Confederate Submarine Begins Revealing Secrets

A confederate submarine which sunk 150 years ago is finally beginning to reveal some of its secrets. The Hunley, which was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, was discovered off the South Carolina coast in 1995, and is just now in a condition to be properly analyzed.

The Hunley was a hand-cranked sub, manned by a crew of eight men, who never returned to shore after sinking the USS Housatonic. Paul Mardikian, senior conservator on the Hunley project in North Charleston, S.C. said “It’s like unwrapping a Christmas gift after 15 years. We have been wanting to do this for many years now.”

The sub has been undergoing chemical treatments and forensic work by scientists, who say that about 70 percent of the outside hull is now revealed. The conservators at Clemson University have exposed a metal stamp on the hull which reads “C N” and it’s thought to be a mark from where the iron was forged.

Scientists have been speculating about the reason that the Hunley sank, believing that the men may have run out of air before they could return to the coast. They also think that the hatch may have popped open, kill the men inside. The sub also had a 16-foot spar, tipped with a black powder charge which was used to sink the Housatonic. It’s possible that the men may have all been knocked out from the shock wave of the explosion.

In 2004, a funeral procession of thousands of men wearing Confederate butternut and Union blue uniforms carried the bodies of the crew from Charleston’s waterfront battery to Magnolia Cemetery. It’s believed to be the last Confederate funeral.

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