon tank of chemicals at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston. This softened the concrete-hard build-up of sand, mud and shells inside the vessel.
Extracting the vessel from her bath, the researchers found a sophisticated set of gears and teeth on the crank that ran the length of the 40-foot sub, enabling the crew to propel the sub by hand.
The sub was only four feet in diameter. Among the debris the researchers also found a lone human tooth.