Civil War Submarine Yields Gold Watch

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Archaeologists have recovered an ornate gold pocket watch from the excavated Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in battle, project officials say.

The watch has not yet been opened, leaving unanswered the question of what time it stopped, which archaeologists say could help them piece together the mystery of the final moments of the Confederate submarine, which disappeared on Feb. 17, 1864.

The timepiece, decorated on both sides and including a gold chain and fob, belonged to Lt. George Dixon, captain of the Hunley when it sank the USS Housatonic.

The 43-foot (13-metre) hand-cranked submarine was lost until 1995 when a dive team financed by adventure novelist Clive Cussler found it four miles (6.4 km) off Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. It was raised in August 2000 and forensic anthropologists have been studying the remains of its eight crew members.

"The watch looks as if it was made yesterday. It's beautiful," Warren Lasch, chairman of Friends of the Hunley, said in a news release. "To find such a personal item is really quite amazing. We can only hope that there is an inscription or photograph inside the watch."

archaeologists using X-rays and computer tomography found the pocket watch earlier this year in one of seven blocks of sediment excavated from the Hunley. The blocks also contained Dixon's remains.

Dixon probably kept the watch in the right-hand pocket of a vest or coat and the watch's chain was intertwined with a fragile piece of cloth, archaeologists said.

Opening the watch will be a delicate task. archaeologists want to X-ray it to check the condition of its mechanisms but first need to make sure radiation will not damage any photograph it might contain, senior archaeologist Maria Jacobsen said.

"It is also possible that there is a pocket of ancient air trapped in an interior compartment," she said. "A pristine sample of air from a secure 1864 date would provide important data to scientists studying atmospheric changes."

Until the watch is opened, archaeologists will not know the time it stopped. The time could prove to be an important element in reconstructing the final voyage of the Hunley.

The submarine was built to break through a Union blockade of Charleston Harbor. It plunged a spar loaded with explosives into the wooden hull of the Housatonic, sinking it within minutes.

Confederate soldiers on shore reported sighting a signal from the submarine that it had turned toward home but it disappeared in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and sat for 136 years before it was found.

Six researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Tennessee are working in the Warren Lasch Conservation Centre on the forensic analysis of the crew's remains.

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uh, wouldn't that be 'a pristine sample of Carbon Dioxide' since that was what was left inside the sub? Sure, the hatch prolly was opened which let in air as it was swamped with water, but methinks there was more time for the watch to become saturated with CO2 than a short exposure to air - especially if it's owner was quickly imersed in water.

Anyway, I think it'l be corrupt/questionable data.

According to what I read, the Hunley used a candle as an oxygen-supply indicator. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't carbon dioxide levels become toxic well before there was insufficient oxygen for the candle to burn?

Well, the archaeologists just may be in luck.
While Timex traces its company history back to 1854,
they didn't start their "keeps on ticking" torture tests until the 1950s.

I agree.

Also, the "time" on the watch won't tell us much. It could simply mean its owner was too busy to wind it, possibly for days. And lastly, if the sub went down in 1864 and was discovered in 1995, that's 131 years, not 135 as stated in the article.

Further, if there is air trapped in the watch, then wouldn't the time at which the watch stopped then be of no value? After all, if th watch held air, then it follows that it wouldn't have necessarily stopped at the time of the sinking, but instead continued running until the mainspring wound down.

An interesting find that has not been discussed
widely is the discovery of what appears to be a air tank in the rear of the sub.

It has been speculated it could have been filled prior to sailing (compressed air
was used in the air brakes of locomotives of the time )and used to (1)help in
evacuating (Blow)ballast water out of the sub, or (2) use to supplement the breathing air.
It has been discussed that pumping water out of the sub while under water,
without air to replace it render the task unusable. Others suggest that ambient air
would have run out long before the 2 hours that sub was submerged on a test dive

Either way this sub is proving to much more a sophisticated engineering marvel that we have suspected

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