Tag Archives: submarines

Mystery Submarine

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I’m disappointed that this article doesn’t have more answers as to why and when this sub was designed, but its guesses that it was an answer to the blockade of New Orleans’ port certainly fits. Strange that there’s no accompanying history to the Hunley and the David, both of which were well-known and documented.

Imagine this. It’s Bayou Boogaloo and you’re on the raft you built with your buddies. You plunge your oar into the waters of Bayou St. John and feel it scrape something hard.

What could it be? A hunk of concrete? A stolen car? Or … a submarine?

If you found a sub in these waters, it’d definitely be a story, but it wouldn’t be the first time. Because that distinction goes to a mysterious vessel discovered here way back in the spring of 1878./blockquote>

Source: Today a picturesque waterway, Bayou St. John once harbored a Civil War submarine | Entertainment/Life | theadvocate.com

Hunley’s hull revealed

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The Hunley is slowly emerging from the century-old crust.  Kudos to the historians, researchers and conservators involved in this mammoth and painstaking project.  They are keeping history alive for us.

The Hunley was found off the South Carolina coast in 1995, raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston.

It was covered with a hardened gunk of encrusted sand, sediment and rust that scientists call concretion.

Last May, it was finally ready to be bathed in a solution of sodium hydroxide to loosen the encrustation. Then in August, scientists using small air-powered chisels and dental tools began the laborious job of removing the coating.

Now about 70 percent of the outside hull has been revealed.

Mardikian said the exposed hull indeed has revealed some things that may help solve the mystery of the sinking.

“I would have to lie to you if I said we had not, but it’s too early to talk about it yet,” he said. “We have a submarine that is encrypted. It’s like an Enigma machine.”

via Civil War rebel sub’s hull revealed | HeraldNet.com – Nation/World.

Civil War subs: Lost no more?

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A museum director appears to have unearthed the remains of a Confederate “sub base” in Louisiana. I’ve read about the David and the Hunley, but had no idea there were others in the “fleet”. Fascinating discovery!

There’s evidence the Shreveport subs existed. Reports of Union spies in Shreveport, as well as Confederate reports, detail the appearance and dimensions of the submarines as well as operations to put mines in Red River for a Union invasion that never came. Five submarines were built, with one sent to the Houston/Galveston area in Texas, and lost in transit. The late historians and authors Eric Brock and Katherine Brash Jeter did considerable research on the subs and the Confederate Navy Yard and found documentation a number of machinists and engineers who had built the Hunley and other submarines for the South were in Shreveport the last year of the conflict.

via Civil War subs: Lost no more?.

South Carolina History

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This little piece on the resurrected Hunley caught my eye for two very different reasons. The first was this:

The reason the Hunley sank is still a mystery. Eight sailors were aboard and their bodies discovered still at their stations 136 years after their final mission. McConnell is one of a select few who’ve sat inside the Hunley.

“It’s like having your head in Darth Vader’s mask,” he said. “You can hear your breathing and the echoing of everything around your head.”

I’m amazed that the preservationists would allow anyone – even a history-loving State Senator – to climb in. The shell is so fragile and rusted, you’d think it would be too risky.

The other was the lede:

As South Carolina Republicans were making history at their primary Saturday…

South Carolina: Still proudly “making history” through questionable electoral decisions!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57363382/restoring-a-piece-of-s.c.s-civil-war-history/