Submarine wreck 150 years old opened!

A century and a half after it sank and a decade and a half after it was found, the human eye could once again look inside the wreck of a Civil War submarine. We are talking about the vessel “H.L. Hunley”, flying the flag of the Confederacy and being the first submarine to sink an enemy warship. It is very likely that 150 years after the sinking, the cause of the vessel’s tragic fate will finally be established.

[blockquote style=”2″]”The whole situation is a bit like unwrapping a Christmas present, 15 years after receiving it. We’ve waited a very long time for this moment,” said Paul Mardikian, a conservationist working on the Hunley project.”[/blockquote]

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“H.L. Hunley” sank the Union ship USS “Housatonic” in December 1864. The event took place as part of an action aimed at breaking the blockade of the “South” organised by Union ships. Unfortunately, after the successful sinking of the enemy vessel, the small submarine and her 8-man crew never made it back to shore.

The wreck of the “Hunley” was discovered in the coastal waters of South Carolina in 1995. In 2000, the wreck was fished out and moved to North Charleston for preservation. The entire wreck had to be cleaned as it was covered with a crust made of a mixture of hardened sand, sediment and rust.

Last May, the hull was finally ready for immersion in a sodium hydroxide solution that would remove all the tarnish. In August, scientists using small air-powered chisels and dental tools began work to thoroughly clean the remaining shell. To date, about 70% of the hull surface has been exposed.

According to Paul Mardikian, the marks on the sheathing can indeed give some clues as to why the vessel sank. Now the scientists will try to establish more details that will help reconstruct the fate of the 12-metre vessel and its crew.

One theory is that the crew were stunned by the shock wave after the explosion that sank the USS ‘Housatonic’. Reportedly, the powder charge used in this attack was so large that the sailors may have lost consciousness and died as a result from exhausted air supplies (the ship was powered by human muscle power). For now, this is just one hypothesis, which may soon be confirmed.

Source: stripes.com