Mystery of deaths aboard US Civil War submarine solved

 The mystery of how the crew of one of the world’s first submarines died has finally been solved – they accidentally killed themselves.

HL Hunley sank on February 17 1864 after torpedoing USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbour, South Carolina, during the American Civil War. The ship was the first ever casualty of a submarine attack.

It was assumed the blast had also ruptured the sub. But when the Hunley was raised in 2000, salvage experts found the eight-man crew poised as if they had been caught unawares. All were at their posts and there was no evidence that they had attempted to flee the foundering vessel.

Now researchers at Duke University have found that the torpedo blast would have created a shockwave great enough to instantly rupture blood vessels in the lungs and brain. “You have an instant fatality that leaves no marks,” said Dr Rachel Lance, a biomedical engineer.