Complete Civil War submarine unveiled for first time

Yahoo via Reuters ^ | 13 Jan 2012 | Harriet McLeod

[shove_it]

NORTH CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Confederate Civil War vessel H.L. Hunley, the world's first successful combat submarine when it sank a Union ship in 1864, was unveiled in full and unobstructed for the first time on Thursday, capping a decade of careful preservation.

"No one alive has ever seen the Hunley complete. We're going to see it today," said engineer John King as a crane at a Charleston conservation laboratory slowly lifted a massive steel truss covering the top of the submarine.

About 20 engineers and scientists applauded as they caught the first glimpse of the intact 42-foot-long narrow iron cylinder, which was raised from the ocean floor near Charleston more than a decade ago. The public will see the same view but in a water tank to keep it from rusting.

"It's like looking at the sub for the first time. It's like the end of a long night," said Paul Mardikian, senior conservator since 1999 of the project to raise, excavate and conserve the Hunley.

[...]

[Vendome]

She’s beautiful

[Red Badger]

PING!.........

[cuban leaf]

—She’s beautiful—

Hard to say, with that camera against her face.

[Vendome]

More exposure?

[RWGinger]

How brave those men had to be who were in it
Politics don’t matter on this

[HiTech RedNeck]

The South(ern submarine) will rise again

[HiTech RedNeck]

A very historic vessel. Submarines were quite a new idea at the time.

[freedumb2003]

These were some dedicated guys — one look at that thing and they KNEW it was their tomb, but they got in it anyway.

What an amazing piece of history and it is great it has been rescued and will be preserved and available for viewing and appreciating.

No matter what side of the war your sympathies lie.

[manc]

It is so small, how they got into that is staggering

[MeganC]

Thank you, Clive Cussler!

[tanknetter]

Good thread already in progress on the Hunley here

[Slings and Arrows]

SC ping!

[laweeks]

I wonder what the human remains looked like!

[Conan the Librarian]

If you haven’t ever been to the Hunley, you HAVE to go.

The museum there is very moving and informative.

As for expecting to die, I think that the last group didn’t. They almost made it home. Looks like that they got run down in the rush to help the Housatonic (sp).

Go see it!

[GonzoGOP]

How brave those men had to be who were in it

Especially considering that they were the third crew, the first two having been killed in training. She was actually more dangerous to her own crew than the enemy. Seven officers and men being killed on USS Housatonic compared to 20 in the three sinking's of the Hunley.

Did they ever figure out what sank her? The CSS Hunley was found some distance from the wreck of the USS Housatonic. So she wasn't sunk by her own torpedo as was originally thought. There was a big hole in the stern but is wasn't clear if it was from the time of the sinking or if it was done after the boat was on the bottom. There was some speculation that she got run over by another union ship coming to the aid of the Housatonic. It reported damage from striking debris from the Housatonic, but that might just have easily been from accidentally hitting Hunley.

[StonyBurk]

About he same as you or I would under the same circumstance I suppose.

[shove_it]

It's amazing how often the Brit press scoops our presstitutes on USA stories. The Daily Mail story you linked has is much better and has more photos. Also, I searched “Civil War submarine” and got the Yahoo story only.

[Sea Parrot]

That is great and brings history to life. Today, many can not understand how men back then would volunteer to serve on a unproven and unsafe vessel which had killed most all previous crewmen.

[GonzoGOP]

I wonder what the human remains looked like!

Skeletons, but largely articulated. The crew were all found at their posts, not clustered around the hatches as would be expected if they were trying to get out. She must have filled with silt very quickly to preserve the amount of wood and other such material found. Ship worms would have made a meal of the wood otherwise.

However they didn't use the pump. So if she did flood while the crew was alive it must have flooded very quickly.